San Francisco is a major city of northern California, serving as the cultural, commercial, and financial center of the region. The city is the second-most densely populated city in the United States after New York City, with a total of 8,713,914 people living in the city and its metropolitan area. The city was founded as a Spanish Catholic mission on 29 June 1776, and it became a part of Mexico after Mexican independence in 1821 and a part of the United States after the Mexican-American War of 1848. The California Gold Rush brought rapid growth to the city, leading to it becoming the largest West Coast city during the 19th century. In 1856, San Francisco became a consolidated city-county, and the city would become a very important American city in the following decades. San Francisco survived a 1906 earthquake and fire, and it served as the port of embarkation for US military servicement during the Pacific theater of World War II from 1941 to 1945. From the 1940s to the 1960s, the influence of returning servicemen, immigration, hippie counterculture, the anti-Vietnam War movement, the Sexual Revolution (Summer of Love), and the gay rights movement established San Francisco as a center of liberal activism in the USA. Today, its Golden Gate Bridge, Chinatown, Alcatraz, Fisherman's Wharf, and the Golden Gate Park are popular tourist attractions, contributing to the city's greatness.
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