Considered one of the world’s most magnificent cities, San Francisco with it’s remarkable and recognizable reddish bridge, cable cars, sparkling beaches, and roads lined with elegant Victorian houses easily offers many marvels to its residents and visitors.  Located along the Northern California coast, the area has an alluring magical presence that stretches past the bay to various towns which offer a great nightlife and trend-setting cuisine.

“I left my heart in San Francisco, High on a hill, it calls to me” -singer Tony Bennett

The Bay Area is also home to a few of the world’s greatest wine countries, subtropical towns, magnificent beaches, and the majestic Silicon Valley, where companies like Google, Facebook, and Apple come up with new innovations.

Some interesting facts about San Francisco:

Keep reading to find out 25 things you likely didn’t know about San Francisco.

1. Before it had been renamed San Francisco, this little city from the bay was known as Yerba Buena. Yerba Buena means, “Great herb” in Spanish. It was found in 1776 but established in 1846.

2. SF has the second biggest Chinatown outside of Asia. It’s approximately one mile long and 1 and a half miles wide. Over 100,000 people live in Chinatown. It is the most densely populated area in the city.

3. SF offers the largest Japantown in America. It is also one of just three Japantown’s in the united states.

4. The Asian Art Museum includes pieces of artwork from around 221 BC. You’ll find them in the China display.

5. The city has been built on over 50 hills. Many think it just has 7 or 9 hills, however, you will find a total of over 50 different hills. A number of the most well-known hills are Russian Hill, Nob Hill, Telegraph Hill, along with Twin Peaks. Some of the lesser-known hills are Golden Mine Hill, Excelsior Heights, and Tank Hill.

6. Many think the waters of the SF Bay are full of dangerous sharks but there are not really any man-eating sharks in the bay. The sharks that live in the bay are small and not so dangerous. There are many white whales that live close by, but they seldom make their way to the bay. (Though a terrific white whale was seen feeding in the SF Bay and captured on camera for the very first time in October 2015!)

7. SF is currently home to the greatest competition of American wines in the entire world. The yearly Chronicle Wine Competition is held each February. It is possible to sample the winners along with other entrants in the people tasting held a couple weeks after the winners are declared.

8. Along with enjoying wine, the natives also enjoy independent movies. SF is currently home to over 50 film festivals every year. Some are large foreign festivals. Others tend to be smaller having a very concentrated film offering like the Greek Film Festival, the Jewish Film Festival, along with the American Indian Film Festival.

9. You aren’t permitted to bury a dead person inside the city limits.

10. The initial electric TV was created in SF in 1927 by Philio Farnsworth. His functioning laboratory was in 202 Green Street.

11. The United Nations Charter was signed in San Francisco. It was signed at the War Memorial and Performing Arts Center in the Civic Center District on June 26, 1945.

12. It was not the earthquake which did a lot of the damage in 1906. The fires which began after the earthquake is accountable for roughly 90 percent of the city’s damage.

13. The Panama Pacific Exposition in 1915 was the rebirth of San Francisco following the devastating 1906 Earthquake. Nearly 19 million individuals from all over the globe attended this event.

14. The color of the Golden Gate Bridge is popularly named International Orange. It was not a color from the original selection. It was the primer used to safeguard the steel and the builder ended up liking it over the other options and just stuck with it.

15. Rather than a good color, the US Navy wanted the Golden Gate Bridge to be painted in yellow and black stripes. They believed it’d make the bridge much easier to see, particularly if it had been under attack.

16. There are dozens and dozens of earthquakes each year in the Bay region. But they are all are so small (less than a 3.0) so you can’t feel them and they are not often talked about.

17. Al Capone came by train to Alcatraz. The warden at the time had been concerned about safety so he put the train car on the boat so Al Capone couldn’t escape on the transfer from the train to the boat before reaching the maximum security prison.

18. SF really isn’t the foggiest location in America, that honor belongs to our friends to the northwest, Point Reyes. We do get our fair share of fog however. We’re coated in it over 100 days per year with July and August being the foggiest months.

19. San Francisco isn’t a massive city. There are around 830,000 individuals that reside inside the city and county of San Francisco. On the other hand, the whole bay area is currently home to over 7 million individuals.

20. You won’t ever run out of restaurants in SF. In SF, you’ll find over 3,500 restaurants available.

21. Many famous people were born in San Francisco. Here’s a listing of a few of the very famous:

• Danny Glover, Actor: July 22, 1946
• Ansel Adams, Photographer & Environmentalist: February 20, 1902
• Clint Eastwood, Actor/Director: May 31, 1930
• Bruce Lee, Actor: November 27, 1940
• Alicia Silverstone, Actor: October 4, 1976
• Aishea Tyler, Actor: September 18, 1970
• Natalie Wood, Actor: July 20, 1938
• Jerry Garcia, Musician: August 1, 1942
• Robert Frost, Poet: March 26, 1874

22. Makoto Hagiwara of San Francisco is called the inventor of the modern day fortune cookie. He had been the very first man from the US to serve it in his tea garden in the late 1890s. He’s also the man behind the famous Japanese Tea Garden in SF’s Golden Gate Park.

23. Joseph B. Friedman created the bendy straw in San Francisco. He discovered his daughter’s struggle in drinking from a straight straw and came up with this creation to make it easier for her. He also received a patent for it in 1937.

24. San Francisco is just seven miles by seven miles. As a result of the small dimensions, it’s quite simple to see a whole lot of SF in only 1 day.

25. It took just four years to construct up the Golden Gate Bridge (1933 – 1937). The current rebuilding of the Oakland side of the Bay Bridge required 11 years (2002 – 2013).