Sacramento << `sak` ruh MEHN toh >> (pop. 524,943) is the capital of California and the commercial center of a rich farming region. It lies at the junction of the Sacramento and American rivers in California’s Sacramento Valley, about 85 miles (137 kilometers) northeast of San Francisco.
Sacramento is a historic city of the American West. It was founded as a town in 1849 by John A. Sutter, Jr., who was the son of the Swiss pioneer who established the first European settlement in the area. Sacramento became a mining center during the California gold rush of 1849. Construction of the Central Pacific Railroad, a link in the first railway to cross the United States, began in Sacramento in 1863.
The city.
Sacramento, the seat of Sacramento County, covers 99 square miles (256 square kilometers) in north-central California. The cities of Sacramento, Roseville, and Folsom are part of a metropolitan area that covers 5,095 square miles (13,196 square kilometers) and has a population of 2,397,382. This metropolitan area spreads over El Dorado, Placer, Sacramento, and Yolo counties.
The state Capitol stands in Capitol Park, which occupies 40 acres (16 hectares) in the heart of Sacramento. The city originally lay along the east bank of the Sacramento River. Many structures built there during the mid-1800’s have been restored. The area is called Old Sacramento.
Economy.
Federal and state government agencies employ many of the workers in Sacramento’s metropolitan area. A number of telephone customer-service centers in the area employ thousands of people. 
Sacramento has hundreds of manufacturing plants. Food processing and high-technology activities rank as leading industries in the area. Fruit and vegetable canneries in the Sacramento area process and pack products of California’s agricultural regions. Blue Diamond Growers, based in Sacramento, operates a large almond processing plant in the city. Sacramento’s other products include boxes, computer chips, computer equipment, fertilizer, and food products.
A deepwater channel, completed in 1963, links the Port of West Sacramento to San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean. The port serves oceangoing ships, which pick up rice and other exports of the Sacramento Valley. Railroad passenger trains, rail freight lines, and major highways serve Sacramento.
Several airlines use Sacramento International Airport, which lies outside the city. Sacramento Executive Airport, in the heart of the city, serves business and private aircraft.
Education and cultural life.
An eight-member Board of Education supervises the city’s public school system. Seven members are elected, and one is chosen from a city high school. Sacramento also has a number of church-supported schools. Sacramento is the home of the McGeorge School of Law of the University of the Pacific and California State University at Sacramento. The University of California has a branch campus in nearby Davis.
The Crocker Art Museum, the oldest art museum in the western United States, opened in Sacramento in 1885. It houses many paintings by European masters. The Old Sacramento area features the California State Railroad Museum and the reconstructed Central Pacific Railroad Passenger Station. There, visitors can see railroad cars from the past. A fort that was built in 1839 by the pioneer settler John A. Sutter has been restored in east-central Sacramento.
Cultural groups sponsor ballet, opera, symphony orchestra, and theater programs. The California State Fair is held in Sacramento every summer. The city has many parks. William Land Park is the largest. It includes a golf course and a zoo. The city is the home of the Sacramento Kings of the National Basketball Association. Sacramento has a daily newspaper, The Sacramento Bee.
Government.
Sacramento has a council-manager form of government. The people elect a mayor and eight other members of the city council to four-year terms. The council hires a city manager to serve as the administrative head of the city government. Property taxes provide about one-third of Sacramento’s income. Utility and sales taxes are other important revenue sources for the city.
History.
In 1839, a group of settlers led by John A. Sutter, a Swiss pioneer, established a colony along the American River. The colony lay about 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) east of the Sacramento River. It was the first European settlement in inland California, then controlled by Mexico. Sutter received about 50,000 acres (20,000 hectares) of land in the area by pledging loyalty to Mexico. In the 1840’s, his fort was the western terminal for wagon trains of pioneers.
In 1848, the discovery of gold at Sutter’s sawmill drew thousands of fortune seekers to the area. The next year, Sutter’s son, John A. Sutter, Jr., founded the town of Sacramento along the east bank of the Sacramento River. The town was named for the river. During the gold rush of 1849, Sacramento became a center of mining activities, and its population soon rose to 10,000. Sacramento was incorporated as a city in 1850 and became the state capital in 1854.
The first railroad in the West was built during the 1850’s to connect Sacramento and Folsom, California. In 1860 and 1861, riders of the pony express carried the U.S. mail between Sacramento and St. Joseph, Missouri. In 1863, construction of the Central Pacific Railroad, the first railway to cross the Sierra Nevada , began in Sacramento. In 1869, the Central Pacific connected with the Union Pacific at Promontory, Utah, and became part of the first coast-to-coast link in the United States.
During the late 1800’s, farmers started to grow cotton, fruits, and vegetables in the Sacramento Valley. Sacramento became an important trading center for these crops. Between 1870 and 1900, the city’s population increased from 16,283 to 29,282. Agriculture in the Sacramento area continued to develop rapidly in the early 1900’s, and canning and food processing became Sacramento’s chief manufacturing activities. By 1930, the city’s population had climbed to 93,750.
After World War II ended in 1945, many new industries, including rocket engine production, began in Sacramento. The city started to annex large areas of nearby vacant land during the 1950’s. Between 1950 and 1960, Sacramento’s area increased from 17 square miles (44 square kilometers) to about 43 square miles (111 square kilometers). During this same period, the population of Sacramento increased from 137,572 to 191,667.
In the 1950’s and 1960’s, a number of large shopping centers opened in Sacramento’s suburbs and took retail trade away from the city’s merchants. Much of Sacramento’s downtown area was rebuilt during the 1960’s and 1970’s. Decaying buildings were torn down, and modern stores, banks, and office buildings replaced them. The historic Old Sacramento area was reconstructed. A mass transit rail line was completed in 1987.
During the 1990’s, the city’s convention center and marina were greatly expanded. The remodeled Downtown Plaza opened. The historic Sacramento Memorial Auditorium, originally built in 1926, was refurbished. In 2003, a complex of five state office buildings opened in a downtown area called the Capitol Plaza. In 2008, Kevin Johnson was elected Sacramento’s first African American mayor. Johnson, a Democrat, was a former star of the Phoenix Suns basketball team.
