About San Francisco

San Francisco is the largest city on San Francisco Bay and is the second most densely populated in the United States. The Spanish built a fort in 1776 at what is now the Golden Gate. In 1906 much of downtown San Francisco was rebuilt after a major earthquake and fire. 400,000 were homeless for a while.

The weather in San Francisco is best described as "chilly" even in the foggy summer months. Mark Twain once remarked that "The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco." The cold Pacific Ocean waters keep the temperature variances quite moderate. Average summer temperatures are near 70° and it seldom freezes. Fog along the western edges of the city usually occur in the summer and early fall.

Thanks to the California gold rush the population of San Francisco went from 1,000 in 1848 to 25,000 in 1849. Silver discoveries such as the Comstock Lode in 1859 further increased the population. The Barbary Coast section of town was notorious for crime, prostitution and gambling. Wells Fargo Bank, the Transcontinental Railroad, Levi Strauss clothing and Ghirardelli Chocolate soon prospered. The Bank of Italy became the Bank of America, and in 1915 San Francisco hosted the Panama-Pacific International Exposition.

Tours

Hotels

Chinatown

North Beach

Union Square

Fisherman's Wharf

Arts & Entertainment

San Francisco Headline News

San Francisco's financial stability was such that not only did no San Francisco banks fail during the stock market crash of 1929, the city was able to start work on both the San Francisco - Oakland Bay and Golden Gate Bridges. San Francisco hosted the 1939 Golden Gate International Exposition world's fair.

During the 50's San Francisco was a center for the Beat Culture and in the 60's the Hippie culture, culminating in the Summer of Love in 1967. San Francisco also became a magnet for gay and gender bender lifestyles.

From the short lived dot-com boom to the bubble burst of 2001, fortunes were won and lost. San Francisco remains a leader in high technology.

San Francisco is not only the 'city by the bay' it is also the "city built on hills" 43 of them in the city limits alone. Many of the neighborhood names come from the names of hills upon which they were built" Nob, Pacific Heights, Russian, Potrero and Telegraph.

Neighborhoods in San Francisco include the historic center along Market Street including the Financial District, Fisherman's Warf, Little Italy, Chinatown and Union Square.

The Mission District includes migrant families from Latin America, the Haight-Ashbury area and the Castro of gay fame.

Not content with building on hills, San Francisco also built the Marina District, Hunters Point and the Embarcadero on landfill. The 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake caused extensive damage and showed the danger of building on such unstable land.

Several islands are included in the city of San Francisco, including Alcatraz, Treasure Island, Yerba Buena and 27 miles out to see the little known Farallon Islands.