The
only joined city-county in California, the City and County of San Francisco, is
the cultural epicenter and foremost economic hub of the San Francisco Bay Area
and Northern California.
Encompassing
a land area of about 46.9 square miles (121 km2) on the northern end of the San
Francisco Peninsula, giving it a density of about 17,620 people per square mile
(6,803 people per km2), San Francisco is the most densely settled large city
(population greater than 200,000) in the state of California and the
second-most densely populated major city in the United States after New York
City. San Francisco is the fourth most populous city in California, after Los
Angeles, San Diego and San Jose, and the 14th most populous city in the United
States—with a Census-estimated 2012 population of 825,863. The city is also the
financial and cultural hub of the larger San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland
combined statistical area, with a population of 8.4 million.
Founded
on June 29, 1776, San Francisco (Spanish for "Saint Francis") was established
when colonists from Spain built a fort at the Golden Gate and a mission named
for St. Francis of Assisi a few miles away. The California Gold Rush of 1849
brought about rapid growth. This made it the largest city on the West Coast at
the time. Due to the growth of its population, San Francisco became a consolidated
city-county in 1856. After three-quarters of the city was destroyed by the 1906
earthquake and fire, 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. 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.
San
Francisco is a popular tourist destination, known for its cool summers, fog,
steep rolling hills, eclectic mix of architecture, and landmarks including the
Golden Gate Bridge, cable cars, the former prison on Alcatraz Island, and its
Chinatown district. It is also a primary banking and finance center.
