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Apartments in San Francisco
The City and County of San Francisco (2004 estimated population 744,230) is the fourth-largest city in California and the fourteenth largest in the United States. San Francisco is located on the tip of the San Francisco Peninsula and is the focal point of the San Francisco Bay Area, whose population is seven million. San Francisco is the second most densely populated major American city after New York. The first Europeans to settle in San Francisco were the Spanish in 1776; the city is named for St. Francis. With the advent of the California Gold Rush in 1848, and the Comstock Lode and silver mines in 1859, the city entered a period of rapid growth. After being devastated by the 1906 Earthquake and Fire. San Francisco was quickly rebuilt and is today one of the most recognizable cities on the West Coast. It is also one of the "beta" Global Cities. San Francisco has a unique mix of characteristics, including its months-long episodes of fog, its steep rolling hills, its eclectic mix of architecture (including Victorian Style Houses and modern high-rises), and its being bordered on three sides by the Pacific Ocean or the San Francisco Bay. Famous hallmarks and landmarks include the San Francisco Cable Cars, the Transamerica Pyramid, the Golden Gate Bridge, and Alcatraz Island.
San Francisco is famous for its hills. A "hill" in San Francisco is an elevation
that is over 100 ft (30 m). There are a total of 42 hills within city limits.
Some of these hills are neighborhoods such as Nob Hill, Pacific Heights, Russian
Hill, and Telegraph Hill, while some of these hills are public parks and open
space such as Twin Peaks, Mount Sutro, Mount Davidson, and Buena Vista Park.
Near the geographic center of the city and away from the downtown area are a
series of less populated hills. Dominating this area is Mount Sutro, which is
the site of Sutro Tower, a large red and white radio transmission tower, that is
a well known landmark to city residents. Nearby are the equally well known Twin
Peaks, which are a pair of hills resting at one of the city's highest points.
About 1 mile (1.6 km) south of Mount Sutro is San Francisco's tallest hill,
Mount Davidson, which is over 925 feet (282 m) high. On top of Mount Davidson is
a 103 foot (31.4 m) tall cross built in 1934.
San Francisco lies near the San Andreas and Hayward faults, two major sources of
earthquake activity in California. The most serious earthquake, in 1906, is
mentioned above. Earlier significant quakes rocked the city in 1851, 1858, 1865,
and 1868. The Daly City Earthquake of 1957 caused some damage. The Loma Prieta
earthquake of 1989, which also did significant damage to parts of the city, is
also famous for having interrupted a World Series baseball game between the Bay
Area's two Major League Baseball teams, the San Francisco Giants and the Oakland
Athletics.
The threat of another major earthquake like the 1906 one plays a major role in
the city's infrastructure development. New buildings must be built to very high
structural standards, while many dollars must be spent to retrofit the city's
older buildings and bridges.
Entire neighborhoods of the city such as the Marina and Hunters Point were
created and sit on man made landfill (made up of mud, sand, and rubble from past
earthquakes) and other reclamation projects over the San Francisco Bay when
flatland became scarce. Such land is extremely unstable during earthquakes; the
resultant liquefaction during earthquakes causes extensive damage to property
built upon it, as was evidenced in the Marina district during the 1989 Loma
Prieta Earthquake.
The most impressive example of an "infill neighborhood" is Treasure Island. It
was constructed from material dredged from the bay as well as material resulting
from tunneling through Yerba Buena Island in the construction of the Bay Bridge.
It was a site for the 1939 San Francisco World's Fair, and it was originally
envisioned that Treasure Island would serve as the site for San Francisco's
municipal airport, but it became a Navy base at the start of World War II. In
1997 Treasure Island was returned to the city and it provides a unique vantage
point to view the San Francisco skyline.