San Francisco Bay Area

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USGS Satellite photo of the San Francisco Bay Area.

The San Francisco Bay Area, sometimes referred to as The Bay Area or simply The Bay, is a metropolitan area that lies along the San Francisco Bay in northern California. It is often defined as the area covered by the nine counties that border either San Francisco Bay or San Pablo Bay: Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Solano, and Sonoma. By this definition, the Bay Area has a population of over seven million residents. Santa Cruz County is sometimes considered a member of the Bay Area as well. It does not adjoin the San Francisco Bay, but has strong cultural ties to the Bay Area.

This nine- or ten-county area consists of cities of various size that lie more or less contiguously around the length of the bay. Three large cities dominate the area: San Francisco, San Jose, and Oakland. Because, unlike most other metropolitan areas in the United States, no single large city dominates the region, residents generally refer to the region generically as the Bay Area, without associating it with any one city. However, because San Francisco was historically the first major population center in the area, and because of its densely urbanized character in constrast to its neighbors, people in the region often refer to San Francisco as simply the City. In a charming local twist, the San Francisco natives are more likely to refer to San Francicso as "Town" - as in "Are you coming to town?

A more restrictive, informal definition includes only the urban portions of the previously defined area and also excludes Napa, Solano, and Sonoma counties, which are largely rural or suburban in character and have inland climates. The Bay Area Rapid Transit District consists of Alameda, Contra Costa, and San Francisco Counties. High real-estate prices in this core of the Bay Area have driven many residents and businesses to move to outlying areas or to the Sacramento area. As this trend continues, the definition of the Bay Area will likely expand, perhaps even including Yolo County as well.

Map of the San Francisco Bay Area

Table of contents

6 Suburbs with more than 100,000 inhabitants

7 Suburbs with 10,000 to 100,000 inhabitants

8 Suburbs with fewer than 10,000 inhabitants

9 Related articles

Geography

The combined area of the nine Bay Area counties is 22,789 km² (8,798 mi²), or 21,216 km² (8,191 mi²), not including Santa Cruz County.

As well as constituting one of the world's greatest metropolitan areas, the Bay Area includes some exceptional natural coastal and rural landscape. It includes significant national parks such as the Point Reyes National Seashore, a large number of state parks including important ones like the Mount Diablo State Park, and numerous parks and preserves maintained by local government agencies - notably by the East Bay Regional Park District which has major land holdings in Alameda and Contra Costa counties. Most of these conserved areas are within easy reach of the metropolitan areas, many of them by public transportation.

Because the hills, mountains, and large bodies of water produce such vast geographic diversity within this region, the Bay Area offers a signficant variety of microclimates. The areas near the Pacific Ocean are generally characterized by relatively small temperature variations during the year, with cool foggy summers and mild rainy winters. Inland areas, especially those separated from the ocean by hills or mountains, have hotter summers and colder overnight temperatures during the winter.

Skyline Boulevard stretches through the Santa Cruz Mountains, here near Palo Alto, California. During spring time the hills surrounding the Bay Area appear lush and green (image taken April 2004)

In some parts of the Bay Area rain is extremely rare during the summer months. As a result, the surrounding hills quickly become dry (image taken June 2004)

Subregions

The population distribution of the Bay Area is generally subdivided into several smaller subregions.

The region north of the Golden Gate Bridge is known as the North Bay. This area consists of Marin County and extends northward into the Napa and Sonoma Valley wine regions. With some exceptions, this region is relatively affluent, and is generally the least urbanized part of the Bay Area, with many areas of undeveloped park and farm land. It is the only section of the Bay Area that is not served by a commuter rail transit service.
The eastern side of the bay, dominated by the city of Oakland but also including Berkeley, Richmond and several small cities, is known as the East Bay. The region, partly thanks to the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) rail service, has extended beyond the East Bay hills into suburban communities such as Walnut Creek, Concord and Antioch. The weather on the eastern side of the hills is markedly warmer in the summer, but gets much cooler than San Francisco, which tends to maintain a rather moderate climate year-round.
The communities along the southern edge of the Bay, synonymous with Silicon Valley, are also known as the South Bay. It includes the cities of San Jose, Fremont, and the high-tech hub of Santa Clara, as well as many smaller communities.
The area between the South Bay and the city of San Francisco is known as the San Francisco Peninsula, locally just as The Peninsula. This area consists of a series of small cities and suburban communities along the Bay, as well as various towns along the Pacific coast.
San Francisco is generally placed in a category by itself, separated by water from the north and east, and by county line from its neighbor cities to the South (Daly City, South San Francisco and Brisbane).

Transportation

The Bay Area posesses an extensive freeway and highway system.

Trans-bay crossings

Interstate 80 - The western terminus of I-80 is located in San Francisco, just west of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge. The interstate continues to the east, connecting to Oakland and the north coast of the East Bay, and then on to Sacramento and Reno.
Interstate 580 - This spur route's western terminus is in Marin County. The Interstate crosses the San Pablo Bay over the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge, passes through Oakland, then continues to Livermore and Tracy, where it intersects with Interstate 5.
California Highway 92 - CA-92's western terminus is in Half Moon Bay. The two lane highway crosses the Peninsula, connecting to Woodside and San Mateo before crossing the San Mateo-Hayward Bridge to Hayward.
California Highway 84 - CA 84 crosses the Bay over the Dumbarton Bridge from Redwood City to Newark. The route then passes through Fremont, California, continuing as Niles Canyon Road to Sunol and Livermore

The Peninsula to the South Bay

Interstate 280 and U.S. Highway 101 - connect San Francisco to San Jose, passing through the Peninsula. Highway 101 continues south to Gilroy and Salinas, California, before continuing to Los Angeles.
California State Routes 1 and 35 - two lane highways also traveling down the Peninsula, CA-1 along the Pacific coast, and CA-35 near the ridge of the Santa Cruz Mountains. CA-1 connects to Half Moon Bay, Santa Cruz and Monterey, before continuing to Los Angeles.
California Highway 17 - most of this route is a 4 lane highway through the Santa Cruz Mountains, connecting San Jose to Santa Cruz. Part of the highway in San Jose is an 8 lane freeway.

Marin County

US-101 and CA-1 - continue north of San Francisco, crossing the Golden Gate Bridge and connecting San Francisco to Marin and eventually to Oregon.

List of Counties

Anchor Cities

Oakland (Major Airport: Oakland International Airport)
San Francisco (Major Airport: San Francisco International Airport)
San Jose (Major Airport: San Jose International Airport)

Suburbs with more than 100,000 inhabitants

Suburbs with 10,000 to 100,000 inhabitants

Suburbs with fewer than 10,000 inhabitants

Geography of California