San Francisco Bay

The San Francisco Bay is a shallow, productive estuary in which water draining approximately forty percent of California, flowing in the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers from the Sierra Nevada mountains, enters the Pacific Ocean. Technically, the Sacramento River flows into Suisun Bay, which flows through the Carquinez Strait to meet with the Napa River at the entrance to San Pablo Bay, which connects at its south end to San Francisco Bay, although the entire group of interconnected bays are often referred to as "the San Francisco Bay."

Role in California settlement

The first recorded European discovery of the San Francisco Bay was on November 4, 1769 when Spanish explorer Gaspar de Portolà, unable to find the port of Monterey, California, moored his ship close to what is now Pacifica. Short on water and food, Portolà and an expeditionary crew of 63 men and 200 horses began an overland journey that took them to the summit of the 1200 ft. high Sweeney Ridge, where he sighted the San Francisco Bay. Sweeney Ridge is located in northern San Mateo County, California and is now a part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area where a monument marks the discovery site. The site is listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NPS-68000022) as No. 394: Site of the Discovery of San Francisco Bay.

Related Topics:
Europe - November 4 - 1769 - Spanish - Gaspar de Portolà - Monterey, California - Pacifica - Sweeney Ridge - San Francisco Bay - San Mateo County, California - Golden Gate National Recreation Area - National Register of Historic Places

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The first European to enter the bay is believed to have been the Spanish explorer Juan de Ayala, who passed through the Golden Gate on August 5, 1775 in his ship the San Carlos, and moored in a bay of Angel Island, now known as Ayala Cove.

Related Topics:
Europe - Spanish - Juan de Ayala - Golden Gate - August 5 - 1775 - Angel Island

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This famous bay was the epicenter of American settlement in the Far West during the 19th century. From the 1820s onward, American presidents and expansionists coveted the bay as a great natural harbor in the Pacific. After many failed efforts to buy the bay and varying areas around it, the US Navy and Army seized the region from Mexico during the Mexican-American War (1845-1848). On February 2, 1848 California ceceded from Mexico with the signing of the Guadalupe-Hidalgo treaty. A year and a half after gaining independence, California requested to join the United_States on December 3, 1849 and was accepted as the 31st State of the union on September 9, 1850. During the California gold rush of 1848-1850s, San Francisco Bay instantly became one of the world's greatest seaports, dominating shipping and transportation in the American West until the last years of the nineteenth century. The bay's regional importance became paramount when in 1869 the transcontinental railroad located its western terminus in Oakland. San Francisco Bay continues to support some of the densest industrial production and urban settlement in the United States. The San Francisco Bay Area is the American West's second-largest urban area with approximately 8 million residents.

Related Topics:
19th century - 1820s - Harbor - US Navy - Army - Mexico - Mexican-American War - 1845 - 1848 - United_States - Gold rush - 1850s - 1869 - Transcontinental railroad

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