Unknown San Francisco: 15 facts about a cult city that many don't know

San Francisco is a very popular city in California. Some films and TV series take place there, and almost every inhabitant of the planet knows the Golden Gate Bridge. Author Yowayz / Multi Travels Blog on Yandex.Zen told 15 interesting facts about San Francisco, many of which you will definitely hear for the first time.

Photo: Shutterstock

1. San Francisco is a city and county in the state of California, USA, named after the Catholic Saint Francis of Assisi. The population in 2017 was 884 people, it is the fourth most populated city in California and the twelfth in the United States.

2. The city is built on more than 50 hills. Many believe there are only 7 or 9 hills, but there are over 50 named hills in total. Some of the most famous are Russian Mountain, Nob Hill, Telegraph Hill and Twin Peaks. Some of the lesser known ones are Golden Mine Hill, Excelsior Heights and Tank Hill.

3. Before it was renamed San Francisco, this small city by the bay was called Herba Buena. Herba Buena means "Good Herb" in Spanish. It was founded in 1776 and renamed in 1846. Portsmouth Square in Chinatown was the site of a public square in Herba Buena, then the center of the city.

4. San Francisco has the second largest Chinatown outside of Asia, which is also the oldest in North America. More than 100 people live in it. This is the most populated area in the city.

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5. San Francisco also has the largest and oldest Japanese quarter in the United States. It is also one of the three Japanese quarters that remained in the United States.

6. San Francisco is 11 kilometers long and 11 kilometers wide. The city is not very big, so all the main attractions can be circumvented in one day.

7. It is believed that the waters of the San Francisco Bay are filled with dangerous sharks, but in fact there are no man-eating sharks in the bay. Although sharks live there, most of them are small and not very dangerous. There are many great white sharks that live nearby in the Pacific Ocean, but they rarely make their way into the bay.

8. The largest American wine competition in the world is being held in San Francisco. The annual Chronicle Wine Competition is held every February. Winning wines can be tasted at a public tasting, which usually takes place a few weeks after the announcement of the results.

9. No less than wine in San Francisco like movies. Over 50 film festivals are held here every year. Some of them are major international festivals. Others are less known and there are films for a small audience, for example, the Greek Film Festival, the Jewish Film Festival, and the Indian Film Festival.

10. The UN Charter was signed in San Francisco. This happened at the War Memorial and the Performing Arts Center in the area of ​​the Civil Center on June 26, 1945.

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11. The color of the Golden Gate Bridge is called “international orange”. This was not a color from the original list of options. It was a primer used to protect bridge steel during transportation, and the architect liked it better than other options, so he chose it as the official color.

12. The US Navy was against the monochromatic color of the iconic bridge; they wanted the Golden Gate to be painted with black and yellow stripes. They assumed that it would be easier for ships in the fog to notice a black-and-yellow bridge.

13. During the Great Depression, not a single bank in San Francisco went bankrupt. In fact, things went so well that the city built the Golden Gate Bridge and the Oakland Bay Bridge during the Depression.

14. In 1906, three quarters of the city were destroyed by an earthquake and fire. The earthquake was the first natural disaster documented in photographs. The fire resulting from the tremors raged for four days and caused damage worth more than $ 8 billion in today's dollars.

15. San Francisco's cable cars are the only US National Historic Landmark that can move. The cables, which are pulled by special machines, move at a constant speed of 9,5 mph (15,2 km/h). Built in 1873, they still carry 9,7 million people a year.

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