Interesting Facts About San Francisco - Fun Facts About San Francisco

San Francisco is a city in California that forms a part of the much larger San Francisco Bay Area. It is located on the tip of the San Francisco Peninsula and stands bordered by Pacific Ocean in the west, San Francisco Bay in the east, and the Golden Gate in the north. One of the most populous cities in America, San Francisco is visited by a large number of tourists every year. The undulating hills of the city, combined with the excellent blend of Victorian and modern architecture, have lured visitors since years. Amongst its most popular attractions are Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz Island, Cable Cars, Coit Tower and Chinatown. With the fun and interesting facts about San Francisco, provided in the following lines, you will get to know the city much better.

Image: By Roberto Arias from Sydney, Australia (City Hall) [CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Fun & Interesting Facts about San Francisco

San Francisco is the 4^th largest city in California and the 14^th largest in the United States, in terms of population.
San Francisco was obliterated by the earthquake of 1906, along with a massive fire. However, the city was rebuilt pretty quickly.
In 1901, burials were outlawed in San Francisco. Instead, the neighboring ‘Colma’ houses the dead of the city.
The ‘Cable Cars’ of San Francisco form the only National Historic Landmark.
San Francisco boasts of being home to 215 historic landmark buildings, 10 historical districts and 14,000 Victorian homes.
At the time of its opening, in 1937, the Golden Gate Bridge had the world's longest span, with 23 miles of ladders and 300,000 rivets in each tower.
The rocky ‘Pelican's Island’ of San Francisco was a military fort, before being converted into a prison.
Mission Dolores, built in 1791, is the oldest building in San Francisco. Tiny powderpost beetles almost resulted in the collapse of the building in 2000.
Transamerica Pyramid and the Bank of America Building are the tallest buildings in San Francisco, while Golden Gate Park is its largest park.
Denim jeans were invented in San Francisco only, along with Chinese fortune cookie,
There are over two hundred coffee houses within the precincts of San Francisco.
The original charter of the United Nations was drafted and signed in San Francisco.
The original Spanish name for San Francisco was ‘Yerba Buena’, which meant ‘good herb’ or ‘good grass.
San Francisco has been constructed on 43 hills.
Washington Square Park, at Columbus & Union, is not actually a square, rather has five sides. The statue in the middle of the park is Ben Franklin, not George Washington and North Beach isn't a beach.
San Francisco is home to the largest Chinese community in the world, outside of China.
Golden Gate Bridge is painted almost constantly. This is because by the time the paint crew gets from one end to the other, it's time to start again!

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