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San Jose is located at 37°20′10″N 121°53′26″W. San Jose is located within the Santa Clara Valley, in the southern part of the Bay Area in Northern California. The northernmost portion of San Jose touches San Francisco Bay at Alviso, though most of the city lies away from the bayshore.
- 3.3 miles to city center. Address: 3055 Olin Avenue. 1 to 2 hours. TIME TO SPEND. Where do Silicon Valley tycoons go to spend their money? To Santana Row, a chic shopping development just a short drive west of downtown San Jose.
- 0.1 miles to city center. Address: 80 S. Market St. Free, Tours, Churches/Religious Sites. TYPE. Less than 1 hour. TIME TO SPEND.
- 1.9 miles to city center. Address: 1660 Park Ave. Museums. TYPE. 1 to 2 hours. TIME TO SPEND.
- Address: 201 South Market Street. Museums. TYPE. 1 to 2 hours. TIME TO SPEND. The Tech Interactive is right at home in San Jose, the capital of Silicon Valley.
Whether it's nightlife and fun or a weekend hike, San Jose has inclusive and endless options of things to do. There's never a shortage of things to do in San Jose. Whether you're an outdoor enthusiast, an art lover or a history buff, there's something for you.
- Overview
- History
- The contemporary city
San Jose, city, seat (1850) of Santa Clara county, west-central California, U.S. It lies in the Santa Clara Valley along Coyote Creek and the Guadalupe River, about 50 miles (80 km) southeast of San Francisco. The city, located just southeast of San Francisco Bay, sprawls over a broad floodplain that gradually slopes upward toward more rugged terrain to the east and south. With its semiarid climate, San Jose is known for its sunny, mild weather.
San Jose, the third largest city in California, is also the most populous component of the extensive metropolitan area around the bay that, in addition to San Francisco, includes Oakland. Neighbouring communities include Milpitas (northeast), Alum Rock (east), Los Gatos (southwest), Campbell and Santa Clara (west), and Sunnyvale (northwest). The city constitutes the hub of Silicon Valley, the region of high-technology and computer-related industries that stretches along the southwestern shore of the bay toward San Francisco. Inc. 1850. Area city, 178 square miles (461 square km). Pop. (2010) 945,942; San Jose–Sunnyvale–Santa Clara Metro Area, 1,836,911; (2020) 1,013,240; San Jose–Sunnyvale–Santa Clara Metro Area, 2,000,468
Costanoan Indians lived in the area when European explorers arrived in the mid-18th century. The first civic settlement in California, it was founded by José Joaquin Moraga in 1777 as a Spanish farming community and was named Pueblo de San José de Guadalupé for St. Joseph (San José). During the Spanish colonial and Mexican periods, it supplied wheat, vegetables, and cattle to the military garrisons at Monterey and San Francisco. After the American occupation of California in 1846, San Jose briefly became the new state’s first capital, and the first state legislative assembly convened there in December 1849. (The state capital was moved to Vallejo in 1852 and, permanently, to Sacramento in 1854.) In March 1850 San Jose became the first chartered city in California, by which time it had become a bustling trade depot for the goldfields east of Sacramento. In 1864 the coming of the railroad from San Francisco gave San Jose improved trade connections and enabled the produce of nearby farms to be readily shipped to San Francisco. The Santa Clara Valley thus soon developed into a region of orchards and fruit processing.
Until 1940 most of the city’s industries remained centred on food processing and the manufacture of orchard supplies and agricultural equipment. During and after World War II, however, there was a meteoric growth in the manufacture of such durable goods as electrical machinery, aircraft parts, and motor vehicles. Large aerospace and business-equipment firms located plants in the area, and San Jose’s rise as the anchor of Silicon Valley produced an even more spectacular burst of growth for the city that only increased with the boom in Internet-related industries in the 1990s. The city annexed land at a rapid rate, more than tripling its area between 1960 and 2000; during that same period its population more than quadrupled. The citizenry has long been ethnically diverse, with large and growing Asian and Hispanic communities that combined now constitute some three-fifths of the total population.
San Jose’s economy remains heavily focused on high technology. Computer hardware design and manufacturing, software production, and Internet concerns are its major industries. Electronic equipment, semiconductors, scientific instruments, and industrial machinery are produced, and business, health, and engineering services are other important economic factors. The Santa Clara Valley continues to be a productive agricultural area. Major crops include greenhouse plants, cut flowers, mushrooms, and an array of fruits and vegetables (notably wine grapes, cherries, peppers, tomatoes, and lettuce); beef cattle are also raised.
The city is home to San Jose State University (1857; part of the California State University system) and San Jose City College (1921); Santa Clara and Stanford universities are nearby. San Jose supports a variety of music, dance, and theatre organizations, including professional ballet and opera companies. Notable museums include the San Jose Museum of Art and the Tech Museum of Innovation. Rosicrucian Park has a museum of Egyptian antiquities and a planetarium and science centre. The Winchester Mystery House, a 160-room Victorian mansion filled with unusual architectural features, was under construction continuously between 1884 and 1922 by the eccentric widow Sarah Winchester, heir to the fortune of the firearms-manufacturing company. It is maintained as a museum, as are Peralta Adobe (1797), the last remaining structure from the original pueblo, and nearby Fallon House (1855), built for one of the city’s first mayors.
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Shrek the Musical. Dec 17, 2024 - Dec 22, 2024 Broadway San Jose Center for the Performing Arts. Zorro. Apr 19, 2025 - May 04, 2025 Opera San José California Theatre. View All Events. Search Events. Show San Jose Only. Submit Your Event. Uncover the Magic of San Jose: 10 Reasons to Plan Your Next Trip.
Dec 23, 2023 · Municipal Rose Garden. 2. Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum. 3. Downtown San Jose. 4. Santana Row. 5. The Tech Interactive. 6. Plaza de Cesar Chavez. 7. Winchester Mystery House. 8. Happy Hollow Park & Zoo. 9. San Jose Museum of Art. 10. Cathedral Basilica of St. Joseph. 11. Guadalupe River Park & Gardens. 12. Alum Rock Park. 13.
Dec 25, 2022 · Trip Ideas. San Jose, California, Might Be the Country's Most Underrated Tourist Destination — and It Gets 300 Days of Sunshine. With 300 sunny days a year and a rich mix of cultural,...
