California is a state of mind as much as a geographical area, and San Francisco is a city of dreams as much as it is the actual city by the bay, where seekers can go west no further. San Francisco became a boomtown in 1848 with the discovery of gold in California, and since that time has been characterized by ethnic diversity economic opportunity and certain relish for the oddball and madcap. From the reign of the daft but beloved self-proclaimed Emperor Norton I at the turn of the nineteenth century to the preoccupation of residents with Mayor Willie Brown’s dapper fedoras at the turn of the millennium, San Francisco has had a sense of humor, style and civic pride.

Originally inhabited by the Costanoan Indians, the first European outposts were built on the hilly peninsula in 1776, and four flags have flown since then: Spanish, Mexican, the Republic of California and the United States. It is known for sea-scoured air and fog, as well as the looming specter of earthquakes that have devastated the city. The city itself has 750,000 inhabitants in 47 square miles, but is also the heart of the San Francisco Bay Area, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the US, which is at the forefront of hightechnology research and development in many fields, as well as home to the University of CaliforniaBerkeley and Silicon Valley.

Like every large city, San Francisco boasts myriad museums, theaters, art galleries, shops, music venues, restaurants and historic districts. In fact, the city is a tapestry a symphony of vistas and fragrances and atmospheres. Some of these have become global images of the city and its landscape: giggling young women promenading past muralpainted walls in the Mission; the breathtaking island views from plush offices in the skyscrapers of the financial district; the aged voices practicing Chinese opera in a cellar in a Chinatown alley and the Italian Americans of North Beach; the tourists walking Fisherman’Zs Wharf, enjoying the food and the views; the view from wind-tossed Baker Beach, with the trees and hills behind and the spectacularly foreshortened view of the Golden Gate Bridge ahead; and the picture-postcard views of the “painted ladies,” the lovingly detailed Victorian houses. These have been repeated in many media depictions of the city as well, whether Vertigo (1958), Bullitt (1968) or The Rock (1996), incorporating the famed Alcatraz prison.

San Francisco has also been a city marked by diversity of peoples, cultures, classes and sexuality: extravagantly dressed transvestites strutting Polk Street, cheerily greeting shop owners and immigrant neighbors; the preoccupied business people giving orders over cellular phones as they dash down Market Street; the salsa dancers on a sunny afternoon at the Ramp; or the elegant women examining the latest paintings displayed in the echoing marble halls of the Palace of Legion of Honor. There are the gay men of the Castro, jostling and joking on the streets and in the restaurants; the spiritual seekers walking the labyrinth inside Grace Cathedral; the artfully tended homes of the very rich in the spectacular Seaside neighborhood, perched on the cliffs above the sea; and the bookstores and coffee houses tucked into every corner of the city. It also hosts championship sports teams in football (the 49-ers), baseball (Giants) and basketball (Warriors).

Diversity shapes politics as well. There are the neo-hippies and neo-punks of the Haight Ashbury and the political rallies by activist groups of every stripe. San Francisco has been a home for gay activism embodied in the rise and assassination of Harvey Milk as a San Francisco politician. The potential for fragmentation has honed strong politicians on the national scene, including mayors Dianne Feinstein and Willie Brown. Yet the refurbished Beaux Arts City Hall, sporting gold trim and earthquake retrofitting, contrasts with the homeless encampments on the lawns of the Civic Center.

San Francisco is a city of tremendous energy and diversity a city at the geographical edge of the continent and perhaps at the cutting edge of much of what is most heartening about American culture.