The native inhabitants of the region where the city of San Diego is currently located are known as San Dieguitos or La Jolla. The San Diego area has been inhabited for more than 10,000 years by the Kumeyaay people. The first European to visit the region was the Portuguese explorer João Rodrigues Cabrilho, sailing under the banner of the Castile Crown. Cabrilho decreed the place as part of the Spanish Empire in 1542 and named it "San Miguel." In November 1602, Sebastián Vizcaya was sent to map the coast of California. Coming to the San Diego captaincy. Neighbor explored the region of the current port of the city and named the place of San Diego de Alcalá, in honor of the Catholic saint Diogo de Alcalá. On 12 November 1602, the first Christian religious registration service in Upper California was led by the Frei Antonio de la Ascensión, a member of the Biscay expedition, to celebrate the day of the San Diego party.

In May 1769, Gaspar de Portolá established the Forte Presidio de San Diego on a hill near the San Diego River. In July of the same year, the San Diego Mission of Alcalá was founded by Franciscan friars, led by Father Junípero Serra. In 1797, the mission was able to count upon the largest native population in High California, with more than 1,400 neophytes that lived inside and around the mission. Both the strong San Diego prison and the San Diego mission of Alcalá are national historical landmarks. San Diego was founded by the name of San Diego de Alcalá in honor of the saint homonymous, being the first Spanish mission in High California.

In 1821, Mexico gained its independence from Spain, and San Diego became part of the Mexican state of High California. Fort on Presidio Hill was gradually abandoned, while the city of San Diego was growing at a land level below Fort Presidio Hill. The Mission was secularized by the Mexican government, and most of the land that belonged to the mission was distributed among the rich settlers of the region.

He returned to the sovereignty of the United States in 1846. The railroad in 1884 and the establishment of the naval base during the First World War contributed to the city's growth. The main sources of income in the city are manufacturing and tourism.

Monument to Cabrilho in Point Loma.

The city's main tourist spots are its beaches, the Gaslamp Quarter, the city's historic center, Balboa Park, and the world-famous SeaWorld San Diego and the San Diego Zoo.

The area where San Diego is currently located was originally inhabited by Kumeyaay tribe natives. The first European to visit the region was the Portuguese explorer João Rodrigues Cabrilho, who conquered the bay for Spain in 1542. The place was named "São Miguel de Cabrilho". On November 12, 1602, Dom Sebastián de Viscaíno came with his team on the day of São Diogo de Alcalá and celebrated the mass in honor of the saint. Coincidentally, the Viscaíno boat was called "San Diego." He then renamed the place "San Diego" (in Portuguese: São Diogo) in honor of the holy sixteenth century.

From the beginning of the 20th century to the 1970s, the tuna and tuna canning industry fleet were based in San Diego, which is considered to be the ‘tuna capital of the world’. The first canning factory was founded in the city in 1911, and by the mid-1930s canning factories already employed more than 1,000 workers. Due to the increase in costs and foreign competition, the last of the canning factories closed at the beginning of 1980. The large fishing fleet supported the canning factories, mostly made up of immigrant fishermen from Japan, and later from the Azores region in Portugal and Italy, whose influence is still seen in districts such as Little Italy and Point Loma. One of the first censuses officially carried out in the city in 1950, identified the population of San Diego as 94.5% white and 4.5% black.

The Historical Center of San Diego faced a certain decline in the 1960s and 1970s, but it experimented renovations in its urban characteristic from the beginning of 1980s, including the opening of Horton Plaza, the revitalization of the Gaslamp Bairro, the construction of the San Diego Convention Center and the Petco Park, inaugurated in 2000 04

Urban antenna of San Diego and Tijuana, Mexico.

A small fence separates the densely populated Tijuana in Mexico (to the right) from San Diego, in the United States

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has an area of 964.5 km², where 842.2 km² are covered by land and 122.3 km² by water.

According to the emeritus of SDSU professor Monte Marshall, San Diego Bay is "the superficial expression of a nested graben of north-south trends." The Rose Canyon and Point Loma fault zones are part of the San Andreas fault system. About 64 km east of the bay are the Laguna Mountains on the peninsular ridge, which is part of the backbone of the American continents.

