San Francisco
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| San Francisco | |||
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| — Consolidated city-county — | |||
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| Nickname(s): The City by the Bay Frisco (deprecated)[1][2][3] The City That Knows How (antiquated)[4] Baghdad by the Bay[5] The Paris of the West[6] |
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| Motto: Oro en Paz, Fierro en Guerra (Spanish for "Gold in Peace, Iron in War") |
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  San Francisco
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| Coordinates: 37°46′45.48″N 122°25′9.12″W / 37.7793°N 122.4192°WCoordinates: 37°46′45.48″N 122°25′9.12″W / 37.7793°N 122.4192°W | |||
| Country | United States | ||
| State | California | ||
| Founded | June 29, 1776 | ||
| Incorporated | April 16, 1850[7] | ||
| Founder | Lieutenant José Joaquin Moraga and Father Francisco Palóu | ||
| Named for | Saint Francis of Assisi | ||
| Government | |||
| - Type | Mayor-Council | ||
| - Mayor | Gavin Newsom (D) | ||
| - Board of Supervisors |
Supervisors
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| - State Assembly | Fiona Ma (D) Tom Ammiano (D) |
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| - State Senate | Mark Leno (D) Leland Yee (D) |
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| - U.S. House | Nancy Pelosi (D) Jackie Speier (D) |
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| Area | |||
| - Consolidated city-county | 231.92 sq mi (600.7 km2) | ||
| - Land | 46.7 sq mi (121 km2) | ||
| - Water | 185.2 sq mi (479.7 km2) 79.8% | ||
| - Metro | 3,524.4 sq mi (9,128.2 km2) | ||
| Elevation | 52 ft (16 m) | ||
| Highest elevation | 925 ft (282 m) | ||
| Lowest elevation | 0 ft (0 m) | ||
| Population (2008)[8][9][10] | |||
| - Consolidated city-county | 808,976 | ||
| - Density | 17,323/sq mi (6,688.4/km2) | ||
| - Urban | 3,228,605 | ||
| - Metro | 4,203,898 | ||
| - Demonym | San Franciscan | ||
| Time zone | Pacific Standard Time (UTC-8) | ||
| - Summer (DST) | Pacific Daylight Time (UTC-7) | ||
| ZIP Code | 94101–94112, 94114–94147, 94150–94170, 94172, 94175, 94177 | ||
| Area code(s) | 415 | ||
| Website | www.sfgov.org | ||
San Francisco is the fourth most populous city in California and the 12th most populous city in the United States, with a 2008 estimated population of 808,976.[9] The only consolidated city-county in California,[11] it encompasses a land area of 46.7 square miles (121 km2)[12] on the northern end of the San Francisco Peninsula, making it the second-most densely populated large city (greater than 200,000 population) in the United States.[13] San Francisco is also the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the larger San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.4 million people.[14]
In 1776, the Spanish established a fort at the Golden Gate and a mission named for Francis of Assisi on the site.[15] The California Gold Rush in 1848 propelled the city into a period of rapid growth, increasing the population in one year from 1,000 to 25,000,[16] and thus transforming it into the largest city on the West Coast at the time. After three-quarters of the city was destroyed by the 1906 earthquake and fire,[17] San Francisco was quickly rebuilt, hosting the Panama-Pacific International Exposition nine years later. During World War II, San Francisco was the port of embarkation for service members shipping out to the Pacific Theater.[18] After the war, the confluence of returning servicemen, massive immigration, liberalizing attitudes, and other factors led to the Summer of Love and the gay rights movement, cementing San Francisco as a center of liberal activism in the United States.
Today, San Francisco is a popular international tourist destination,[19] renowned for its chilly summer fog, steep rolling hills, eclectic mix of Victorian and modern architecture and its famous landmarks, including the Golden Gate Bridge, the cable cars, and Chinatown. The city is also a principal banking and finance center, and the home of over 30 international financial institutions,[20] helping to make San Francisco fifteenth in the world's list of cities by GDP and eighth in the United States.[21]
Contents |
[edit] History
The earliest archaeological evidence of inhabitation of the territory of the city of San Francisco dates to 3000 BC.[22] People of the Ohlone language group occupied Northern California from at least the 6th century.[23] Though their territory had been claimed by Spain since the early 16th century, they would have relatively little contact with Europeans until 1769, when, as part of an effort to colonize Alta California, an exploration party led by Don Gaspar de Portola learned of the existence of San Francisco Bay.[24]
Seven years later, in 1776, an expedition led by Juan Bautista de Anza selected the site for the Presidio of San Francisco, which Jose Joaquin Moraga would soon establish. Later the same year, the Franciscan missionary Francisco Palóu founded the Mission San Francisco de Asís (Mission Dolores).[15] The Yelamu tribal group of the Ohlone, who had had several villages in the area, were among those brought to live and work at the mission and be converted into the Catholic faith.
