OtterKnow Kids Encyclopedia

San Francisco is a beautiful city on the coast of California, right on the edge of the Pacific Ocean. It sits on hilly land surrounded by water on three sides. About 800,000 people live there, and millions more visit every year. The city is famous for its steep hills, colorful houses, and the fog that rolls in from the ocean almost every day in summer.

San Francisco sits at the tip of a peninsula between the Pacific Ocean and San Francisco Bay. It is about 35 miles north of Mountain View. You can get there by car, train, or even by ferry across the bay!

• San Francisco’s cable cars run at just 9 miles per hour — that is slower than most people ride a bicycle!
• The city’s famous fog even has a nickname: Karl the Fog.
• Lombard Street is called the crookedest street in the world because it zigzags down a steep hill with eight sharp turns.
• San Francisco was almost destroyed by a huge earthquake in 1906 but was completely rebuilt.
• In 1877, a photographer named Eadweard Muybridge climbed to the top of a mansion on Nob Hill and took a panoramic photo showing the whole city — you can see the ships in the bay and houses as far as the eye can see!