San Francisco Bay Area cities and counties

The

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a List of regions of California, region of California surrounding and including San Francisco Bay, and anchored by the cities of Oakland, San Francisco, and San Jose, California, S ...

, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a metropolitan region surrounding the

San Francisco Bay San Francisco Bay (Chochenyo language, Chochenyo: 'ommu) is a large tidal estuary in the United States, U.S. state of California, and gives its name to the San Francisco Bay Area. It is dominated by the cities of San Francisco, California, San ...

estuaries An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a transition zone between river environments and maritime environm ...

Northern California Northern California (commonly shortened to NorCal) is a geocultural region that comprises the northern portion of the U.S. state of California, spanning the northernmost 48 of the state's List of counties in California, 58 counties. Northern Ca ...

. According to the 2010 United States Census, the region has over 7.1 million inhabitants and approximately of land. The region is home to three major cities:

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

Oakland Oakland is a city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. It is the county seat and most populous city in Alameda County, with a population of 440,646 in 2020. A major West Coast port, Oakland is ...

and, the largest by area, San Jose. The Bay Area has been inhabited since antiquity, first by the

Ohlone The Ohlone ( ), formerly known as Costanoans (from Spanish meaning 'coast dweller'), are a Native Americans in the United States, Native American people of the Northern California coast. When Spanish explorers and missionaries arrived in the l ...

and

Miwok The Miwok (also spelled Miwuk, Mi-Wuk, or Me-Wuk) are members of four linguistically related Native Americans in the United States, Native American groups indigenous to what is now Northern California, who traditionally spoke one of the Miwok lan ...

peoples, followed by the Spanish, who first arrived in 1769 and established the area's first mission,

Mission San Francisco de Asís The Mission San Francisco de Asís (), also known as Mission Dolores, is a historic Catholic Church, Catholic church complex in San Francisco, San Francisco, California. Operated by the Archdiocese of San Francisco, the complex was founded in ...

, in 1776. After being ceded to the United States in 1848, the Bay Area grew immensely due to the

California Gold Rush The California gold rush (1848–1855) began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The news of gold brought approximately 300,000 people to California from the rest of the U ...

, establishing itself as one of the most important regions on the West Coast. Today, the Bay Area is the home of

Silicon Valley Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that is a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical area of the Santa Clara Valley ...

, Wine Country, and numerous companies, universities, bridges, airports, and parks. The Bay Area consists of nine counties ( Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa,

, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Solano, and Sonoma) and 101 municipalities. One, San Francisco, is a

consolidated city–county In United States local government, a consolidated city-county ( see below for alternative terms) is formed when one or more cities and their surrounding county ( parish in Louisiana, borough in Alaska) merge into one unified jurisdiction. As ...

. California law makes no distinction between "city" and "town", and municipalities may use either term in their official names.California Government Code Sections 34502 and 56722. The first municipalities to incorporate were Benicia and San Jose on March 27, 1850, while the most recent was Oakley on July 1, 1999. The largest municipality by population and land area is San Jose with 1,013,240 residents and . The smallest by population is Colma with 1,507 people, while the smallest by land area is Belvedere at .

Cities

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File:Todos Santos Plaza (Concord, California) Dec 2009.jpg, alt=, Todos Santos Plaza in Concord Aerial view of Apple Park dllu.jpg, alt=,

Apple Park Apple Park, also known as Apple Campus 2, is the corporate headquarters of Apple Inc., located in Cupertino, California, United States. It was opened to employees in April 2017, while construction was still underway. It replaced Apple Campus as ...

in Cupertino File:Mission-Peak-2006.jpg, alt=, Central Park in Fremont File:Lake Merritt 2022-06-16.png, alt=, Lake Merritt in

File:Pacifica CA - 51145056641.jpg, alt=,

Pier A pier is a raised structure that rises above a body of water and usually juts out from its shore, typically supported by piling, piles or column, pillars, and provides above-water access to offshore areas. Frequent pier uses include fishing, b ...

in Pacifica File:GoldenGateBridge-001.jpg, alt=,

Golden Gate Bridge The Golden Gate Bridge is a suspension bridge spanning the Golden Gate, the strait connecting San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean in California, United States. The structure links San Francisco—the northern tip of the San Francisco Peni ...

File:Diridon Station aerial.jpg, alt=, Diridon station in San Jose Aerial view of California's Great Adventure and Levi's Stadium (4020).jpg, alt=, Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara Old Santa Rosa Post Office, Downtown Santa Rosa,2.jpg, alt=, Museum of Sonoma County in Santa Rosa File:Murphy.street.svale.jpg, alt=, Murphy Street in Sunnyvale

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Cities A city is a human settlement of a substantial size. The term "city" has different meanings around the world and in some places the settlement can be very small. Even where the term is limited to larger settlements, there is no universally agree ...

Cities

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See also

References

External links