San Francisco

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San Francisco



Luis Alberto Pérez
2ºB ESO
2
INDEX

Introduction 3
Physical geography 3
Population 3
Evolution 4
Plan 5
Structure of the different parts 5
City life 6
Advantages 6
Urban problems 6
Function 7
Specifities 7
Communications 8
Other facilities 8
Bibliography 9








3
Introduction
San Francisco is an important city located on the West Coast of the United States of
America. It was founded in the year 1776 by some Spanish people in honour of San Francisco
de Asis. In 1848 the number of people grew because of the Gold Rush. In 1906 three quarters of
the city were destroyed by an earthquake and fire but it was quickly rebuilt.

Physical Geography
San Francisco is located in a bay, the Bay of San Francisco. It is placed at 37º46´N,
122º25´W. It is 16 metres over the level sea. Its total
surface (water and land) is about 6oo km
2
. Some areas
have been won to the bay to build new quarters. There
are more than 50 hills, such as Twin Peaks. The tallest
is Mount Davidson (282 metres). There are several
islands that belong to the city. The most famous is
Alcatraz.
The faults of San Andres and Hayward are responsible of the seismic activity. The fault
of San Andres provoked the earthquakes of 1906 and 1989.
The climate is Mediterranean with cool wet winter
and dry summer. The temperatures average is 13´5ºC and
the precipitations over 50´8cm. The fog is very usual in
spring and the start of the summer because the water of the
ocean is cold and the peninsula is hot. The rainiest months
are from November to April. It is unusual to see snow
there. From the year 1852 until now has only snowed 10
times.

Population
The city grew a lot with the Gold Rush and the arrive of Asian immigrants in the 19
th
century. In the year 1900 the population in San Francisco was about 340.000 inhabitants. That
number decreased with the earthquake of 1906 and the bubonic plague of the start of the
century. From that moment the population increased again. Now there are about 809,000
Fog in SF
Bay of SF
Climate graph
4
inhabitants. It is the second most densely populated city in the USA and the fifth most populated
also in the USA.
The 45% of the population is non Hispanic white; 31%, Asian; 14%, Hispanic and 7%,
Afro-American.
Only the 38% of the people was born in California. The 25% was born in another state.
The 3% was born outside the USA.

Evolution
In 1906 more than three quarters of the
city were destroyed by the earthquake and the
fire. Not all the fires were natural. Some people
burnt their houses because they had insurance for
the fire, but not for the earthquakes,
250,000 people lost their houses. It is a
big number; only 400,000 people lived there at
that time. The reconstruction was very fast, in fact, in 1915 the World Fair was celebrated there.
From the 1929 Slump, San Francisco developed big engineering projects; the Bay
Bridge (1936) and the Golden Gate (1937). In those
years the island of Alcatraz started as a federal
prison.
In the decades of 1950 and 1960 the quarters
of the West zone were destructed and design again.
In the decade of 1980 the outside part of the city
grew quickly.
The writers of the Beat generation and the hippy movement contributed to the
renaissance of the city.
The earthquake of 1989 destroyed part of the area of the Bay. At the end of the decade
of 1990 informatics and commercial companies arrived to the city. With that some poor quarters
improved their level.

Fire of 1906
Bay Bridge at night

5
Plan
San Francisco has an orthogonal plan. The streets are straight with other ones crossing
perpendicularly. The angles are right. This is because the city grew especially in the 19
th
century
with the Gold Rush. It is also, because it was rebuilt after the earthquake and the fire of 1906.
Many streets have slopes because of the hills in which the city was built.













Structure of the different parts
The central part is in the North East. In that part is the historical centre: financial,
commercial, touristic, residential and hotel districts. The most important quarters of this zone
are Chinatown, Russian Hill, North Beach and Union Square. The port zone is now related to
tourism.
Around this part we can find a wide residential area. At the South East there are the
districts of Mission (working class immigrants), Castro, Potrero Hill, Bay View (one of the
poorest quarters. At the North West: Japantown, Pacific Heights with each big mansions,
Marina and Richmond (immigrants from Asia and Russia). At the South West: Sunset District
(medium class Asian people).
6
Around the city we can find parks and beaches. There are more than 200 parks. The
most famous is Golden Gate Park. The beaches and the parks are included in the Golden Gate
Recreational National Area.

