Alameda County
Location and origin
Oakland, connected with San Francisco by the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, and situated only 8mi/12km east of the metropolis on the west bank of the great bay, was where the lumberjacks lived who discovered the big oak-forests near the bay and the beautiful redwood
stands in the nearby hills, very little of which remain today. Then came the gold-diggers, and in 1852 the town named after its oak trees was founded. Oakland grew in importance in 1869 when it was made the terminus of the transcontinental railway; in the same year the mayor of the day laid out in the center of town the Merritt salt-water lake which bears his name. The construction of piers and a ship-canal confirmed the important role which Oakland was to play as a traffic junction.
Economy
After the devastating earthquake of 1906 which left Oakland relatively unscathed, the town received such an influx of people from San Francisco that its population doubled between 1900 and 1910. In the twenties industry gained a foothold and larger office buildings appeared. The Second World War brought additional changes: the port facilities were improved, and in the fifties Oakland, more farseeing than San Francisco in that respect, was reorganized to take container freight traffic and soon overtook San Francisco to become the biggest container port on the west coast. This, in turn, resulted in more than 1,000 road-transport companies setting up their headquarters in Oakland.
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