Read more about my experience as an au-pair in San Francisco
San Francisco is very European with its beautiful Victorian houses and quaint neighborhoods. I love the variety of neighborhoods, each so different from the other representing the people who live there. I love that it's not a big city, you can walk pretty much everywhere -despite the hills-, but you can find everything: the best shops, an international airport, huge parks and even a beach.
Everybody knows the hills, the cable cars and the Golden Gate Bridge. However, the beautiful City by the Bay comes with many fascinating curiosities I'm sure you don't know about. You'd have never guessed what was invented in San Francisco or what is buried under the city among other interesting facts. Let's check them out.
10 interesting facts about San Francisco
1. It is estimated that there are between 40 and 70 ships buried underneath the streets of the financial district in San Francisco. The vessels brought people to San Francisco during the California Gold Rush, only to be abandoned and later covered up by landfill as the city grew in the late 1800s.2. The fortune cookie and the Irish coffee were invented in San Francisco.
3. Levi Strauss invented denim jeans in San Francisco for the Gold Rush miners who needed durable yet comfortable clothing.
4. The US Navy planned to paint the Golden Gate Bridge black with yellow stripes. Its world famous, called International Orange, color was supposed to be a sealant.
5. The city’s cable cars are the only National Historical Monument that can move.
6. Before it was called San Francisco, this city was called Yerba Buena which is Spanish for "good herb". Nowadays SF has different nicknames such as "City by the Bay", “Golden Gate City” or “The Golden City.” Other popular names include "San Fran" or "Frisco" but these two are loathed by locals.
7. San Francisco has the second largest Chinatown outside of Asia. More than 100,000 people live in Chinatown. It's the most densely populated neighborhood in the city.
8. It wasn't the earthquake that did most of the damage in 1906. The fires that started after the earthquake caused most of the damage to the city.
9. Mark Twain never uttered the famous quote “The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco.” However, whoever said this was absolutely right. The warmest month of the year is September. In the summer, while the rest of California is really hot, San Francisco has cooler temperatures.
10. During the Great Depression, not a single bank in San Francisco failed. Actually, business was so good that they constructed the Golden Gate Bridge and the Oakland Bay Bridge during this period.
Read more blog posts about San Francisco
