Painted ladies all in a row, a golden bridge, steep hills overlooking a beautiful blue bay (when the fog isn't in) - this is San Francisco! What would the Ohlone Indians, who settled the area at least 15,000 years ago, think of it now? Their land was filled with abundant wildlife, native plants, and fish. Well, actually it still is, although some of the current "wild" life is of the human variety! San Francisco is inimitable, and its people revel in that uniqueness.

That original Indian village vanished long ago. Millennia later early European settlers built a Spanish and Mexican pueblo for the few hundred people who settled there. That early colony then exploded into a metropolis overnight, fueled by gold fever.

Much of early San Francisco has been lost to fires and earthquakes, but the city's spirit survives and its people rebuild. These were and are people with a vision of the future. They left (and still leave) their marks and San Francisco thrives. Come, discover for yourself what makes "the City that knows how" so exceptional.