The city is located at approximately 200 deep riverbeds and hills that separate its tables, creating little pockets of natural open space spread all over the city and giving it mountainous geography. Traditionally, the San Diegans built their homes and businesses at the tables, leaving urban canyons relatively wild. Thus, the rifles give parts of the city a segmented sensation, creating gaps between neighboring districts and contributing to an environment of low density and centered on the car. The San Diego river crosses the middle of San Diego from east to west, creating a river valley that serves to divide the city into northern and southern segments. During the historical period, and presumably also before, the river changed its flow between the Bay of San Diego and the Bay of Mission, and its fresh water was the focus of the first Spanish explorers. Miguel Costansó, a cartographer, wrote in 1769: "When asked by signs where the water was located, the Indians pointed to a forest that could be seen at a considerable distance from the northeast, giving the impression that a river or stream flowed and that they would take our men to it if they followed it." This river was the San Diego river. Several reservoirs and the Mission Trails Regional Park are also found between and separate developed areas of the city.

Notable spikes ​ ​ within the city's boundaries include the Cowles Mountain, the highest point in the city at 485 m; Black Mountain at 475 m; and Mount Soledad at 824 ft (251 m). The Cuyamaca and Laguna mountains go up to the east of the city, and beyond the mountains there are desert areas. Cleveland National Forest is half an hour away from downtown San Diego. Countless farms are found in the northeast and southeast valleys of the city.

In its 2013 ParkScore ranking, The Trust for Public Land reported that San Diego had the 9th-best park system among the 50 most populous cities in the US. ParkScore classifies city park systems by a formula that analyzes the cultivated area, access, service, and investment.

Climate

Temperatures do not differ widely between winter (average 15°C) and summer (22°C), the city's proximity to the Pacific Ocean is the main factor responsible for this. In summer the temperature variation is lower, with the average maximum temperature being 25 °C and the average temperature being 19 °C. In winter the variation is 19 °C and 10 °C. The highest temperature ever recorded in the city was 44 °C, other extremes include 42 °C in October 1961 and 38 °C in June and July. In winter, although temperatures rarely fall below 5 °C. The lowest temperature ever registered in the city was -2 °C, registered in January and February 1949.

As a sign of global warming, scientists at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography say that the average water surface temperature in the San Diego Bay area has increased by almost 3 degrees since 1950.

The average annual rainfall rate for San Diego is 26.2 centimeters. The city records a dry season in the summer, and July, the driest month in the city, records no or no precipitation whatsoever. The dry season extends from April to October, in this period it does not rain more than 5 centimeters, with January, the most rainy month in the city, recording on average 5.8 centimeters a year. The town's humid period extends from January to March, a period that records an average of 16.7 centimeters a year. Between November and December, 6 centimeters a year of rainfall precipitation are registered.

Ecology

Like most of the Southern California region, the current area of San Diego was originally occupied by chaparral, a vegetation composed mainly of dry-resistant bushes. Pinus torreyana, a sort of pine tree from the Americas, is dominant in most of the region's vegetation, especially in a stretch of chaparral protected along the coast. The topography and proximity of the Pacific Ocean create countless different habitats within the limits of the city, including the swamp of the tides and canyons. Floor and coastal regions at low altitudes along the coast are prone to fires, and fire rates increased in the 20th century, mainly due to fires that start near the borders of urban and wild areas.

The territorial boundaries of San Diego consist of a wide range of natural reserves, including the Torrey Pines Sate, Los Penasquitos and Mission Trails Natural Reserve. The Torrey Pines State reserve has a coastal strip north and shelters rare species. Due to the steep topography that prevents or discourages buildings in some parts of the territory, along with some efforts to preserve the local ecology, there are also a large number of canyons within the limits of the city, which serve as natural reserves. The main ones are Switzer Canyon and Tecolote Park, as well as a series of small parks and reserves.

San Diego County is one of the American counties that has more animal and plant species on the list of endangered species in the United States. Because of its diversity of inhabitants and its position on the migratory route of the Pacific, the County houses some 492 species of birds, more than any other region of the country. San Diego is one of the most sought after cities for the observation of bird species, especially at high altitudes in its territorial limits.

The San Diego ecological area is vulnerable to periodic fires. In October 2003, San Diego was the site of the Cedar fire, which has been called the largest forest fire in California. The fire consumed 280,000 hectares of the county's territorial area - equivalent to 1,130 km² - as well as destroying more than 2,200 homes and properties and killing 15 people. In addition to the damage caused by the fire, the smoke from the fire resulted in a significant increase in emergency response due to asthma, respiratory problems, eye irritation and smoke inhalation. The poor air quality motivated the closure of San Diego County schools for a week. Other subsequent fires occurred in the county in 2007, particularly in the area of the communities of Rancho Bernardo, Rancho Santa Fe and Ramona.

