San Francisco is one of the largest cities in California and a leading center of culture, finance, and industry in the United States. It is also one of the world’s most attractive cities. Its clanging cable cars, fascinating Chinatown, and many hills give the city a special charm. Its scenic beauty and mild climate make it a popular tourist destination.
With more than 870,000 people, San Francisco is one of the largest cities on the Pacific Coast of the United States. It also has one of the largest Asian American populations on the mainland of the United States. About 300,000 people of Chinese, Japanese, Philippine, Korean, Thai, and Vietnamese ancestry live in the city.
San Francisco is built on and around more than 40 hills. Some of the steepest streets in the world lie in San Francisco’s downtown area on Nob Hill and Russian Hill. These hills rise as high as 376 feet (115 meters). Cable cars and other vehicles seem almost to stand on end as they climb or descend the slopes.
San Francisco lies on the northern tip of a peninsula. The sparkling blue water that nearly surrounds the city provides a magnificent setting. The Pacific Ocean lies to the west and San Francisco Bay to the east. On the north, a strait 1 mile (1.6 kilometers) wide connects the Pacific Ocean and San Francisco Bay. This strait is named the Golden Gate, and San Francisco is often called the City by the Golden Gate. It is also known as the City by the Bay.
Indigenous (Native American) cultures flourished in the San Francisco region for countless generations before Spanish settlers arrived in 1776. Gold was discovered east of San Francisco in 1848, and the city quickly became a busy mining supply center during the gold rush of 1849. In the late 1800’s, it thrived as the financial and industrial capital of the western United States. Then, in 1906, a terrible earthquake and fire destroyed most of San Francisco. But the residents soon rebuilt their city. In 1945, the United Nations (UN) was organized in San Francisco.
The city
San Francisco occupies all of San Francisco County. San Francisco includes several islands in the Pacific Ocean and in San Francisco Bay. Alcatraz, the most famous island, lies in the bay. It was the site of a famous federal prison for dangerous criminals from 1934 to 1963. Today, the prison is a tourist attraction. See Alcatraz.
Many people consider San Francisco’s climate to be ideal. The temperature rarely rises to 80 °F (27 °C) or drops to 30 °F (–1 °C). However, fog often covers the western part of the city. It forms when warm air flows over the cold ocean water.
Downtown San Francisco
lies in the northeastern part of the city. Market Street is the main downtown street. It has large department stores and many fashionable shops. Union Square is the main shopping area. The Civic Center stands at Van Ness Avenue and McAllister Street, just north of Market Street. The center includes City Hall, the Asian Art Museum, the War Memorial Opera House, and Davies Symphony Hall.
Nob Hill rises northeast of the Civic Center. Two large luxury hotels, the Fairmont and the Mark Hopkins, have been built on this hill. The business district of Chinatown lies east of Nob Hill. Thousands of people of Asian ancestry live in the crowded Chinatown area. The area includes one of the largest Chinese communities outside Asia. Colorful shops, restaurants, and other buildings with Chinese-style upturned roofs stretch for eight blocks along Chinatown’s lively Grant Avenue.
San Francisco’s busy financial district is just east of Chinatown and centers on Montgomery Street. Many banks, investment houses, and other financial firms are on this street. It has been nicknamed the Wall Street of the West, after New York City’s great financial district. The Transamerica Pyramid, perhaps San Francisco’s most striking building, stands on Montgomery Street. This sleek, white office building towers 853 feet (260 meters) and looks like a thin pyramid. An impressive 52-story skyscraper called 555 California Street rises nearby.
Farther east, a modern residential and commercial complex called the Golden Gateway Center covers 51 acres (21 hectares) near the shore of San Francisco Bay. The center includes tall, elegant apartment and office buildings, shops, parks, and tiled plazas.
