San Jose, California, the largest city in the northern half of the state and 10th largest in the U.S., shows many facets of itself. On the one hand it is the proclaimed Capital of Silicon Valley where much of the world's computer technology evolved, and today, continues to evolve. On the other hand, it is an old city, founded by the Spanish in 1777, at one time the capital of California, and today a city of culture and fine arts. Yet it is a city that regulates growth and enforces strict limits on construction and urbanization. It is a former agricultural center, and at one point, a bedroom community. And, its growth to more than 953,000 citizens has been nothing short of meteoric in the past 25 years.

Surrounded on three sides by mountain ranges, San Jose faces the southern end of San Francisco Bay and sits in the Santa Clara Valley, aka, Silicon Valley, just 50 miles south of San Francisco. It even has its own asteroid, but more on that later. Before the arrival of the Spanish, the area was home to the Ohlone Indians. The Spaniards arrived in 1770, founding the Presidio of Monterey and the Mission San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo about 60 miles south of present-day San Jose. A military leader explored the area in 1775, founding two missions, a presidio (fort) and a pueblo (town). In 1777, the pueblo of Saint Joseph de Guadalupe was created as a farming community to supply the agricultural needs of presidos in San Francisco and Monterrey. Two years later the pueblo was moved to a site that is now in downtown San Jose, originally known as Pueblo Plaza and now Plaza de Cesar Chavez.

In 1846, American immigrants captured the pueblo in a bloodless assault just as the Republic of California was agreeing to join the United States. By 1850, San Jose was the first incorporated city in the new U.S. state of California, and served as the state's capital until 1851. While the California Gold Rush was underway, mines in the San Jose area produced mercury ore and cinnabar deposits. Mercury was in great demand for gold processing, and cinnabar powder sought for use in decorating missions. By the 1880s, electricity had arrived in San Jose, replacing the old natural gas street lights. Agriculture included the growing of plums, grapes and apricots, and in the 1920s, the first commercial farming of broccoli in the U.S. For many years, the Del Monte cannery was San Jose's largest employer.

Despite its seemingly pristine reputation, San Jose had a darker side in the 1930s when the last public lynching in California's history took place there following the kidnaping and murder of a member of a prominent family. Some 10,000 residents stormed the city jail and strung up the two men who had confessed to the crime.

In 1941, the Bean Spray Pump Company, later known as the Food Machinery Corporation (FMC), won a defense contract from the War Department. Today, FMC still builds military vehicles, including the Bradley Fighting Vehicle, and subsystems for the Abrams M1A1 main battle tank. In 1943, a company that would eventually figure greatly in the invention and development of the computer established its West Coast headquarters in San Jose. The International Business Machine Corporation (IBM) established a research facility in 1952 and in 1956 opened a manufacturing plant where computer disc drives were invented in 1962. Today, IBM has laboratories and research facilities in and around the city.

Most people know the city from the 1968 hit song "Do You Know the Way to San Jose?" although neither Burt Bacharach, the composer, nor Hal David, the lyricist, ever spent any time in the city. In 1960, San Jose had 204,000 residents; by 1969 the population was 495,000. From 1980 to 2005, the city's population rose from just under 630,000 to the present-day estimated 953,000. From 1976 to 2001, San Jose's housing costs increased by a staggering 936%, fueling a significant rise in the city's cost of living. Even today, the price of an average home in Santa Clara County is 330% of the national average.

As a charter city, San Jose sometimes goes it's own way, enacting laws that are contrary to state and federal laws. It also restricts building heights and maintains laws that keep urban sprawl under control, despite a burgeoning population. It also ranks as one of the safest large cities in the U.S., with crime consistently declining during the 1990s. From 2001 to 2005 San Jose has ranked as the safest American city with a population of 500,000 or more. While crime is low, danger lurks near San Jose in the form of the famed San Andreas Fault. From 1839 to 1989, San Jose was rocked by earthquakes, and there are four other fault zones located near the city, a possible portent of things to come.

With its proximity to Silicon Valley, San Jose's business and industry is mostly technology-oriented. A number of Fortune 500 companies either headquarter there, or have large operations in the vicinity. Because of the technology orientation, San Jose's median family income is $74,813, but consequently it has the highest cost of living...due to housing costs...in the U.S. With more than 400,000 jobs in the city and unemployment of 4.6%, San Jose is frequently listed as one of America's most livable cities. San Jose still retains much of its agricultural roots, serving as a processing and distribution center for food products grown in the rich soil of Santa Clara Valley. There are even some 50 wineries operating in and around the city.

It is also a center for medical treatment and medical technology research into heart transplantation and gene splicing, and was the locale for the invention of the transportable baby incubator.

It was the first American city to have a written plan for handling terrorism. The City of San Jose and San Jose State University co-own and operate the Martin Luther King Jr. Library, the largest public library west of the Mississippi River, and the first to ever be co-managed by a city and a university.
The San Jose SMA ranks second in the U.S. in exports. Its population is ethnically diverse, with a large Hispanic segment and the largest Vietnamese population in the U.S. Some 52 languages are spoken or written in San Jose.

The old downtown site of the original Pueblo Saint Joseph de Guadalupe has been successfully revitalized into a pedestrian-friendly area of parks, museums and cultural instutions and the city continues to maintain a "green building" policy that encourages sustainable development projects that are sensitive to transit and environmental issues. The city has more than 3,100 acres of parkland and more than 400 churches.

And, oh, the reason San Jose has its own asteroid? In the nearby mountains is the famed Lick Observatory, one of the world's preeminent facilities for the study of the cosmos. In response to a complaint from the Observatory about light pollution from street lights that hampered the telescope's operations, the City of San Jose replaced all the street lamps with yellow, low pressure sodium lights. In recognition of that effort, the Lick Observatory named asteroid 6216 in honor of San Jose. Only in California would a city have it's own asteroid.