The earliest Europeans to reach the site of San Francisco were a Spanish exploratory party in 1769, led overland from Mexico by Don Gaspar de Portolá and Fra. Their trade patterns included places as far away as Baja California, the Mojave Desert and Yosemite. Collectively, these early Native Americans are now known as the Ohlone, and the language they spoke belonged to the Miwok family. Native Americans who settled in this region found the bay to be a resource for hunting and gathering, leading to the establishment of many small villages.

The earliest evidence of human habitation in what is now the city of San Francisco dates to 3000 BC. San Francisco is currently ranked 16th on the Global Financial Centres Index. The high demand for housing, driven by its proximity to Silicon Valley, and the limited availability has led to the city being one of America's most expensive places to live. In recent decades, San Francisco has become an important center of finance and technology. Starting in the later half of the 1960s, San Francisco became the city most famous for the hippie movement. The San Francisco Federal Reserve Branch opened in 1914, and the city continued to develop as a major business city throughout the first half of the 20th century. San Francisco was devastated by a great earthquake and fire in 1906 but was quickly rebuilt. Only lightly settled by European-Americans at first, after becoming the base for the gold rush of 1849 the city quickly became the largest and most important population, commercial, naval, and financial center in the American West. San Francisco is the name of both the city and the county the two share the same boundaries.

The history of the city of San Francisco, California, and its development as a center of maritime trade, were shaped by its location at the entrance to a large natural harbor.

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