The Port of San Francisco borders the bay, which is one of the largest natural harbors in the world. The bay covers about 450 square miles (1,170 square kilometers). A wide street called the Embarcadero parallels the shore. At the middle of the port, across the Embarcadero from the Golden Gateway Center, stands the Ferry Building with its famous clock tower. The building once was a terminal for ferryboats that carried passengers between San Francisco and the eastern shore of the bay. Today, it houses the Marketplace, which has specialty food shops and restaurants.
Russian Hill rises in the northern part of downtown San Francisco. It includes what is called the Crookedest Street in the World. This street, a section of Lombard Street, makes eight sharp turns in a single block. The white Coit Tower, a famous San Francisco landmark, stands on top of nearby Telegraph Hill. The 210-foot (64-meter) tower is a memorial to the city’s firefighters.
At the northern end of the Embarcadero lies Fisherman’s Wharf, once the home of a huge fleet of colorful fishing boats. Today, the wharf is known chiefly for its many seafood restaurants. Nearby are two unusual shopping centers—the Cannery and Ghirardelli Square. The Cannery was once a food-processing factory, and Ghirardelli Square was a chocolate factory. They now house a variety of shops. North of Ghirardelli Square is San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park. The park includes a maritime museum and several restored ships of the 1800’s docked at a pier.
Other neighborhoods.
North Beach, in northeastern San Francisco, is one of the city’s oldest residential neighborhoods. It occupies the western slope of Telegraph Hill. Italian immigrants settled the area in the mid-1800’s. Other neighborhoods that developed during this period include Potrero Hill and the Mission District. Potrero Hill lies south of the downtown area, and the Mission District lies southwest of downtown. The historic Mission Dolores stands in the Mission District. The original mission, founded by the Spanish in 1776, was destroyed by fire. It was replaced by another mission, which dates from 1782 and still stands.
The Western Addition, a neighborhood just west of the downtown area, is noted for its nearly 100-year-old houses built in the elaborate Victorian style. Many of these homes have been restored. The Western Addition is also the site of the Japan Center. This huge complex, which includes shops, restaurants, motion-picture theaters, and a hotel, is the center of an area called Japantown.
The Presidio, originally a Spanish army post, covers about 1,500 acres (607 hectares) in northwestern San Francisco. Until 1994, it served as the headquarters of the U.S. Sixth Army. In 1994, the Presidio was transferred to the National Park Service and became part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. Most of the Presidio’s lands and buildings are managed by a federal agency called the Presidio Trust.
Almost all the residential areas in western San Francisco began to develop in the early 1900’s. Sea Cliff, a community known for its large, well-landscaped homes, lies west of the Presidio along the Golden Gate. Nearby is Lincoln Park. The park includes the Legion of Honor, one of the city’s finest museums. Farther south, Golden Gate Park extends from the Pacific Ocean to the center of the city. It covers 1,017 acres (412 hectares) and is one of the nation’s largest city parks. The park’s attractions include the California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco Botanical Garden at Strybing Arboretum, a Japanese tea garden, and the de Young Museum, the city’s oldest and largest art museum.
Overlooking the eastern end of Golden Gate Park is Mount Sutro, which rises more than 900 feet (270 meters). Nearby, Mount Davidson and two hills called Twin Peaks reach about the same height. Many expensive homes have been built on the slopes of all these hills.
Most of San Francisco’s newest neighborhoods lie in the southwestern part of the city. This area also includes San Francisco State University and Lake Merced, a large freshwater lake.
The metropolitan area.
The San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont metropolitan area extends over Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, San Francisco, and San Mateo counties. About 4 3/4 million people live in this area. San Francisco and San Mateo form a metropolitan division that has a population of 1,638,407.
Two spectacular bridges link San Francisco to other parts of the Bay Area. The 81/4 -mile (13.3-kilometer) San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge crosses the bay. The Golden Gate Bridge connects the city and its northern suburbs. Its main section stretches 4,200 feet (1,280 meters) and is one of the world’s longest spans.
People
Population.
White people make up about 40 percent of San Francisco’s population. Asian Americans make up 35 percent. Hispanic people, who may be of any race, account for about 15 percent, and African Americans make up about 5 percent.
