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Historically, how did San Diego come to be San Diego?
Home » San Diego » San Diego History & Overview » Historically, how did San Diego come to be San Diego?Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo sailed into San Diego Bay on September 28, 1542 and discovered his San Miguel. He was the first to discover what would become the seventh largest city in the United States with 2.5 million residents. This beautiful paradise that is rimmed with 70 miles of beaches was then explored and renamed by Vizcaino in 1602 as San Diego de Alacala. It was the first European settlement on the West Coast and in 1769 became the first Spanish mission in California. Gaspar de Portola and Fr. Junipero Serra arrived in San Diego and blessed Presidio Hill as the site of Mission San Diego de Alacala. It was not until 1850 that California was admitted to the Union and San Diego was incorporated with a population of 650 as one of California’s first counties. The history from this point is as varied and spotted with intrigue as any western film or romance movie that one could find. With the transcontinental railroad coming in 1885 and the grand Hotel del Coronado, which is still standing today, being constructed in 1886, the rest of the world began to discover what Cabrillo had discovered three hundred plus years earlier…a land of paradise at the very edge of North America!
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