10 San Francisco Incredible Facts

Photo byCedric LetschonUnsplash

San Francisco- the cultural, commercial, and financial center in the U.S. state of California.

With over 800,000 residents, San Francisco is the 17th most populous city in the U.S. and the 4th most populous in California. The city covers an area of about 46.9 square miles, being the 2nd most densely populated large U.S. city, and the 5th most densely populated U.S. county.

There are a lot of incredible facts about San Francisco. There are 10 of them.

1. The Chinese fortune cookie was served for the first time in the U.S. in San Francisco.

Makoto Hagiwara was a Japanese-born American landscape designer. He is the first person in the U.S. to have served the modern version of the fortune cookie. This happened in the Golden Gate Park's Japanese Tea Garden in San Francisco, the tea garden in the 1890s or early 1900s.

The fortune cookies were made by a San Francisco bakery, Benkyodo.

Hagiwara is credited with the invention of the fortune cookie in California.

2. The Beatles' last concert was on August 29, 1966, at Candlestick Park in San Francisco.

The Beatles' final concert tour took place in August 1966. It had 19 performances, with 17 shows in US venues and two in Canada.

The Beatles' final paid concert took place on 29 August at Candlestick Park in San Francisco, California. At the concert there were 25,000 people.

3. The construction of the Golden Gate Bridge took 4 years.

The construction began on January 5, 1933, and was finished and opened on May 27, 1937.

It cost more than $35 million ($523 million in 2019 dollars) and it was done ahead of schedule and $1.3 million under budget (equivalent to $24.5 million today).

The construction project was carried out by the McClintic-Marshall Construction Co. (a subsidiary of Bethlehem Steel Corporation), founded by Howard H. McClintic and Charles D. Marshall.

4. The San Francisco cable cars are the only moving National Historic Landmarks in the U.S.

The San Francisco cable car system is the world's last manually operated cable car system. They are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

5. The Charter of the United Nations was drafted and ratified in San Francisco in 1945.

The Charter of the United Nations (UN Charter) is the foundational treaty of the United Nations, an intergovernmental organization.

During the San Francisco Conference that began on 25 April 1945, the UN Charter was discussed, prepared, and drafted, which involved most of the world's sovereign nations.

On 26 June 1945, the final text was unanimously adopted by delegates and opened for signature, following two-thirds approval of each part, and it was signed in San Francisco, United States, by 50 of the 51 original member countries.

6. "International Orange" is the name of the color of the Golden Gate Bridge.

The U.S. Navy originally decided to paint the Golden Gate Bridge black with yellow stripes. The famed “International Orange” color was only supposed to be a sealant.

7. San Francisco was part of Mexico.

A dispute started because of a dispute between the U.S. and Mexico over western Texas. The Mexican War began. U.S. Captain John Montgomery sailed his warship into San Francisco Bay, anchoring just off the settlement of Yerba Buena.

On 9 July 1846, Montgomery led a party of marines and sailors ashore. They claimed the settlement for the United States, raising the American flag in the central plaza.

In 1847, the Americans renamed the village, San Francisco.

Mexico officially ceded the territory to the United States at the end of the war in 1848.

8. San Francisco's fog is named Karl.

San Francisco is notorious for its fog and it had to have a name. The fog's name is Karl. Karl the Fog.

9. The “Summer of Love” started in the winter.

The "Summer of Love" was a social phenomenon that occurred during the summer of 1967. 100,000 people, mostly young people sporting hippie fashions of dress and behavior, converged in San Francisco's neighborhood of Haight-Ashbury.

But the prelude to the "Summer of Love" was a celebration known as the "Human Be-In" at Golden Gate Park on January 14, 1967. It was produced and organized by artist Michael Bowen.

10. The oldest Chinatown in North America is in San Francisco.

The Chinatown located on Grant Avenue and Stockton Street in San Francisco is the oldest Chinatown in North America and the largest Chinese enclave outside Asia. It was established in 1848.

Moreover, it is the oldest and largest of the four notable Chinese enclaves within San Francisco.