San Francisco

San Francisco is the second most densely populated city in the United States after New York City. It is personally one of my favorite cities in the US. It is built on rolling hills on the San Francisco Peninsula and affords its residents with stunning views of the bay. Tourists are attracted to the city for its victorian architecture, its historical flare, the Golden Gate Bridge, the Alcatraz Penitentiary, cable cars, world class museums, Ghirardelli chocolate, and cuisine from all over the world.  

A Brief historical run through of the city:

1.  The city was named after St. Francis of Assisi by its Spanish founders in 1776.
2. The city’s real growth began with the California Gold Rush in 1849. Its population exploded making it the largest city in the west.
3. In 1906 a major earthquake shook the city which led to a fire that burned most of the city to the ground.
4. In response to the Great Depression the city constructed both the San Francisco-Oakland Bridge and the Golden Gate Bridge to put people back to work.
5. During WWII, the city was the launching off point for naval and airforce troops heading to join the war in the Pacific.
6. After WWII, massive immigration occurs from Asia and Latin America.
7. 1960’s hippies begin congregating in the city and in doing so established the city as the counterculture capital of the US. This came to a climax in 1967 with the Summer of Love.
8. 1970’s the gay rights movement blooms in San Fran and a very large gay community, the Castro, is formed. Harvey Milk is elected into political office and then assassinated. His place in the political arena and his death placed a spotlight on the push for gay equality.
9. 1990’s witnessed the dot-com boom and the economy soared.
10. 2000’s brought the creation of many start-up companies in the Silicon Valley making San Fran an even more popular place to live.
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San Francisco remains a very liberal city with an innovative atmosphere. Its historical roots planted by immigrants from all the major continents give it a diverse flare not found in many places. With powerhouse companies like Google and Apple nearby and hundreds of companies within the city limits such as Facebook, the city continues to attract the brightest minds in the tech industry from all over the world. It is surrounded by the beautiful nature of California and has access to some of the best universities in the world (ie. Berkeley and Stanford). If you are going to visit only one city in my nation, I believe it should be San Francisco. At its core it represents what makes the United States so special- innovation and diversity.