Upon independence from Spain in 1821, the area became part of Mexico. Under Mexican rule, the mission system gradually ended and its lands began to be privatized. In 1835, Englishman William Richardson erected the first independent homestead,[25] near a boat anchorage around what is today Portsmouth Square. Together with Alcalde Francisco de Haro, he laid out a street plan for the expanded settlement, and the town, named Yerba Buena, began to attract American settlers. Commodore John D. Sloat claimed California for the United States on July 7, 1846, during the Mexican-American War, and Captain John B. Montgomery arrived to claim Yerba Buena two days later. Yerba Buena was renamed San Francisco the next year,[26] and Mexico officially ceded the territory to the United States at the end of the war. Despite its attractive location as a port and naval base, San Francisco was still a small settlement with inhospitable geography.[27]
The California Gold Rush brought a flood of treasure seekers. With their sourdough bread in tow,[28] prospectors accumulated in San Francisco over rival Benicia,[29] raising the population from 1,000 in 1848 to 25,000 by December 1849.[16] The promise of fabulous riches was so strong that crews on arriving vessels deserted and rushed off to the gold fields, leaving behind a forest of masts in San Francisco harbor.[30] California was quickly granted statehood, and the U.S. military built Fort Point at the Golden Gate and a fort on Alcatraz Island to secure the San Francisco Bay. Silver discoveries, including the Comstock Lode in 1859, further drove rapid population growth.[31] With hordes of fortune seekers streaming through the city, lawlessness was common, and the Barbary Coast section of town gained notoriety as a haven for criminals, prostitution, and gambling.[32]
Many San Francisco entrepreneurs sought to capitalize on the wealth generated by the Gold Rush. Among the winners were the banking industry which saw the founding of Wells Fargo in 1852 and the Bank of California in 1864. The development of the Port of San Francisco established the city as a center of trade. Catering to the needs and tastes of the growing population, Levi Strauss opened a dry goods business and Domingo Ghirardelli began manufacturing chocolate. Immigrant laborers made the city a polyglot culture, with Chinese railroad workers creating the city's Chinatown quarter. The first cable cars carried San Franciscans up Clay Street in 1873. The city's sea of Victorian houses began to take shape, and civic leaders campaigned for a spacious public park, resulting in plans for Golden Gate Park. San Franciscans built schools, churches, theaters, and all the hallmarks of civic life. The Presidio developed into the most important American military installation on the Pacific coast.[33] By the turn of the century, San Francisco was a major city known for its flamboyant style, stately hotels, ostentatious mansions on Nob Hill, and a thriving arts scene.[34]
At 5:12 am on April 18, 1906, a major earthquake struck San Francisco and northern California. As buildings collapsed from the shaking, ruptured gas lines ignited fires that would spread across the city and burn out of control for several days. With water mains out of service, the Presidio Artillery Corps attempted to contain the inferno by dynamiting blocks of buildings to create firebreaks.[36] More than three-quarters of the city lay in ruins, including almost all of the downtown core.[17] Contemporary accounts reported that 498 people lost their lives, though modern estimates put the number in the several thousands.[37] More than half the city's population of 400,000 were left homeless.[38] Refugees settled temporarily in makeshift tent villages in Golden Gate Park, the Presidio, on the beaches, and elsewhere. Many fled permanently to the East Bay.
Rebuilding was rapid and performed on a grand scale. Rejecting calls to completely remake the street grid, San Franciscans opted for speed.[39] Amadeo Giannini's Bank of Italy, later to become Bank of America, provided loans for many of those whose livelihoods had been devastated. The destroyed mansions of Nob Hill became grand hotels. City Hall rose again in splendorous Beaux Arts style, and the city celebrated its rebirth at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition in 1915.[40]
In ensuing years, the city solidified its standing as a financial capital; in the wake of the 1929 stock market crash, not a single San Francisco-based bank failed.[41] Indeed, it was at the height of the Great Depression that San Francisco undertook two great civil engineering projects, simultaneously constructing the San Francisco – Oakland Bay Bridge and the Golden Gate Bridge, completing them in 1936 and 1937 respectively. It was in this period that the island of Alcatraz, a former military stockade, began its service as a federal maximum security prison, housing notorious inmates such as Al Capone, George "Machine Gun" Kelly, and Robert Franklin Stroud, The Birdman of Alcatraz. San Francisco later celebrated its regained grandeur with a World's Fair, the Golden Gate International Exposition in 1939–40, creating Treasure Island in the middle of the bay to house it.
During World War II, the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard became a hub of activity, and Fort Mason became the primary port of embarkation for service members shipping out to the Pacific Theater of Operations.[18] The explosion of jobs drew many people, especially African Americans from the South, to the area. After the end of the war, many military personnel returning from service abroad and civilians who had originally come to work decided to stay. The UN Charter creating the United Nations was drafted and signed in San Francisco in 1945 and, in 1951, the Treaty of San Francisco officially ended the war with Japan.
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Urban planning projects in the 1950s and 1960s saw widespread destruction and redevelopment of west side neighborhoods and the construction of new freeways, of which only a series of short segments were built before being halted by citizen-led opposition.[42] The Transamerica Pyramid was completed in 1972,[43] and in the 1980s the Manhattanization of San Francisco saw extensive high-rise development downtown.[44] Port activity moved to Oakland, the city began to lose industrial jobs, and San Francisco began to turn to tourism as the most important segment of its economy. The suburbs experiencedons/thumb/9/9d/d to Alopulatclass="reoriginalki/Pf="#cite_notpan>3alifornia"and wese-41">.
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