1.The City with Different Names

Originally, San Francisco was known as the Yerba Buena. This was a Spanish name that means “good grass or good herb”. Later, Herb Caen, a columnist coined the names “The City that Knows How” and “Baghdad by the Bay” that became popular nicknames used to refer to San Francisco.

 2.A City of the Rich

San Francisco is ranked among the world’s richest cities. The city comes fourth on the list after London, New York and Moscow when it comes to the number of billionaires that refer to it as their home. This is regardless of the fact that San Francisco has at least 10 percent less billionaire population compared to the other three cities. In addition, the biggest Chinese community living outside China is found in San Francisco.

 3.Home of the Golden Gate Bridge

The Golden Gate Bridge is San Francisco’s important tourist attraction. This 2^nd longest bridge that has a single span was constructed in 1937 and links the city with the Redwood Empire and the Marin County. The Golden Gate Bridge is always being painted or repainted. Due to its length, by the time painters complete painting it, time to start repainting it has already come.

 4.A City of Inventions

Many things that are used today have their birth place in San Francisco. The Chinese Fortune Cookie was discovered by Makato Hagiwara at Japanese Tea Garden in San Francisco. In 1878, Chop Suey was developed in a banquet. San Francisco is also the invention place of the Denim Jeans which were designed for Gold Rush miners who needed comfortable but rough clothes.

 5.Plenty of Coffee Shops

San Francisco is popular for coffee shops. Just within its borders, San Francisco has more than 300 coffee shops. It is also the birth place of the popular Irish Coffee. The very first coffee shop to be set up in San Francisco is Caffe Trieste which was set up in 1956. The popular script of The Godfather Trilogy is said to have largely been written in this coffee shop by Francis Ford Coppola.

 6.The San Francisco Mint

A branch of the U.S. Mint was opened in 1854 to convert miner’s gold into coins. Bye the end of its first year, the Mint had produced 4,084,207 dollars in gold pieces. In 1874, the San Francisco Mint was moved to a bigger space and production of gold coins continued without interruption for 32 years. In 1906, a massive earthquake hit the city and production was temporarily interrupted. Other than destruction of gas works, the building remained intact and was the only finance institution that was able to resume operations soon after the earthquake. It later became treasury building.

 7.The 1906 Devastating Earthquake

San Francisco suffered a massive earthquake measuring between 7.8 and 8.2 on Richter scale in 1906, April 18^th. The tremor split streets open and destroyed buildings including breaking the main water pipes serving the city. It caused fires to erupt that caused the city to burn over a 4 day period. Due to lack of water, the fire department opted to dynamite buildings to slow down the fires.

 8.The Most Crooked Street

Lombard Street is famously thought to be the most crooked street, but it is not. Vermont Avenue in San Francisco is. The city is also home to the notorious federal prison island called the Alcatraz. This is where Al Capone was jailed for 5 years. The prison closed in 1963.

 9.The Sutro Baths

San Francisco is home to the Sutro Baths, a posh public bathhouse that was constructed by Adolph Sutro, an eccentric former city mayor. He also built the Cliff House. The Sutro Baths are situated at Ocean Beach and a huge crowd of 7000 residents attended the official opening.

 10.Headquarters of Star Fleet

Star Fleet Headquarters are located in north San Francisco. Invented at the Silicon Valley, the Star Trek computer mouse and photo of a rolling hill that is Windows XP’s default wall paper was taken in Napa Valley.