San Francisco

About San Francisco

The city is the focal point of the San Francisco Bay Area metropolitan area, whose total population is about 7 million. U.S. census data show that San Francisco has the highest population density of any city aside from New York City. The first Europeans to settle in San Francisco were the Spanish, in 1776. The city grew rapidly due to the California gold rush starting in 1848.

The city was devastated by the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, but was rebuilt quickly. The phoenix on the city's flag represents San Francisco's "rebirth" from the ashes of the fire that resulted from the quake. Long enjoying a bohemian reputation, the city became a counterculture magnet in the second half of the 20th century. It was a center of the dot-com boom at the end of the century. Widely recognized landmarks include the San Francisco cable car system, the Golden Gate Bridge and the Transamerica Pyramid.

European visitors to the Bay Area were preceded 10,000 to 20,000 years earlier by native people indigenous to the area. These people, later called the Ohlone (a Miwok Indian word meaning "western people"), lived in the coastal area between Point Sur and the San Francisco Bay.

European discovery and exploration of the San Francisco Bay Area began in 1542 and culminated with the mapping of the bay in 1775. A Spanish party led by Juan Bautista de Anza arrived on March 28, 1776 and established the sites for the Presidio of San Francisco and Mission San Francisco de Asis (named for Saint Francis of Assisi and now popularly known as "Mission Dolores"). The area first began to develop as a city under the name of Yerba Buena in 1822, when what is now the downtown area was first settled by William Richardson, an English whaler.

Yerba Buena remained a small town until the Mexican-American War broke out and a naval force under Commodore John D. Sloat took it in 1846 in the name of the United States. It was then renamed "San Francisco" on 30 January 1847.

Some 40 miles south of San Francisco is the Silicon Valley, which holds much of the computing business in the world. Because of the California gold rush, San Francisco became and remains the banking and financial center of the U.S. West Coast. It is the home of the twelfth district of the U.S. Federal Reserve as well as major production facilities for the U.S. Mint. The Pacific Exchange, a regional stock exchange, is located in the financial district. Many major American and international banks and venture capital firms have all set up their regional headquarters in the city.

Companies headquartered in San Francisco
Bechtel Corporation
Charles Schwab
CNET
Dolby Laboratories
The Gap
Ghirardelli division of Lindt & Sprüngli Levi Strauss & Co.
Macromedia
Pacific Gas & Electric (Frequently referred to as PG&E)
SEGA of America
The Sharper Image
Viz Communications
Wells Fargo
Japanese Weekend
Craigslist
Method

Apple Computer is based in nearby Cupertino. Electronic Arts and Oracle Corporation are based in nearby Redwood City. Yahoo! is headquartered in nearby Sunnyvale. ChevronTexaco and IPIX are based in nearby San Ramon. Safeway is based in nearby Pleasanton. Google is headquartered (at the "Googleplex") in Mountain View, as is Sun Microsystems. Cisco Systems is headquartered in nearby San Jose. ComicsOne is headquartered in Fremont.

The city is serviced by several public transit systems. Muni is the city-owned public transit system which operates buses, electric trolleybuses, streetcars and the famous Cable cars. BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) is the regional transit system, which connects San Francisco with the East Bay (California) and the San Mateo County, California communities on the San Francisco Peninsula. In addition, a commuter rail service, Caltrain, operates between San Francisco, San Jose, California and Gilroy, California.

The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) opened in 1995. San Francisco is the home of the San Francisco 49ers National Football League team and the San Francisco Giants Major League Baseball team.

The city is also the home of the annual Bay to Breakers footrace, which holds the world records for greatest number of participants in a footrace (110K in 1986) as well as longest consecutively running footrace (annually since 1912). Records aside, the race is best known for its colorful costumes and celebratory community spirit (it was initiated after the disastrous 1906 earthquake as a way to boost the city's spirits). San Francisco also has great nightlife, ranging from bars to lounges to clubs. The three party areas in SF are: in the North Beach Area, the Marina area, and the SoMa (South of Market) area.

Some of the most notable landmarks are the Transamerica Pyramid and Golden Gate Bridge. Museums include San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Cable Car Museum, along with offbeat museums such as Ripley's Believe it or Not Museum and the Tattoo Art Museum.

The American Indian Film Institute which organizes the annual American Indian Film Festival is based in San Francisco. San Francisco has been the setting for numerous television programs, such as Dharma & Greg, The Streets of San Francisco, Charmed, and, more recently, Monk. Movies set in the city include Basic Instinct, Edtv, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, Pacific Heights, Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, The Presidio, and Vertigo. Other fictional works set in San Francisco include The Joy Luck Club and The Maltese Falcon.