In Depth

Born as an out-of-the-way backwater of colonial Spain and blessed with a harbor that would have been the envy of any of the great cities of Europe, San Francisco boasts a story as varied as the millions of people who have passed through its "Golden Gate," a strait linking the San Francisco Bay to the Pacific Ocean. It was not named for the gold rush; rather, Col. John C. Fremont named it in 1848 after "Chrysoceras" or "Golden Horn," in Constantinople.