The town the railroad found was named for its trees. The flatlands along the East Bay shore were once a forest of coast live oaks — encinal, "oak grove" in Spanish — and the groves gave Oakland both its name and its nickname, "The Town." The land had belonged to the Peralta family, whose vast Rancho San Antonio, granted in 1820, covered most of the East Bay. As Americans poured in after the 1849 Gold Rush, the rancho was carved up and a town laid out along the waterfront. On May 4, 1852, the state incorporated the Town of Oakland — then a place of barely a hundred people, two hotels, and a wharf.
Even before the railroad, Oakland had a role to play. During the Gold Rush it was the mainland staging point, where passengers and freight crossed between the bay and the Sierra foothills. The transcontinental terminus turned that trickle into a flood. The Central Pacific built the Long Wharf out into the estuary, and within a generation Oakland's population leapt more than twenty-fold. Hotels, warehouses, and rail yards crowded the waterfront; the harbor deepened into one of the great ports of the West. The town that the oaks had named became the place where the country's first railroad met the sea.
Why People Visit Oakland
Visitors come to Oakland for a Bay Area city with its own strong character: a wild lake at its center, Art Deco theaters and a historic waterfront, redwood hikes in the hills, and one of the most celebrated food scenes in California. The museums and Jack London Square sit minutes from the lake, and San Francisco is a quick trip across the bay. Equal parts oak-grove heritage and creative energy, Oakland rewards anyone drawn to the heart of the East Bay.
