Map of San Francisco Bay Area
San Francisco is the fourteenth most populous city in the United States, with roughly 800K residents thrust in a 7 by 7 square mile region. It is not a high density city by most standards though and many are surprised when they hear it's rather small geographically speaking. It's located at the very northernmost tip of the San Francisco Peninsula, surrounded by the bay and the Pacific ocean. The California Gold Rush in 1848 resulted in SF becoming a fast growing hot spot and the fact that an ample water supply from the Hetchy Hetchy reserve in Lake Tahoe was available guaranteed SF could handle future growth. San Francisco was devastated by the 1906 earthquake and the stories live on today of the survivors. Actually it was the ensuing fires that really wrecked the city. Most of San Francisco back then and even today was built out of wood which did a pretty good job of surviving the trembler. Experts agree another big one is due in the next 30 years. The city by the bay is a popular international tourist center, famous for its summer fog, ridiculously steep hills, and Victorian buildings. Ride the cable cars, go atop the Transamerica Pyramid building, walk across the Golden Gate bridge or spend a day in Golden Gate Park. There are just too many things to do in this great city. Popular neighborhoods include: Financial District, Chinatown, Noe valley, The Mission, North Beach, Presidio, The Sunset, Haight-Ashbury, Western Addition, Alamo Square, Japantown, Nob Hill, Telegraph Hill, The Richmond, SoMa, and Bayview-Hunters Point.