Other Large Bay Area Cities
Fremont was founded as the Mission San José and later renamed for John C. Fremont. Located at the southern end of Alameda County, it is sometimes considered part of Silicon Valley. It has 210,000 residents and the largest Afghan population in the nation. | |
Santa Rosa lies in the heart of the Sonoma Valley agricultural region. With 156,000 residents, it is the largest city in the North Bay and is the county seat of Sonoma County. | |
Hayward ("Heart of the Bay") in Alameda County, is the sixth largest city in the Bay Area, and was formerly a major agricultural canning center. Its park district, H.A.R.D., is the largest in California. Cal State East Bay is located there. The Hayward Fault is named after it. | |
Sunnyvale in Santa Clara County has a population of 130,000. Once the site of vast fruit orchards, the city today lies in the heart of Silicon Valley and boasts corporate headquarters of companies such as Yahoo!, AMD, and Juniper Networks. | |
Concord is the largest city in Contra Costa County with a population of 122,067 at the 2010 census. It was surrounded historically by agriculture, with the area to the east, now site of the Concord Naval Weapons Station, once consisting of wheat ranches over 5,000 acres (20 km2), all the way to the marshes bordering Suisun Bay. | |
Santa Clara grew around the Mission Santa Clara de Asís, founded in 1777 and located on the grounds of Santa Clara University. The Silicon Valley city of 116,000 today hosts headquarters for many high technology companies, including Intel, Applied Materials, and Sun Microsystems. | |
Vallejo in Solano County was the site of Mare Island Naval Shipyard, one of the premier shipbuilding centers for the Navy until it was decommissioned in 1993. The heightened activity during World War II spurred rapid growth in Vallejo. Today, it is a city of 116,000. | |
Berkeley was the birthplace of the Free Speech Movement and site of People's Park. A city of 112,000, it traverses the Hayward Fault in Alameda County and is home to the University of California, Berkeley and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. | |
Fairfield is the county seat of Solano County. The city of 108,000 people is the home of Travis Air Force Base and the Jelly Belly factory and headquarters. | |
Richmond developed around heavy industry and the Kaiser Shipyards were a hub of activity during World War II. Port Richmond remains a major seaport and Chevron has a refinery in the city. The city is located in western Contra Costa County adjacent to the Richmond–San Rafael Bridge and has a population of around 102,000. | |
Antioch lies along the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta, and is one of the oldest towns in California, having been founded in 1850. A plague wiped out most of the population shortly after the Gold Rush. The city is "the home of the milk carton". | |
Daly City in northern San Mateo County is a majority Asian American city, especially Filipinos with 102,000 residents. There is a large concentration of big box retailers in its Serramonte shopping area. Daly City shares the Cow Palace with neighboring San Francisco. | |
San Mateo is a suburb on the San Francisco Peninsula with a population of around 92,000. Its Coyote Point Park, once an amusement park, contains an environmental education center. | |
Vacaville is a city located in Solano County, nearly half way between Sacramento and San Francisco. It is the third largest city in Solano County. There are a number of rare and endangered species in the Vacaville area, many found in vernal pools. | |
San Leandro is a city in Alameda County, population 84,950 as of 2010. It features a Shoreline Recreation Area and Marina, and a Children's Memorial Grove, to those who have died from violence in the county. | |
Livermore in the Livermore Valley in eastern Alameda County is a suburban town with a population of 80,000. It is home to Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory as well as a branch of Sandia National Laboratories. | |
Napa is the county seat of Napa County and is the primary business and economic center for the Napa Valley. It has a population of 77,000. | |
Redwood City is the county seat of San Mateo County with a population of 75,000. It claims its "Climate Best by Government Test" and its exclave of Redwood Shores is the site of the corporate headquarters of Oracle Corporation. | |
Mountain View in Santa Clara County's Silicon Valley hosts corporate headquarters or important divisions of many high technology companies, including Google, Silicon Graphics, AOL, and Microsoft. NASA Ames is also located in this city of 74,000. | |
Alameda is primarily an island city off the shore from Oakland, with a population of 73,000. It operates its own municipal electric company. It is the former location of the Alameda Naval Air Station. | |
San Ramon lies in the Tri-Valley in Contra Costa County and has 72,000 residents. The headquarters of Chevron and the West Coast headquarters of AT&T Inc. are located in the city. | |
Pleasanton is a city in Alameda County, incorporated in 1894. The population was 70,285 at the 2010 census. In 2005 and 2007, Pleasanton was ranked the wealthiest middle-sized city in the United States by the Census Bureau. | |
Union City is a city in Alameda County. It was incorporated in 1959, combining the communities of Alvarado and Decoto. Alvarado was the original county seat of Alameda County, and the site of the first county courthouse is a California Historical Landmark (#503). |