The largest ethnic groups among European Americans are people of English, French, German, Irish, Italian, and Russian ancestry. Chinese people make up the largest group of Asian Americans. Many of the first Chinese residents came to work in the mines during the gold rush of 1849. Thousands of others arrived in the 1860’s to help build the Central Pacific Railroad, which formed part of the first transcontinental railroad system in the United States. Other large groups of Asian Americans in San Francisco consist of people who are of Japanese, Philippine, or Vietnamese descent. Mexican Americans make up the city’s largest Hispanic group. San Francisco’s Black population began to increase during World War II (1939-1945). At that time, thousands of African Americans came from the South to seek jobs in the booming shipyards.
Housing
in San Francisco includes many row houses. These houses—most of them two-story wood or stucco buildings—may share at least one wall with the house next door. Single families occupy some row houses, but most such houses have been converted into two or more apartments. High-rise developments have increased in downtown neighborhoods since the late 1990’s.
Urban renewal projects south and west of the downtown area replaced many run-down dwellings with attractive row houses and apartment complexes. However, many other older homes and apartments in these areas remain in poor condition.
Education.
The San Francisco Board of Education sets policy for the city’s public schools. The board consists of seven members who are elected to four-year terms.
San Francisco State University is the city’s largest university. The San Francisco campus of the University of California is known for important discoveries in the field of biotechnology. Other institutions of higher learning in the city include Golden Gate University; the San Francisco Conservatory of Music; the University of San Francisco; and UC College of the Law, San Francisco. Several outstanding universities lie near San Francisco. They include Stanford University in Stanford, near Palo Alto, and the University of California in Berkeley.
Social problems.
San Francisco, like other large cities in the United States, faces such problems as poverty, homelessness, crime, and drug abuse. Most of the city’s poor lack education and necessary job skills. High rents and home prices have forced many longtime residents to leave the city.
Cultural life and recreation
The arts.
The San Francisco War Memorial and Performing Arts Center includes the War Memorial Opera House, Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall, and the Herbst Theatre. The city’s opera company and ballet company perform at the opera house. The opera company, founded in 1923, is the oldest major opera company in the western United States. The ballet company, founded in 1933, is the oldest in the nation. The San Francisco Symphony performs at the symphony hall. The Herbst Theatre hosts musical, dance, and theatrical performances. The city’s American Conservatory Theater is one of the finest professional theater companies in the United States.
Libraries and museums.
The Sutro Library, a branch of the California State Library, includes a collection of books printed during the 1400’s. The California Academy of Sciences and the California Historical Society also house fine libraries. San Francisco’s public library system has branches throughout the city.
The Legion of Honor has collections of antique European furniture, paintings, porcelain objects, and sculptures. It is noted for its works by the French sculptor Auguste Rodin and for its French Impressionist paintings. The de Young Museum has collections of art from Africa, Oceania, and North and South America. It is noted for its American paintings collection that includes works from colonial times to the early 2000’s. The collection of the Asian Art Museum spans 6,000 years of history and represents the countries and cultures throughout Asia. The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art specializes in art of the 1900’s. The Institute of Contemporary Art San Francisco presents nonpermanent exhibitions by artists working today. The California Academy of Sciences includes the Morrison Planetarium and the Steinhart Aquarium.
Recreation.
San Francisco has numerous parks and playgrounds. Golden Gate Park, the city’s chief recreational area, includes baseball diamonds, bridle paths, hiking trails, picnic areas, and tennis courts. Many people enjoy boating in San Francisco Bay, as well as fishing and sailing in the Pacific Ocean and Lake Merced. San Francisco’s zoo is near Lake Merced.
The Golden Gate National Recreation Area covers parts of San Francisco and Marin counties. The area includes Fort Mason, a former military base that now hosts a number of cultural facilities. Point Reyes National Seashore and Muir Woods National Monument, which has the most famous redwood forest in the country, are in Marin County.
