Before it was renamed to San Francisco, this small city by the bay was called Yerba Buena. Yerba Buena means, “Good herb” in Spanish. It was founded in 1776, but renamed in 1846.
San Francisco is not a large city, 850 000 people live here. But the entire bay area is home to more than 7 million people. The city is built on more than 50 hills. Many believe it only has 7 or 9 hills, but there are a total of more than 50 named hills.
Al Capone was in SF for some time. He arrived by train to Alcatraz and stayed here for the five years. The warden at the time was so worried about security that they loaded the train car onto a barge instead of unloading the prisoners from the train and moving them to a boat.
The United Nations Charter was signed in San Francisco. It was signed in the War Memorial and Performing Arts Center in the Civic Center District on June 26, 1945.
SF has the second largest Chinatown outside of Asia. It’s the oldest in North America. It’s the most densely populated neighborhood in the city. It also has the largest and oldest Japantown in the United States.
Denim Jeans were invented in San Francisco in 1873. when Levi Strauss moved here during the Golden Rush.
Many believe the waters of the SF Bay are full of dangerous sharks but there aren’t actually any man-eating sharks in the bay. There are sharks that live in the bay, most are small and not very dangerous.
Napa and Sonoma are some of the most important wine regions of the New World. San Francisco is home to the largest competition of American wines in the world.
Locals love independent films. SF is home to more than 50 film festivals each year.
The first electric TV was invented in SF in 1927 by Philio Farnsworth.
It’s not the earthquake that did most of the damage in 1906. The fires that started after the earthquake caused about 90% of the damage to the city. The Panama Pacific Exposition in 1915 was the rebirth of San Francisco after this. It allowed the city to rebuild and show that they were once again an international city.
The color of the Golden Gate Bridge is called International Orange. It wasn’t a color from the original list of options. It was the primer used to protect the steel for the bridge during transit and the architect loved it more than the other options.
The Golden Bridge is the most popular suicide spot in the world. More than 3000 people have leaped to their death from here. 26 of them survived.
SF has the largest number of homeless in the world, in the meantime is the 4th town in the world in the number of millionaires.
There are hundreds of earthquakes every year in the Bay Area. Most are so small (less than a 3.0) that you cannot feel them. and they aren’t often discussed.
The social phenomenon, Summer of love that occurred during the summer of 1967. converged in San Francisco.
Lombard Steet, the crookedest street in the world, is located in San Francisco.
SF is not the foggiest place in the US, that honor goes to Point Reyes. They are not only the foggiest place in the US but also in North America.
At any given time, there are more than 3,500 restaurants open in SF. You will never run out of restaurants here.
Makoto Hagiwara of San Francisco is known as the creator of the modern day fortune cookie. He was the first person in the US to serve it in his tea garden in the late 1890s.
IT’S AN ODD THING, BUT ANYONE WHO DISAPPEARS IS SAID TO BE SEEN IN SAN FRANCISCO.
(Oscar Wild)
Vail Resorts Inc. is the leading management company in the world of skiing.