San Francisco

San Francisco - This is a city of parts, any one of which would be considered adequate to summarize a lesser place. But not in San Francisco - not this city that considers itself less a metropolis than a collection of small villages.

The City and County of San Francisco is the fourth most populous city in California and the 14th most populous city in the USA with a 2007 estimated population of 764,976. One of the mostdensely populated major American cities, San Francisco is part of the much larger San Francisco Bay Area, which is home to approximately 7.2 million people. The city is located on the tip of the San Francisco Peninsula , with the Pacific Ocean to the west, San Francisco bay to the east, and the Golden Gate to the north.

The Golden Gate is the North American strait connecting san Francisco Bay to the pacific Ocean. Since 1937 it has been spanned by the Golden Gate Bridge. Technically, the 'gate' is defined by the headlands of the San Francisco Peninsula and the Marin Peninsula, while the 'strait' is the water flowing in between.

During the last Ice Age, when sea level was several hundred feet lower, the waters of the glacier-fed sacramento river and the San Joaquin River scoured a deep channel through the bedrock on their way to the ocean. The strait is well known today for its depth and powerful tidal currents from the Pacific Ocean. Many small whirlpools and eddies can form in its waters.

The de Young Museum, one of the city’s must-visit destinations and a favorite of San Francisco residents and visitors since 1895, reopened on October 15, 2005 after a complete makeover and it’s now a state-of-the-art facility that integrates art, architecture and natural landscape. The art museum showcases its priceless collections of American art from the 17th through the 20th centuries, and art of the native Americas, Africa, and the Pacific. The California Academy of Sciences is due to re-open in 2008.