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Sacramento's most popular tourist attractions include California State Capitol, California State Railroad Museum, Downtown Sacramento/K Street, Paramount's Great America - San Jose, Six Flags Marine World - San Francisco, Six Flags Waterworld U.S.A. - Sacramento, Old Sacramento, and Six Flags Waterworld U.S.A. - Concord. Sacramento ... more »
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Arden Fair Mall California State Capitol California State Military Museum California State Railroad Museum Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament Columbia State Historic Park Crocker Art Museum Discovery Museum of Sacramento Funderland Governor's Mansion McKinley Park Old Sacramento River Otter Taxi Company Sacramento Kings Sacramento Zoo Sutter's Fort State Historic Park
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Airports Sacramento's most popular tourist attractions include California State Capitol, California State Railroad Museum, Downtown Sacramento/K Street, Paramount's Great America - San Jose, Six Flags Marine World - San Francisco, Six Flags Waterworld U.S.A. - Sacramento, Old Sacramento, and Six Flags Waterworld U.S.A. - Concord.
Sacramento is the capital of the U.S. state of California and the county seat of Sacramento County, California. It is the 7th largest city in California. It was founded in December of 1848 by John Sutter. Sacramento grew from Sutter's Fort, which was established by Sutter in 1839, and the city is now a quickly growing metropolis. During the gold rush, Sacramento was a major distribution point, a commercial and agricultural center, and a terminus for wagon trains, stagecoaches, riverboats, the telegraph, the Pony Express and the First Transcontinental Railroad. The city proper is home to about 450,000 residents, while the 5 county metropolitan area (El Dorado, Placer, Sacramento, Sutter, Yolo Counties) is home to 2.5 million people.
The city is located at the confluence of the Sacramento River and the American River, and has a deepwater port connected to the San Francisco Bay by a channel through Suisun Bay and the Sacramento River Delta. It is the shipping and rail center for the Sacramento Valley, fruit, vegetables, rice, wheat, dairy goods and beef. Food processing is among the major industries in the area.
Much of the land to the west of the city (in Yolo County) is a flood control basin. As a result, the greater metropolitan area sprawls only four miles (6 km) west of downtown (as West Sacramento, California) but 30 miles (50 km) northeast and east, into the Sierra Nevada foothills, and 10 miles (16 km) to the south into valley farmland.
Amtrak service
Amtrak provides passenger rail service to the city of Sacramento. The main passenger rail station is located on the corner of 5th and I streets near the historic Old Town Sacramento. Amtrak California operates the Capitol Corridor, a multiple-frequency service providing service from the capital city to its northeastern suburbs and the San Francisco Bay Area.
Sacramento is also the northern terminus of the Amtrak San Joaquins route which provide direct multiple-frequency passenger rail service to California's Central Valley as far as Bakersfield; Thruway Motorcoach connections are available from the trains at Bakersfield to Southern California and Southern Nevada.
Sacramento is also a stop along Amtrak's Coast Starlight route which provides scenic, luxurious service to Seattle via Klamath Falls and Portland to the north and to Los Angeles via San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara to the south.
Amtrak's California Zephyr also serves Sacramento daily and provides service to the east serving Reno, Salt Lake, Denver, Omaha, Chicago and intermediate cities.
The Sacramento Valley Station also provides numerous Thruway Motorcoach routes. One route serves the cities of Marysville, Oroville, Chico, Corning, Red Bluff and Redding with additional service to Yreka and even Medford, OR. A second serves the cities of Roseville, Rocklin, Auburn, Colfax, Truckee, Reno and Sparks. The third and final thruway motorcoach route serves Placerville, Lake Tahoe, Stateline Casinos, and Carson City. Each of these routes provides multiple frequencies each day.
Other transportation options
Sacramento Regional Transit's bus and light-rail system provides service within the city and nearby suburbs.
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Sacramento International Airport
The Sacramento International Airport handles flights to and from various United States destinations (including Hawaii) as well as Mexico.
The Sacramento region is served by freeways (notably I-5, I-80, Business Loop 80 (Capital City Freeway), U.S. Highway 50, and Hwy 99). No new freeways have been built since the mid 1970s, despite a near-doubling of population in the metropolitan area since that time. Some Sacramento neighborhoods, particularly the central downtown and midtown areas, are pedestrian friendly. And as a result of litigation, Sacramento has undertaken to make all city facilities and sidewalks wheelchair accessible. In an effort to preserve its urban neighborhoods, Sacramento has constructed traffic-calming obstacles in several areas.
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* Sacramento has a Mediterranean climate that is characterized by mild winters and dry summers. The area usually has low humidity. Rain generally falls only between November and March, with the rainy season tapering off almost completely by the end of April. The average temperature throughout the year is 61 °F (16 °C), with the daily average ranging from 46 °F (8 °C) in December and January to 76 °F (24 °C) in July.
