San Francisco (Frisco) is a city and county in California, United States. The population in 2010 was 815,358 people, it is the fourth most populous city in California and the twelfth in the United States. The area of San Francisco is 600.6 km2, of which 121.4 km2 is land and 479.2 km2 is water. San Francisco is located in the northern part of the San Francisco Peninsula. For most of its history, it has been the most populous and important city in the San Francisco Bay Area. In 1776, the Spaniards settled on the coast of the peninsula, building a fort in the Straits of the Golden Gate and establishing a mission named after St. Francis. The small town next to it was called Yerba Buena. In 1848, thanks to the California gold rush, the city began to grow rapidly. In the same year it was renamed San Francisco. After a devastating earthquake and fire in 1906, the city was quickly and almost completely rebuilt.
San Francisco is a world tourist center, known for its summer cold fogs, steep hills and a combination of Victorian and modern architecture. The city's attractions include the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz Island, the cable car system, the Coyote Tower and Tea Town.