The city is the home of the San Francisco Giants of baseball’s National League. The San Francisco 49ers of the National Football League and the Golden State Warriors of the National Basketball Association also play there.
Economy
San Francisco has long been one of the nation’s leading financial centers. It is also a major center of commerce, industry, and tourism.
Finance and trade.
Loans from San Francisco’s banks played a key role in the early development of the mining industry in the western United States. Today, many banks and other financial institutions operate in the city. The city is the home of Wells Fargo & Company, which ranks among the largest U.S. banks.
A number of San Francisco’s workers have jobs in retail and wholesale trade. Many work for firms that serve the tourist trade. Millions of tourists visit San Francisco yearly and contribute greatly to the city’s economy.
San Francisco had the busiest port on the Pacific Coast during the 1800’s. But several other ports in the Bay Area developed rapidly in the early 1900’s. Today, the Port of San Francisco handles far less cargo than some of these nearby ports.
Industry.
The San Francisco Bay area lies at the heart of California’s high technology industry. The area from Palo Alto southeast to San Jose has so many computer-related industries that it is called Silicon Valley, for the silicon used to make computer chips. San Francisco itself has large numbers of software firms and Internet companies.
Other important industries in the San Francisco area manufacture clothing, process food, and fabricate metal products. The city is a leading printing and publishing center. San Francisco is also a major administrative center for industrial firms. Dozens of large U.S. corporations have headquarters in or near the city.
Transportation and communication.
San Francisco International Airport, about 12 miles (19 kilometers) south of the city, serves many commercial airlines. The airport ranks among the busiest in the world. Several passenger and freight rail lines also serve the city.
The publicly owned Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) operates an electric rail system in the bay region. One BART route passes through the Transbay Tube, a tunnel that runs under San Francisco Bay between San Francisco and Oakland. The Transbay Tube, which is 31/2 miles (5.6 kilometers) long, is the longest underwater vehicular tunnel in North America.
San Francisco’s cable cars run on rails and are pulled by a moving cable under the street. The cable car system, which is a national historic landmark, has three lines and covers 10 miles (16 kilometers). The system is part of the Municipal Railway (often called the Muni), which also operates buses, trolleys, and light rail vehicles.
San Francisco has two major daily newspapers. They are the San Francisco Chronicle and The San Francisco Examiner.
Government
San Francisco was incorporated as a city in 1850. Its government and that of San Francisco County have been combined since 1856. San Francisco has a mayor-council form of government. The voters elect the mayor and the 11 members of the council, called the Board of Supervisors, to four-year terms. The mayor appoints the heads of the chief city government agencies and prepares the city budget. The mayor may also veto bills passed by the Board of Supervisors.
The city government gets most of its revenue from real estate taxes. But these and other taxes do not enable the government to meet all of its expenses. As a result, San Francisco depends heavily on grants from the state and federal governments and on the sale of bonds to pay for major improvements.
History
Early days.
The Indigenous Costanoan people lived in what is now the San Francisco area long before Europeans arrived. Fogs, which often blanket the Pacific Coast for weeks, probably prevented early European navigators from finding the Golden Gate, the entrance to San Francisco Bay. In 1542, the Portuguese explorer Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo saw the Farallon Islands but missed the Golden Gate. In 1579, the English explorer Sir Francis Drake also sailed right by. He may have anchored in what is now known as Drake’s Bay, just north of San Francisco. In 1595, the Portuguese explorer Sebastían Rodríguez Cermeño entered Drake’s Bay. He named it Puerto de San Francisco (Port of Saint Francis) and so established the name San Francisco for the region.
Europeans finally reached the site of San Francisco by traveling overland. In 1769, members of a Spanish expedition led by Gaspar de Portolá became the first Europeans to climb the hills and see the bay.
Settlement by Europeans.
