San Diego

Being on two protected bays, San Diego Bay, which is separated from the sea by Point Loma and by Coronado Island/North Island, and the multi-lobed Mission Bay north of the San Diego River, San Diego has become an important port. It is the biggest American naval base after Norfolk. The equitable warm and dry climate and the beautiful and fertile surrounding countryside (oranges, tomatoes, avocados, fruit and vegetables) make San Diego a popular place in which to live.

The town is a favorite center for seminars and conventions, as well as being important in the research sphere (space travel, oceanography, electronics and three universities). This is where the "Atlas" rockets used in space flights were developed.

Population

San Diego is the oldest town in California and - from its foundation in 1769 - the one where development was the slowest. Early in the Second World War (about 1940) San Diego had barely 150,000 inhabitants. Since then its attractions have increased to such an extent that it has become the second town in California, after Los Angeles, to have a million people.

Development

Since 1980 the number of people living in San Diego has increased by 25%. With the exception of Houston in Texas and Phoenix, the capital of Arizona, no other large American town has experienced such a high percentage increase.

Making use of leisure time

San Diego offers the visitor an enchanting natural beauty and a climate with plenty of sunshine: the 1,410 acre/565 hectare Balboa Park, with perhaps the world's finest zoo; more than 68mi/110km of beaches in town and county; countless opportunities for water sports (including sailing and motor-boats); excursions into the nearby wastelands or - by tram - to Mexico. It has more public and private golf courses than any other American town. There are also several stud-farms.

Climate

The weather is exceptional. The sun is nearly always shining, and the drop in temperature extremely small, certainly smaller than anywhere else in California. Average temperatures are 16°C in spring, 21°C in summer, 19°C in autumn and 14°C in winter. Fluctuations from these are rare; very hot summer temperatures occur only now and again, and temperatures below freezing point are unknown. Like everywhere else on the Pacific coast, in the summer months there are sometimes early morning mists and low cloud, and the sun often does not get through before 10 a.m. or noon. There are occasional showers only between November and February.

History

Origin

As long ago as 1542 a Spanish expedition under Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo had sailed into San Diego Bay and discovered what was later to be known as California. On his voyage along the Californian coast 60 years later Sebastian Vizcaino entered the bay and gave it the name of his flagship, St Didacus de Alcala. Didicus (Diego in Spanish) was a 15th century Franciscan monk who was canonized after his death as a reward for his fantastically strict regime of penitence. In 1769 an expedition came from the governor of Baja California, Don Gaspar de Portola, to Alta California with some Franciscan monks on board, including Father Junipero Serra, beatified in 1988, who started to build the first of 21 mission stations on July 16th 1769 which is also the date when San Diego really came into being. The present-day Mission of San Diego de Alcala is to be found some 6mi/ 10km inland from its original site.

19th century

It was not until 1820 that a plaza was built, surrounded for the next 20 years by about 40 adobe houses. At that time, no more than 200 Mexicans and Spaniards lived there. The first North Americans came around 1803. However, when in 1846 during the Americo-Mexican war the town was occupied by American marines, there was merely a handful of whi