Panorama of the city of San Diego

According to the 2010 national census, the population is 1 307 402 inhabitants and the population density is 1 552.29 inhabitants/km². It has more than 3 million inhabitants in its metropolitan region, which increases to 4.3 million inhabitants when the metropolitan region of Tijuana, in Mexico is considered. It's the most populous city in San Diego County and the eighth most populous city in the United States. It has 516 033 homes, resulting in a density of 612.69 homes/km². The city's population increased slightly below 7% between 2000 and 2010. In 2000, it had a population of 1 223 400 inhabitants, 450 691 residences and 271 315 families. The city's population increased to 1 336 865 inhabitants, an increase of 9.3% from 2000 onwards.

Still in 2010, the city's racial composition was 58.9% white, 15.9% Asian (5.9% Filipino, 2.7% Chinese, 2.5% Vietnamese, 1% South Korean, 0.7% Japanese, 0.4% Laosians, 0.3% Cambodian and 0.1% Thai) 6.6 7% African-Americans, 0.6% Native Americans, 0.5% Pacific Islands, 12.3% other races and 5.1% mixed race or more. It should be noted that 28.8% of the population of San Diego was Hispanic or Latino (of any race), of which 24.9% were Mexicans and 0.6% were Puerto Ricans.

In December 2012, the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) released a report in which San Diego revealed that he had the third largest street population in the United States, behind only New York and Los Angeles. The city's street population has the highest percentage of homeless veterans in the country. In the same report, it was found that the city also had the fourth largest percentage of chronically homeless individuals, as well as the third largest increase in total poverty among the street population.

In 2000, there were 451 126 homes, of which 30.2% had a population of up to 18 years old. 44.6% of the homes were made up of couples, 11.4% had women as heads of family and 39.8% of the residences were not of a family nature. Individuals living alone were 28.0%, of whom 7.4% were over 65 years old. The average size of each residence was 2,61 and the average size of the family was 3,30. According to the 2000 Census Bureau, 24.0% of the inhabitants of San Diego were under the age of 18 and 10.5% were under the age of 65 or over. The average age of the inhabitants was 32 years of age, two thirds of the population being under 35 years of age. The San Diego Regional Planning Agency (SANDAG) provides tables and graphs that characterize the city's population in age groups.

Defense and armed forces

Hornet F / A-18 flying over San Diego and USS John C. Stennis

San Diego's economy is influenced by its deep-water port, which includes the only major underwater and shipbuilding shipyards in the West Coast. Several major national defense contractors have been started and are based in San Diego, including General Atomics, Cubic and NASSCO.

San Diego is home to the world's largest naval fleet: In 2008, it was home to 53 ships, more than 120 tenants and more than 35,000 sailors, soldiers, civil servants and defense contractors. Around 5% of all civilian jobs in the municipality are related to military personnel, and 15,000 companies in San Diego County have Defense Department contracts.

Military bases in San Diego include facilities in the U.S. Navy, corps of Marine Corps and coastguard stations. The city "shelters the majority of surface fighters from the US Pacific Fleet, all amphibian ships from the West Coast of the Navy and a variety of Coast Guard and Military Maritime Transport Command ships".

Tourism

SeaWorld San Diego.

Tourism is an important industry due to the city's climate, beaches and tourist attractions, such as Balboa Park, Belmont amusement park, San Diego zoo, Safari Park and SeaWorld San Diego. The Spanish and Mexican legacy of San Diego is reflected in many of the city's historical sites, such as Mission San Diego de Alcala and Old Town San Diego State Historic Park. In addition, the local brewery industry attracts an increasing number of visitors to "beer rides" and to the annual San Diego Beer Week in November; San Diego was called "Capital of America's Craft Beer."

San Diego County received more than 32 million visitors in 2012; collectively, they spent about $8 billion. The visitor industry offers jobs for more than 160,000 people.

The San Diego cruise ship industry used to be the second largest in California. Numerous cruise lines operate outside San Diego. However, the cruise ship business has been in decline since 2008, when Porto received more than 250 calls and more than 900,000 passengers. In 2016-2017, the number of calls from ships fell to 90.

Local tourist cruises are offered in San Diego Bay and Mission Bay, as well as whale-watching cruises to observe gray whale migration, peaking in mid-January. Sports fishing is another popular tourist attraction; San Diego is home to Southern California's largest sporting fishing fleet.

Companies

Qualcomm's corporate headquarters.

San Diego hosts several large wireless cell technology producers. Qualcomm was founded and is based in San Diego, and is one of the largest private sector employers in San Diego. Other wireless industry manufacturers headquartered here include Nokia, LG Electronics, Kyocera International, Cricket Communications and Novatel Wireless. The largest software company in San Diego is the security software company Websense Inc. San Diego is also based in the US of the Slovak security company ESET. San Diego was designated as an iHub Innovation Center for possible collaboration between wireless technology and life sciences.

