Oakland

Industrial port in Alameda County in central California, USA, on the eastern, inland coast of San Francisco Bay; population (2000 est) 399,500. It is linked by the Bay Bridge (opened 1936) with San Francisco. Industries include food-processing, shipbuilding, and the manufacture of vehicles, textiles, and chemicals. The community was laid out in 1852 and became a terminus of the first Transcontinental Railroad in 1869. Extensive port facilities handle much of the freight traffic of the bay area, and include a naval yard and naval air station. A lightship is among its 49 entries on the national register of historic places.