Average daily high temperatures range from 53 °F (12 °C) in December and January to 93 °F (34 °C) in July (with many days of over 100 °F (38 °C) highs). Daily low temperatures range from 38 to 58 °F (3 to 14 °C). The average year has 73 days with a high over 90 °F (34 °C), with the highest temperature on record being 114 °F (45 °C) on July 17, 1925, and 18 days when the low drops below 32 °F (0 °C), with the coldest day on record being December 11, 1932, at 17 °F (-8 °C). Average yearly precipitation is 17.4" (442 mm), with almost no rain during the summer months, to an average rainfall of 3.7" (94 mm) in January. It rains, on average, 58 days of the year. In February of 1992, Sacramento had 16 consecutive days of rain (6.41" or 163 mm). A record 7.24" (184 mm) of rain fell on April 20, 1880.
On average, 96 days in the year have fog, mostly in the morning (tule fog), primarily in December and January. The fog can get extremely dense, lowering visibility to less than 100 feet (30 m) and making driving conditions hazardous. The fog typically tapers off just a couple miles East of downtown, where you can find bright and sunny mornings in Roseville & Rocklin (10 miles east of Sacramento), while it is still gloomy and fogged over in Sacramento, Elk Grove & Davis.
The record snowfall was recorded on January 4, 1888, at 9 cm (3.5 in). Snowfall is rare in Sacramento (with an elevation of only 52 feet or 16 m above sea level), with a dusting of snow every eight to ten years. Forty miles (65 km) east of Sacramento, in the foothills, snow accumulation is an annual occurrence. Further east, the Lake Tahoe recreation area is home to a number of world famous ski areas which have accumulation greater than 90" (230 cm) nearly every year during the peak season. Spots in the Sierra Nevada mountains east of Sacramento annually receive the most snowfall of any spot in the lower 48 states, and the mountain range's immense snowpack is a vital source of water for the entire state of California.
Temperature - Yearly Average
Miwok, Shonommey and Maidu Indians lived in this area for perhaps thousands of years. Unlike the settlers that would eventually make Sacramento their home, these Indians left little evidence of their existence. Their diet was dominated by acorns taken from the plentiful oak trees in the region, and by fruits, bulbs, seeds, and roots gathered throughout the year.
John Sutter
The pioneer John Sutter arrived from Liestal, Switzerland in the Sacramento area with other settlers in August 1839 and established the trading colony and stockade Sutter's Fort (as New Helvetia or "New Switzerland") in 1840. In 1848, when gold was discovered by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma (located some 50 miles northeast of the fort), a large number of gold-seekers came to the area, increasing the population. John Sutter, Jr. then planned the City of Sacramento, against the wishes of his father, naming the city after the Sacramento River for commercial reasons.
The California State Legislature named Sacramento as the permanent home of the state capital in 1854 by law, but the city did not physically hold that honor until January 1, 1855. Previously, the capital was located in Monterey, San Jose, Vallejo, and Benicia successively.
Massive Population Growth
In spite of major military base closures and the decline of agricultural food processing, Sacramento continued to experience massive population growth in the 1990s and early 2000s. Primary sources of population growth are people migrating from the San Francisco Bay Area seeking lower housing costs, as well as immigration from Asia, Central America, Mexico, Ukraine and the rest of the former Soviet Union. From 1990 to 2000, the population grew 14.7%.
The primary newspaper is The Sacramento Bee, founded in 1857. Its rival, the Sacramento Union, started publishing six years earlier in 1851. Before it closed its doors in 1994, the Union was the oldest daily newspaper west of the Mississippi. Writer and journalist Mark Twain wrote for the Union in 1866. In late 2004, a new Sacramento Union returned with bimonthly magazines and in May 2005 began monthly publication, but does not intend to return as a daily newspaper.
Old Sacramento
The oldest part of the town besides Sutter's Fort is Old Sacramento, which consists of cobbled streets and some historic buildings, some from the 1860s. Buildings have been preserved, restored or reconstructed, and the district is now a substantial tourist attraction, with rides on steam-hauled historic trains and paddle steamers.
The "Big Four Building", built in 1852, was home to the offices of Collis Huntington, Mark Hopkins, Leland Stanford, and Charles Crocker. The Central Pacific Railroad and Southern Pacific Railroad were founded there. The original building was destroyed in 1963 for the construction of Interstate 5, but was re-created using original elements in 1965. It is now a National Historic Landmark.
Racially Diverse
Sacramento is notably diverse racially, ethnically, and by household income, and has a notable lack of inter-racial disharmony. In 2002, Time magazine (http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,340694,00.html) and the Civil Rights Project of Harvard University identified Sacramento as the most racially/ethnically integrated major city in America.
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Distances are calculated as the crow flies, and are provided as an aid in planning only.
* This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
It uses material from the Source wikipedia.