City life
San Francisco has a high level of life. The incomes are among the highest of the USA so
there are a lot of restaurants and options of entertainment. Life in the city is very expensive and
a lot of families must leave outside. It is a good city to walk. A lot of quarters join business,
restaurants and places that satisfy the daily needs of residents and tourists.

Advantages
San Francisco is a City County since 1956.
Talking about culture, the city has several
universities, such us the University of California and San
Francisco (UCSF). It is one of the best medical schools
in the country. The UCSF Medical Centre is one of the
best hospitals in the USA.
In the War Memorial Opera House act the Opera of San Francisco and the Ballet of San
Francisco. The Symphonic Orchestra plays in the Davies Symphony Hall.
The main newspaper is the San Francisco Chronicle. Before that, the San Francisco
Examiner was very famous.

Urban problems
One of the main urban problems is the fog; it is formed by
the difference of the temperature between the sea and the land. There
are more 50 hills, so there are big slopes in the streets. That is
uncomfortable for daily life.
As it is a touristic city, the queues to visit the main
monuments and museums are long. It is a big city, so the traffic is
intense.
UCSF
Slopes in Lombard Street
7
As I have said, the life is expensive, so many people have left the centre of the city and
have gone to the outskirts. We can also mention violence and delinquency in some quarters
(Bay View and Hunters Point).

Function
Its main function, apart from financial and technological, is touristic. It has a lot of
hotels to accommodate the millions of tourists that visit the city. Tourism is the main economic
activity. More than 16 million people visit San Francisco every year. It is one of the most visited
cities in the world (the 4
th
in the USA, the 35
th
in all the world).
It is also an important financial centre from the start of the 20
th
century. It occupies the
number 12 in the ranking of the 20 main financial centres in the world. Several banks have their
offices there; for example, the Bank of America.
The investigation in biomedicine and biotechnology is significant too, as well as
informatics (related to Silicon Valley).
Other economic activities are construction, car industries, engineering and farming
production. To the start of the crisis (about 2008), the economy of San Francisco was one of the
strongest of the world.

Specifities
Some of the most visited places in the city are the
Golden Gate, the Bay Bridge, the Museum of Modern Art,
War Memorial Opera House, the Chinese, Italian, Bohemian
quarters, the Pier 39 (a commercial centre in a quay of SF),
the Alcatraz Island and the “Painted Ladies” (a row of
Victorian houses).
The Golden Gate is the most popular place of San Francisco. It has 1´7 miles. It was
finished in the year 1937. Before that, the only form to cross the bay was in ferry. There too
many and the bay was blocked. It was designed by Joseph Strauss.
Nowadays, the Chinese quarter (Chinatown) is famous thanks to Chinese New Year
Parade, but in the start of the 20
th
century it was ill-regarded. That was because the bubonic
plague started there.
The Painted Ladies
8
The island of Alcatraz is known for having been a federal prison; the most famous
prisoner was Al Capone. There is a popular film about Alcatraz.

Communications
San Francisco has a European system of arterial roads instead of a big net of main roads
(for example Inter-State 80). Many people use bike.
Almost the 30% of the population goes to work in public
transport: Muni Metro, buses and trans.
It has also a very important airport called
International Airport of San Francisco (21 kilometers
South). The port has lost importance; now there are
commercial and touristic ferries too.

Other facilities
Many people goes to San Francisco to enjoy the Carnival, the Lovefest or the Hardly
Strictly Bluegrass. Rock music has always been important in the city. The San Francisco Sound
was born here in the decade of 1960. The hippy movement started in these years and it is also
related to San Francisco.










Typical tran
9
Bibliography

-http://eluniversalsanantonio.mx/economie
-http://www.ecured.cu/index/php/San-Francisco
-http://www.losmejoresdestinos.com
-http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco_(California)
-http://www.disfrutasanfrancisco.com/barrios-zonas
-http://www.culturizando.com/2013/01/10-cosas-que-no-sabias-sobre-san.html
-http://www.ciao.es/Experiencias_en_San_Francisco_284757_5
-http://www.disfrutasanfrancisco.com/golden-gate
-http://www.sanfranciscochinatown.com/
-ARTHUR N. STRAHLER. “Physical geography”. Ed. Omega, 1984
-JOSEPH CUMMINS. “History´s Great Untold Stories”. Ed. Planeta, 2010
-“Social Sciences ESO 2”. Ed. Oxford University Press, 2012

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