San Francisco is named for Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of Italy. The California Gold Rush helped San Francisco to grow. Railroads brought trade to San Francisco. Many parts of San Francisco sit on areas of landfill, which can make them unstable during earthquakes. Even after an earthquake and major fire in 1906, San Francisco continued to grow. After World War II, San Francisco saw the signing into being of the United Nations. Today San Francisco is concerned with environmental projects, such as curbside recycling, solar installations, and the conversion of cooking oil to biodiesel. San Francisco is rated at the top of the list of “most walkable” cities in the country. With a substantial number of residents that bike to work, San Francisco has been implementing a cycling infrastructure. San Francisco’s performing arts, such as the opera, ballet, symphony, and jazz center, play a significant role in local life, as well as the tourism trade. San Francisco is a popular tourist destination for a few reasons: cooler summers, the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz, Chinatown, cable cars and over 200 parks. Tourism is a big part of San Fransico’s economy.
Today, more than one in ten jobs, in San Francisco, have something to do with tourism. Early economy in San Francisco came from the California Gold Rush, which helped San Francisco become a banking and finance center. Wells Fargo and Bank of America both have their roots in early San Francisco history. Since the end of the 1900s, San Francisco’s economy has started to shift towards technology. Twitter, Apple, and Google have offices in San Francisco. Technology also has a major part of the economy in San Francisco with the city’s many biotechnology companies. In the early 2000s, San Francisco started a campaign to promote the local economy and small private businesses. In the last few years, manufacturing has started to return to San Francisco’s economy, through smaller businesses. The Global Financial Centres Index, which ranks the competitiveness of financial centers, ranked San Francisco as second in the country and fifth in the world near the end of 2021.