On Sept. 17, 1776, a Spanish expedition under Captain Juan Bautista de Anza established a presidio (military fort) at San Francisco. During that same year, Spanish priests opened a mission nearby. It was named Misión San Francisco de Asís in honor of Saint Francis of Assisi. At the mission, Spanish soldiers and priests subjected Indigenous people to strict discipline and a heavy workload. A number of Indigenous people were exposed to new diseases. Many became ill and died. The Costanoan population declined greatly during this period.
Spanish-speaking families who came with Anza settled near the mission, known as Mission Dolores after nearby Lake Dolores. The settlement was called the Pueblo de San Francisco (Town of Saint Francis).
In 1821, Mexico won its independence from Spain and took over California. Mexico encouraged the development of cattle ranches in its new province of California. The ranches in the San Francisco area attracted New England ship captains, who wanted cattle hides for the growing shoe industry in the eastern United States. A lively port developed in the northeastern corner of the peninsula, and a town named Yerba Buena (Good Herb) grew up near the port.
The Mexican War.
War broke out between Mexico and the United States in May 1846. On July 9, American naval forces under Commander John B. Montgomery captured Yerba Buena. The Americans renamed the town San Francisco in 1847. Mexico lost the war in 1848, and the entire California region became part of the United States.
The gold rush.
In 1848, gold was discovered near what is now Sacramento. The discovery led to the gold rush of 1849. Hundreds of ships, jammed with thousands of gold seekers, streamed into San Francisco’s harbor. The fortune hunters, who came from all over the world, swept through San Francisco on the way to the gold fields. Gold-hungry crews abandoned many of their ships in the harbor. San Francisco became the main supply center for the miners. Its population jumped from about 800 in 1848 to about 25,000 in 1849. In 1850, the town was incorporated as a city.
Continued prosperity.
Adventurers who made fortunes during the gold rush helped San Francisco become rich. Mansions went up on Nob Hill. Theaters opened and flourished. Commerce boomed. But crime also soared. In 1851, a group of citizens formed the San Francisco Vigilance Committee to enforce law and order. They became known as Vigilantes and helped rid the city of a number of its worst criminals. But lawlessness still flourished, especially in a district around Pacific Avenue and Kearny Street. In the 1860’s, this district was nicknamed the Barbary Coast, after a notorious center for sea raiders on the coast of northern Africa.
Following the fabulous California gold strike, mining boom towns sprang up throughout the West. San Francisco became the center of finance and supply for those towns. Manufacturing, especially the production of mining equipment, also thrived in the city.
In 1869, the first railroad from the eastern United States reached the San Francisco Bay area. In 1873, Andrew S. Hallidie, a San Francisco cable manufacturer, invented the cable car. Cable cars provided a safe way to move up and down steep grades and greatly encouraged residential and commercial development on San Francisco’s hills. By 1900, the energetic city had a population of about 342,000.
Earthquake and fire.
San Francisco suffered one of the worst disasters in United States history when a severe earthquake shook the city at 5:12 a.m. on April 18, 1906. Fires broke out in various sections as stoves and gas lamps overturned, electric wires broke, and gas mains exploded. Firefighters could not battle the flames effectively because the city’s water mains had also been damaged. As a result, fires burned out of control for three days. The firefighters then began to dynamite entire blocks of buildings to stop the spreading flames.
At least 3,000 people died in the disaster, and about 250,000 lost their homes. Most of the city, including more than 28,000 buildings, lay in ruins.
A city reborn.
San Franciscans quickly rebuilt their city. In 1915, the new San Francisco held the Panama-Pacific International Exposition to honor the opening in 1914 of the Panama Canal. The canal enabled ships to sail from New York City to San Francisco without having to travel around South America. But Los Angeles and Oakland greatly expanded their port facilities during the early 1900’s. As a result, San Francisco lost its position as the leading center of commerce, manufacturing, and shipping in California. The city’s population, however, continued to grow steadily. By 1930, it had reached 634,394. The San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge opened in 1936 and the Golden Gate Bridge in 1937.