The University of California, San Diego and other research institutions have helped to fuel the growth of biotechnology. In 2013, San Diego owned the second largest biotechnology cluster in the United States, below the Boston area and above the San Francisco Bay Area. There are over 400 biotechnology companies in the area. In particular, the areas of La Jolla and in the vicinity of Sorrento Valley house offices and research facilities for many biotechnology companies. Large biotechnology companies like Illumina and Neurocrine Biosciences are based in San Diego, while many other biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies have research offices or facilities in San Diego. San Diego also houses more than 140 contracted research organizations (CROs) that provide contractual services for pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies.

San Diego Zoo.

Many popular museums, such as the San Diego Museum of Art, the San Diego Museum of Natural History, the San Diego Museum of Man, the Photographic Art Museum, and the Air & Space Museum San Diego, are located in Balboa Park, which is also the location of the San Diego Zoo. The Museum of Contemporary Art of San Diego (MCASD) is located in La Jolla and has a branch located in the center of Santa Fe Depot. The center's branch consists of two buildings on two opposite streets. The Columbia district in the city center is home to historical exhibitions of ships belonging to the San Diego Maritime Museum, headed by the Indian Star, as well as the San Diego Aircraft Gate Museum, with the USS Midway aircraft carrier.

The symphony of San Diego at Symphony Towers presents itself regularly; from 2004 to 2017, its director was Jahja Ling. The San Diego Opera at the Civic Center Plaza, now run by David Bennett, has been classified by Opera America as one of the top 10 opera companies in the United States. The Old Globe Theater in Balboa Park produces about 15 pieces and music every year. The UCSD La Jolla Playhouse is led by Christopher Ashley. Both the Old Globe Theatre and La Jolla Playhouse produced the world premieres of plays and music that won the Tony Awards or Broadway nominations. The Joan B Theater. Kroc at the Kroc Center's Performing Arts Center is a state-of-the-art 600-seat theater featuring music, dance and theater presentations. The Repertory Theater of San Diego, at the Lyceum Theatres, in Westfield Horton Plaza, produces a variety of plays and musicals. Hundreds of films and a dozen TV shows were filmed in San Diego, a tradition dating back to 1898.

Faculties and universities

Geisel Library at the University of California.

According to educational classifications released by the US Census Bureau in 2017, 44.4% of the San Diegans (city, not municipality) aged 25 or over have a bachelor's degree, compared to 30.9% in the United States as a whole. The census classifies the city as the ninth most educated city in the United States, based on these numbers.

The city's public colleges and universities include the State University of San Diego (SDSU), the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) and the District of the Community of San Diego, which includes San Diego City College, San Diego Mesa College and San Diego Faculdade Miramar.

Private non-profit universities and universities in the city include the University of San Diego (USD), the Nazarena University of Point Loma (PLNU), the campus of the National University of San Diego, the University of Redlands campus 'School of Business San Diego, the University of Brandman'. The Campus of San Diego, San Diego Christian College and John Paul, the Great Catholic University. For-profit institutions include Alliant International University (AIU), International Business University of California (CIBU), California College San Diego, San Diego Design Fashion Institute, NewSchool of Architecture and Design, Platt College, Southern University of the State (SSU), UEI College and satellite campus of Woodbury University School of Architecture.

There's a medical school in the city, the Medical School of UCSD. There are three accredited law schools in the city, which include California Western School of Law, Thomas Jefferson School of Law, and the University of San Diego School of Law. There's also a law school, Western Sierra Law School, not accredited by ABA.

Interstate 5 towards the center.

With the automobile being the main means of transport for more than 80% of the inhabitants, San Diego is served by a network of highways and highways. This includes Interstate 5, which runs south of Tijuana and north of Los Angeles; Interstate 8, which runs east to the Imperial County and the Arizona Solar Corridor; Interstate 15, which runs northeast through Inland Empire, to Las Vegas and Salt Lake City; and Interstate 805, which comes out of I-5, near the border with Mexico, and joins I-5 in Sorrento Valley.

Major state highways include SR 94, which connects the center with I-805, I-15 and East County; SR 163 , which links the city center to the northeast part of the city, crosses the I-805 and merges with the I-15 in Miramar ; SR 52, connecting La Jolla with East County through Santee and SR 125 ; SR 56 , which connects I-5 to I-15 through Carmel Valley and Rancho Peñasquitos; SR 75 , which crosses San Diego Bay as the San Diego-Coronado Bridge and also passes through the South San Diego as Palm Avenue; and SR 905, which connects I-5 and I-805 to the port of entry Otay Mesa.

