Portal:San Francisco Bay Area
The San Francisco Bay Area PortalThe San Francisco Bay Area (referred to locally as the Bay Area) is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco and San Pablo estuaries in Northern California. The region encompasses the major cities and metropolitan areas of San Jose, San Francisco, and Oakland, along with smaller urban and rural areas. The Bay Area's nine counties are Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Solano, and Sonoma. Home to approximately 7.68 million people, the nine-county Bay Area contains many cities, towns, airports, and associated regional, state, and national parks, connected by a network of roads, highways, railroads, bridges, tunnels, and commuter rail. The combined statistical area of the region is the second-largest in California (after the Greater Los Angeles area), the fifth-largest in the United States, and the 43rd-largest urban area in the world with 8.80 million people. The Bay Area has the second-most Fortune 500 companies in the United States, after the New York metropolitan area, and is known for its natural beauty, liberal politics, entrepreneurship, and diversity. The area ranks second in highest density of college graduates, after the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area and performs above the state median household income in the 2010 census; it includes the five highest California counties by per capita income and two of the top 25 wealthiest counties in the United States. Based on a 2013 population report from the California Department of Finance, the Bay Area is the only region in California where the rate of people migrating in from other areas in the United States is greater than the rate of those leaving the region, led by Alameda and Contra Costa counties. (more...) Selected article
Treasure Island is a man-made landform in San Francisco Bay and a neighborhood of the City of San Francisco. Built 1936-7 for the 1939 Golden Gate International Exposition, the island's World’s Fair site is a California Historical Landmark with buildings having been listed on the NRHP, and the island's historical naval station and auxiliary air facility (for airships, blimps, dirigibles, planes and seaplanes) are designated in the Geographic Names Information System.
The San Francisco neighborhood that includes Treasure Island extends far into San Francisco Bay and includes a tip of Alameda Island. Yerba Buena and Treasure islands together have a land area of 576.7 acres (233.4 ha) with a 2010 total population of 2,500. Treasure Island and its 900 ft (270 m) causeway total 535 acres (217 ha) connected by roadway (e.g., San Francisco Muni's "108 Treasure Island") to Yerba Buena Island which has the Transbay Terminal ramps to the middle of Interstate 80's San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge. The island has a marina and will have a bikeway connecting to the Eastern span replacement of the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge when it is completed. (more...) Selected biography
James Lick (August 25, 1796 – October 1, 1876) was an American carpenter, piano builder, land baron, and patron of the sciences. At the time of his death, he was the wealthiest man in California, and left the majority of his estate to social and scientific causes.
Lick arrived in San Francisco, California, in January 1848, bringing with him his tools, work bench, $30,000 ($784,700 with inflation to 2012) in gold, and 600 pounds (275 kilograms) of chocolate. The chocolate quickly sold, and Lick convinced his neighbor and friend in Peru, the confectioner Domingo Ghirardelli, to move to San Francisco, where he founded the Ghirardelli Chocolate Company. Upon his arrival, Lick began buying real estate in the small village of San Francisco. The discovery of gold at Sutter's Mill near Sacramento a few days after Lick's arrival in the future state began the California Gold Rush and created a housing boom in San Francisco, which grew from about one thousand residents in 1848 to over twenty thousand by 1850. Lick himself got a touch of "gold fever" and went out to mine the metal, but after a week he decided his fortune was to be made by owning land, not digging in it. Lick continued buying land in San Francisco, and also began buying farmland in and around San Jose, where he planted orchards and built the largest flour mill in the state to feed the growing population in San Francisco. (more...) Selected citySan Jose is the third-largest city in California, the largest in Northern California and the county seat of Santa Clara County. Once a small farming city, by 1950 San Jose was a magnet for suburban newcomers in new housing developments (1960s to the 1990s) and became a large thriving urban center of Northern California. Originally El Pueblo de San José de Guadalupe, it was founded in 1777 in the Spanish colony of Nueva California. After over 150 years as an agricultural center, San Jose underwent aggressive expansion during the 1950s and 1960s. By the 1990s, San Jose's central location within the booming technology industry earned the city the nickname Capital of Silicon Valley. (more...) Selected imageRed Hawk cheese made by Cowgirl Creamery, Point Reyes Station. image credit: Frank Schulenburg
The Bay Area by year1952
Selected historical imageCosmonaut Gherman Titov at the Marina Safeway, San Francisco (1962) image credit: Eric Fischer
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May/June 2011 Selected periodic eventThe San Francisco Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Celebration, usually known as San Francisco Pride, is a parade and festival held at the end of June each year in San Francisco to celebrate lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people and their allies. The 40th anniversary parade in 2011 included over 200 parade contingents, and was the largest ever gathering of LGBT people and allies in the nation. (Dykes on Bikes pictured) Quote
Selected multimedia fileCarriage drive of the Vendome Hotel in San Jose (1897) credit: Library of Congress
Bay Area regions, geographic features and protected areasGeographic features
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Things you can do*Write an article on a Bay Area-related subject Selected panoramaThe Great Hall at Castello di Amorosa winery, Napa Valley image credit: Mactographer
San Francisco Bay Area categoriesBay Area | San Francisco Bay | San Francisco | San Jose | Oakland | Cities | Census-designated places | Historic Places | National Landmarks | Counties: Alameda | Contra Costa | Marin | Napa | San Mateo | Santa Clara | Solano | Sonoma
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