24 facts about San Francisco

1. The original Spanish name for San Francisco was Yerba Buena, meaning "good herb" or"good grass".
2. San Francisco is built on 43 hills.
3. The Chinese Fortune Cookie was invented by Makato Hagiwara whose family operated the Japanese Tea Garden from 1895 to 1942.
4. There are over three hundred coffee houses within the city boundaries of San Francisco.
5. San Francisco is home to the largest Chinese community in the world, outside of China.
6. Forty percent of visitors to San Francisco cite restaurants as a factor affecting their decision to visit.
7. Denim jeans were invented in San Francisco for the Gold Rush miners who needed tough, comfortable clothing.
   
8. Al Capone spent five years in prison in Alcatraz.
9. 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.
10. The original United Nations charter was drafted and signed in San Francisco.
11. They have to continuously paint and repaint the Golden Gate Bridge all the time because by the time the paint crew gets from one end to the other, it's time to start over again!
12. Chop Suey was created in 1878 during a banquet or Li Hung-Chung, the first Chinese Viceroy to visit our city.
13. San Francisco has the oldest Slow Food chapter in the United States; Slow Food Nation will meet at Fort Mason Center.
14. The first construted street was Grant Street, originally named "Calle De La Fundacion"
15. From the days of the Gold Rush, the smell of roasting coffee infused the San Francisco air. Three of the major coffee firms in the United States started here. The java giants included J.A. Folger & Co., M.J.B. and Hills Bros.
16. Muir Woods, an unspoiled stand of giant redwoods, is just across the Golden Gate bridge.
17. Yosemite National Park is only a couple of hours drive from the city.
18. There are over 250 wineries in the nearby Napa Valley.
19. Filbert between Hyde and Leavenworth is the steepest street at 31.5 degrees.
20. "I Left My Heart In San Francisco" was written by a gay couple, Douglass Cross and his partner George Cory in 1954. Tony Bennett's recording in 1962 made the song famous.
21. Behind New York, Moscow and London, San Francisco is 4th in the world in terms of numbers of billionaires living within its city limits, while having less than 10% the population of the the other three cities.
22. San Francisco has been at the forefront of such trends as Asian fusion cuisine, exotic greens, heirloom tomatoes and pedigree produce.
23. San Francisco has the highest number of homeless inhabitants per capita of any major city in the United States.
24. San Francisco Bay is considered the world's largest landlocked harbor.