Interesting facts about San Jose

san jose

San Jose officially the City of San José is a city in California, United States.

San José is located in Santa Clara County at the southern edge of the San Francisco Bay, about 80 kilometers (50 miles) south of San Francisco, 630 kilometers (390 miles) north of Los Angeles.

As of April 2019, the population of San Jose is about 1 million people. It is is the 10th most populous city in the United States and the 3rd most populous city in California (after Los Angeles and San Diego).

The city covers a total area of 467 square kilometers (180 square miles). It is the fourth-largest California city by land area (after Los Angeles, San Diego and California City).

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San Jose lies at a mean elevation of 25 meters (82 feet) above sea level.

Before the arrival of the Spanish, the area around San Jose was inhabited by the Tamien nation of the Ohlone peoples of California.

San Jose was founded on November 29, 1777, as the Pueblo de San José de Guadalupe, the first city founded in the Californias.

It then became a part of Mexico in 1821 after the Mexican War of Independence. Following the American Conquest of California during the Mexican–American War, the territory was ceded to the United States in 1848.

san jose history

Following World War II, San Jose experienced an economic boom, with a rapid population growth and aggressive annexation of nearby cities and communities carried out in the 1950s and 1960s.

The rapid growth of the high-technology and electronics industries further accelerated the transition from an agricultural center to an urbanized metropolitan area.

Today, the city is an economic, cultural and political center of Silicon Valley. Silicon Valley is a region in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area in Northern California that serves as a global center for high technology, innovation and social media.

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Downtown San Jose is known for its bustling beer bars and cocktail haunts, as well as theaters showing Broadway shows. There’s a mix of casual and upscale restaurants, and for a quick bite, San Pedro Square Market is a popular choice. The Tech Museum of Innovation has hands-on displays, while the San Jose Museum of Art shows contemporary works.

downtown san jose

The Winchester Mystery House is a mansion in San Jose, that was once the personal residence of Sarah Winchester, the widow of firearm magnate William Wirt Winchester. Located at 525 South Winchester Blvd. in San Jose, the Queen Anne Style Victorian mansion is renowned for its size, its architectural curiosities, and its lack of any master building plan. It is a designated California historical landmark and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It is privately owned and serves as a tourist attraction.

winchester mystery house

The San Jose Municipal Rose Garden is a historic rose garden in San Jose, in the Rose Garden District. Founded in 1927, the garden is exclusively dedicated to roses and features more than 3,500 shrubs representing 189 rose varieties.

san jose municipal rose garden

The Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum (REM) is devoted to Ancient Egypt, located at Rosicrucian Park in the Rose Garden neighborhood of San Jose. It was founded by the Ancient Mystical Order Rosae Crucis (AMORC). The Rosicrucian Order continues to support and expand the museum and its educational and scientific activities. The museum holds the largest collection of ancient Egyptian antiquities in the Western United States, and is located next to the Rosicrucian headquarters.

rosicrucian egyptian museum

Children’s Discovery Museum of San Jose (CDM) is a cultural institution serving children, families, and schools in the Silicon Valley/San Francisco Bay Area. Located in downtown San Jose, California on Woz Way, the street is named after Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple Computer, whose nickname is “Woz,” and who was the single largest private donor during the original capital campaign that funded the museum.

childrens discovery museum of san jose

San Jose is a global city, notable as a center of innovation, for its affluence, Mediterranean climate, and extremely high cost of living.

San Jose is one of the wealthiest major cities in the United States and the world, and has the third highest GDP per capita in the world.

San Jose has the most expensive housing market in the country and the fifth most expensive housing market in the world.

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The San Jose Metropolitan Area has the most millionaires and the most billionaires in the United States per capita.

Major global tech companies including Cisco Systems, eBay, Adobe Systems, PayPal, Brocade, Samsung, Acer, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, and Western Digital maintain their headquarters in San Jose, in the center of Silicon Valley.

San Jose is shaken by moderate earthquakes on average one or two times a year.