Above you towers the Mark Hopkins Hotel, whose rooftop bar became the most emotionally charged room in World War II San Francisco. The Mark Hopkins Hotel was built in 1926 on the site of the mansion that railroad magnate Mark Hopkins built and his wife Mary Hopkins decorated in such extravagant fashion that it was known as the most eccentric building in California. The Hopkins estate donated the site to the San Francisco Art Institute after Mark Hopkins died; the hotel was built by a developer who persuaded the Institute to sell.
The penthouse was converted into a cocktail lounge called the Top of the Mark in 1939, with wraparound views of the bay, the bridges, and the hills. When the United States entered World War II, San Francisco became the primary embarkation port for the Pacific Theater, and hundreds of thousands of soldiers and sailors passed through the city. Wives, mothers, and sweethearts would accompany their men to the Top of the Mark for a last drink before the troop ships sailed.
A section of the bar facing the Golden Gate became known as Weepers' Corner, where the women gathered to watch the ships pass through the strait and disappear into the Pacific. The bar still operates on the nineteenth floor; the view is unchanged.