POPULATION: 852,469 (City & County), 4,594,060 (Metro) | TIME ZONE: Pacific | CLIMATE: Mediterranean (moist, mild winters, dry summers)
Looking at San Francisco today, it’s almost hard to believe it began with just a fort and a Catholic mission. The name San Francisco is Spanish for Saint Francis. In 1776, Spanish colonists built El Presidio Real de San Francisco, or The Royal Fortress of Saint Francis Presidio, and Mission San Francisco de Asís. In 1849 came the California Gold Rush, which turned San Francisco into the West Coast’s largest city virtually overnight. Also virtually overnight, more than 80% of the city was destroyed by what is considered one of the single worst natural disasters in U.S. history: the 1906 earthquake and resulting fires. Nonetheless, the city was quickly rebuilt. During World War II, San Francisco became the port of embarkation for U.S. servicemen shipping out to the Pacific. The 1960’s counterculture movement flourished here, along with the Sexual Revolution. The Peace Movement gained a major foothold in San Francisco as opposition to the Vietnam War grew. 1967 saw The Summer of Love, and 100,000 supporters descended upon Haight-Ashbury. San Francisco also became a center for the gay rights movement and liberal activism.
NICKNAME(S)
The City by the Bay
Fog City
San Fran
Frisco
The City That Knows How Baghdad by the Bay
The Paris of the West
MOTTO(S)
Oro en Paz, Fierro en Guerra (Gold in Peace, Iron in War)
RANDOM SONG ABOUT THE CITY
I Left My Heart In San Francisco by Tony Bennett
PRO SPORTS TEAMS
San Francisco 49ers (NFL)
San Francisco Giants (MLB)
Golden State Warriors (NBA)
San Jose Sharks (NHL)
San Jose Earthquakes (MLS)
San Rafael Pacifics (PA)
San Jose Barracuda (AHL)
San Francisco Golden Gate Rugby (RSL)
ALSO KNOWN FOR...
Fog
Golden Gate Bridge
Steep hills
Chinatown
San Francisco Bay
Liberal activism
The Transamerica Building
The only National Historical Monument that moves (cable cars)
Alcatraz
Fisherman’s Wharf
Haight-Ashbury
Silicon Valley
Ghiradelli Chocolate
The most crooked street in the world (Lombard)
Invention of the fortune cookie
America’s first ugly law, prohibiting unsightly people from showing their faces in public (repealed)
Maya Angelou, Bruce Lee, Robert Frost, Steve Jobs, Clint Eastwood, Cheech Marin, Danny Glover, Jack London, Jerry Garcia, Mel Blanc, Ansel Adams, Isadora Duncan, Francis Coppola, Johnny Mathis, Tupac Shakur, Carlos Santana, Joe Montana, Steve Young, Tom Brady