The original town that became San Francisco was first lived in by a European resident in 1835. The first mayor changed the town's name in 1848 to San Francisco and had 469 residents including Ohlone Indians, Americans, Spanish Californians, Hawaiians, Europeans, South Americans and New Zealanders.

James Marshall found gold at Sutter's Mill in 1848 and came with it an influx of residents also looking for riches. By 1852, the city's residents had grown to almost 35,000. The gold rush transformed a fishing village into the internationally-famous city of San Francisco almost overnight and today, San Francisco's 49 square miles is home to over 800,000 people. In 1948 the country's first Chinese immigrants came to San Francisco in 1848 and gave birth to the "Chinese" fortune cookies.The Japanese Hagiwara family invented it at Golden Gate Park's Tea Garden, and at Chinatown's Ross Alley fortune cookie factory, a Rube Goldberg-like machine makes them by the dozens.

Over the next 150 years, those in search of great fortune came to San Francisco to fulfil their destiny. Victorian architecture can be seen all over San Francisco and ads to the iconic look of the city. It's rolling hills and cable cars also stand out as images joint to the city. San Francisco cable cars are the only moving National Historic Landmark. A total of 9.7 million people take a nine mile per hour ride on them each year. At the Cable Car Barn Museum, 500-horsepower electric motors turn the endless cable loops.

John C. Fremont named the San Francisco Bay's entrance "Chrysopylae" or Golden Gate as it reminded him of an Istanbul's Golden Horn. The Golden Gate Bridge, has 23 miles of ladders and 300,000 rivets in each tower. When it opened in 1937 it was the world's longest spanning bridge. Seventeen iron workers and 38 painters constantly fight rust and renew the international orange paint on its 1.7-mile span.

Alcatraz is the famous prison just off the coast of San Francisco. It is one of California's biggest tourist attractions. Alcatraz means pelican in Spanish. The rocky pelican's island was a military fort before it became a prison. Former famous prisoners were Al Capone, George "Machine Gun" Kelly and Robert "Birdman" Stroud. On Mar. 21, 1963, Alcatraz federal prison island in San Francisco Bay was emptied of its last inmates at the order of Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy.

In 1954, baseball star Joe Di Maggio married movie star Marilyn Monroe at City Hall. The vows were said in the chambers of Judge Perry, a family friend. The most beautiful of the city's 65 museums holds one of the world's most significant Rodin collections.The famous sculpture of The Thinker can be found outside the Palace of the Legion of Honor, a replica of Paris' Palais de la Legion d'Honneur.