The San Diego highway system provides an extensive bike lane network. Its dry and mild climate makes cycling a convenient option throughout the year; however, the mountainous terrain of the city and the long average journey distances make cycling less viable. Older and denser districts in the city center tend to be cycling-oriented. This is partly because of the street patterns that are now absent in enterprises that are more distant from the urban nucleus, where suburban-style arterial roads are much more common. As a result, most cycling is recreational. In 2006, San Diego was ranked the best city (with a population of over 1 million) to ride a bicycle in the US.

Air view from Coronado and San Diego.

San Diego is served by the San Diego Trolley light rail system, the SDMTS bus system, and the Coaster and the Amtrak Pacific Surfliner passenger train; northern San Diego is also served by the Sprinter railway line. The cart mainly serves the urban communities of the center and the surrounding, Mission Valley, the eastern county and the southern coast of the bay. A planned extension to the middle of the Trolley coast will work from the Old City to the University of the City and the University of California, San Diego, along the I-5 highway, with a planned operation until 2021. The Amtrak and Coaster trains now travel along the coast and connect San Diego to Los Angeles, Orange County, Riverside, San Bernardino and Ventura via Metrolink and the Pacific Surfliner. There are two Amtrak stations in San Diego, in the Old City and in the center of Santa Fe Depot. San Diego transit information on public transport and transport is available on the web and dialing "511" from any telephone in the region.

The city has two major commercial airports within or near its borders. San Diego International Airport (SAN), also known as Lindbergh Field, is the busiest single runway airport in the United States. It served more than 24 million passengers in 2018 and is dealing with larger numbers every year. It is located in San Diego Bay, 4.8 kilometers from the city center, and maintains scheduled flights to the rest of the United States (including Hawaii), as well as to Canada, Germany, Mexico, Japan and the United Kingdom. It is operated by an independent agency, the San Diego Regional Airport Authority. Tijuana International Airport has a terminal within the city's limits at Otay Mesa, a district connected to the rest of Tijuana airport in Mexico, through the Xpress cross-border runway. It is the main airport for flights to the rest of Mexico and offers connections via Mexico City to the rest of Latin America. In addition, the city has two general aviation airports, Montgomery Field (MYF) and Brown Field (SDM).

Xpress cross-border terminal bridge in San Diego.

Recent regional transport projects have sought to alleviate congestion, including improvements in local roads, expansion of San Diego airport and doubling the capacity of the cruise ship terminal. Road projects included the expansion of Interstates 5 and 805 around "The Merge," where these two highways meet, as well as the expansion of Interstate 15 by North County, which includes new "managed lanes" for high occupancy vehicles (HOV). A toll toll (the southern portion of the SR 125, known as the South Bay Expressway) connects the SR 54 and Otay Mesa, near the Mexican border. According to an assessment carried out in 2007, 37% of the city's streets were in acceptable conditions. However, the proposed budget fell by $84.6 million before elevating the streets to an acceptable level. The port expansion included a second cruise terminal on Broadway Pier, which was opened in 2010. Airport projects include the expansion of Terminal Two.

Petco Park, San Diego Padres house.

San Diego is home to a great professional team, the Major League Baseball San Diego Padres, who plays at Petco Park.

From 1961 to the 2016 season, the team organized a franchise for the National League of American Football, the San Diego Chargers. In 2017, they moved to Los Angeles and became the Los Angeles Chargers.

In two separate passages, the National Basketball Association had a franchise in San Diego, the San Diego Rockets from 1967 to 1971 and the San Diego Clippers from 1978 to 1984. The franchises went to Houston and Los Angeles, respectively.

From 1972 to 1975, San Diego was home to a team from the American Basketball Association. First named the conquerors (also known as "The Q's"), the name was changed to San Diego Sails for the 1975-76 season, but the team gave up before the campaign was completed.

San Diego houses three NCAA universities: San Diego State University, University of California, San Diego; and San Diego University. The men's and women's basketball games at NCAA Division I's Aztec State I are played at Viejas Arena. Other leading-edge Aztec sports include university football, football, basketball and volleyball. The San Diego (MWC) and San Diego Toreros (WCC) Aztecs are teams from NCAA Division I. UCSD Tritons are members of NCAA Division II, but they started the transition process to Division I as members of the Big West Conference.

The following is a list of entries in the National Register of Historical Places in San Diego. The first milestone was designated on 15 October 1966 and the most recent on 23 July 2018. Those tagged with ‡ are also a National Historical Mark.

• Official site (in English)
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• Statistics, maps and other information on San-Diego in city-data.com