During World War II (1939-1945), San Francisco became one of the world’s largest shipbuilding centers. Thousands of new residents, including many African Americans, came to work in the shipyards and other war plants. In addition, thousands of military personnel were stationed in and around the city. San Francisco’s population reached a peak of 827,400 in 1945. That same year, delegates from 50 countries met in San Francisco to organize the United Nations (UN).
Building boom.
Increasing problems of citywide decay during the 1950’s led to large urban renewal projects in the 1960’s. Modern row houses and apartment buildings replaced run-down housing in Hunters Point and the Western Addition. Towering new office buildings in downtown San Francisco created an impressive skyline overlooking the bay. The most ambitious project was the huge residential and commercial complex called the Golden Gateway Center.
San Francisco became a center of the counterculture or hippie movement during the middle and late 1960’s. Such rock bands as the Grateful Dead and the Jefferson Airplane originated in the city, and thousands of young people flocked there, especially to the Haight-Ashbury district west of downtown.
The downtown building boom continued in the 1970’s. The Transamerica Pyramid opened in 1972. That same year, the Bay Area Rapid Transit system began operating. The Transbay Tube opened in 1974. City building codes required that the new structures be built in ways to enable them to withstand earthquakes.
By the 1980’s, a debate had reached a peak about the benefits of the city’s building boom. Some residents argued that skyscrapers destroyed the city’s charm and beauty. Others maintained that the construction was needed to provide jobs and help strengthen San Francisco’s economy. In 1985, an ordinance called the Downtown Plan was passed. The plan limited the size of future structures, preserved many existing buildings, and called for open spaces to relieve congestion.
Political leaders murdered.
Tragedy struck the city on Nov. 27, 1978, when Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk were shot to death by Dan White, a former member of the Board of Supervisors. In 1979, White was convicted of voluntary manslaughter and sentenced to a prison term of seven years and eight months. Many San Franciscans considered the term too light. White was released from prison early, in 1984. In 1985, he died by suicide.
Another earthquake.
On Oct. 17, 1989, a strong earthquake—though not as strong as the 1906 quake—struck San Francisco and the surrounding area. It became known as the Loma Prieta earthquake because its epicenter was near Loma Prieta peak in the Santa Cruz Mountains. The quake caused 12 deaths and about $3 billion in property damage in San Francisco County. Some San Francisco neighborhoods, especially older ones, suffered severe damage. The earthquake destroyed about 60 buildings in the Marina District, which was built on landfill in the northern part of the city. Other areas of the city escaped major damage, especially newer areas where buildings had been constructed to withstand earthquakes.
Recent developments.
San Francisco’s population became increasingly diverse during the 1990’s. The city’s leaders reflected that diversity. In 1995, San Francisco voters elected the city’s first African American mayor, Willie Brown. Brown won reelection in 1999 and held office until 2004. Ed Lee became the city’s first Asian American mayor in early 2011, when he was appointed to complete the term of Mayor Gavin Newsom, who had become California’s lieutenant governor. Lee, the son of Chinese immigrants, was elected to full terms later in 2011 and in 2015. He died in 2017. In addition, San Francisco has one of the nation’s largest LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer) populations. LGBTQ people have experienced growing political power there.
In the 1990’s and the beginning of the 2000’s, San Francisco experienced a cultural renaissance. The Yerba Buena Center for the Arts opened. The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Asian Art Museum moved into new homes. In 2008, the Contemporary Jewish Museum moved into a new building designed by the Polish-born American architect Daniel Libeskind.
San Francisco faced a housing crisis during the first decades of the 2000’s. The growth in high-paying jobs in technology industries contributed to rising rents and home prices. City leaders worked with developers to build more affordable housing, but many workers with lower-paying jobs were forced to find housing farther from the city center. In the 2020’s, the city faced such challenges as an increasing homeless population, high vacancy rates in office buildings, and a reputation for lawlessness. City leaders, however, insisted that the city’s crime rates were lower than those of most other major cities.
