Nothing about living in the Bay Area is trivial, from fighting your way through backed-up traffic on the Bay Bridge to taking in the last flickering glow of a sunset over the Pacific, but there are volumes of factlets, historic tidbits and trivia embedded in this beautiful home of ours.
How much do you know about this place where we live? We’ll test your knowledge on topics that range from bridges to basketball, wild turkeys, famous whales and even oscillators — and a few surprises. (Psst, you’ll find all the answers here.)
There’s something in the water
The Bay Area would just be the Area, if not for the Bay. How much do you know about our beautiful waters?
This might come as a surprise, but Lake Merritt isn’t really a lake. What is it?
- A reservoir
- An inland sea
- A tidal estuary
The opening lines of Otis Redding’s hit song, “(Sittin’ on) the Dock of the Bay,” were literally written on a dock on San Francisco Bay. What kind and where?
- San Francisco’s Muni fishing pier
- The Angel Island ferry pier
- A Sausalito houseboat dock
The Berkeley Pier originally extended 3½ miles into the Bay and was used by cars to drive onto a San Francisco-bound ferry. In 1936, that traffic stopped. Why?
- A ferry boat captain accidentally piloted into the pier in heavy fog, damaging it beyond repair
- The Bay Bridge opened, making ferry travel obsolete
- The pier was swept away during a 100-year storm and the city decided the cost to replace the entire pier was too great. It built 2½ miles of it, but the ferry company, which was to pay for the remaining 1 mile, reneged on the deal
How deep, on average, is the San Francisco Bay?
- 12 to 15 feet
- 120 to 150 feet
- 1,200 to 1,500 feet
Bridging the difference
The Bay Area, by necessity, has a love affair with bridges that span the bay, as well as the rivers and estuaries that feed into it. How much do you know about them?
What is the longest bridge to span the bay?
- The Golden Gate
- The Oakland Bay Bridge
- The San Mateo Bridge
The first San Francisco Bay bridge was a privately owned span that stretched from Hayward to San Mateo. It opened in 1923 but was deemed a failure in its first year of operation. Why?
- There wasn’t enough traffic to generate sufficient tolls
- It partially collapsed shortly after opening. Even though the bridge was quickly repaired, the driving public lost confidence in it
- An internal dispute over the operation of the bridge created so much chaos, the bridge never actually opened. It was torn down a few years later, and the materials used to build the Bay Bridge.
The Bay Bridge has special protection that the average motorist never sees. What is it?
- After 9-11 and the threat to infrastructure and landmarks, the U.S. Navy began posting a patrol boat beneath the bridge to provide 24-hour security
- After the partial collapse of the bridge during the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, CalTrans installed 200 cameras beneath the bridge to monitor the structure for cracks and rust
- After the Loma Prieta earthquake, repair crews secretly hid a sculpture of a troll on the bridge structure. When the eastern span was replaced in 2013, a new troll was hidden, too.
Getting wild
Nature icon — and Martinez resident — John Muir once said of the wilderness, ““In every walk with Nature, one receives far more than he seeks.” How much do you know about Bay Area wildlife?
You’ve seen the wild turkeys that strut around Bay Area suburbs — and we all know about Gerald, the bullying tom that had Oakland residents on the run. Turns out the first wild turkeys were deliberately introduced by California Fish & Wildlife in 1959. Why?
- To provide free grass and weed-trimming and thus improve the aesthetics of the suburbs.
- To encourage recreational hunting that would generate revenue through licenses and fees.
- It may have been a deliberate introduction, but it was an unauthorized one by a rogue Fish & Wildlife employee.
The sea lions that lounge around Pier 39 in San Francisco have become something of a tourist attraction — sea-lebrities, if you will. They first appeared on the marine docks in 1990, but why come at all?
- Managers of Pier 39 lured them onto the docks as a photo op for a tourism brochure, then couldn’t get rid of them
- Sea lions started showing up there shortly after the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. Researchers believe the tremor changed their migratory patterns
- It’s a nice, safe place to hang out, as Great White sharks and orcas that feed on sea lions rarely venture into the bay, and there are lots of herring for the sea lions to feast upon.
Six Flags Discovery Kingdom originated in Redwood Shores. What was it called when it moved to Vallejo?
- Disneyland North
- Underwater Magic
- Marine World Africa USA
In 1985, Bay Area residents became fixated on a wayward humpback whale, dubbed Humphrey, who swam into the bay and traveled up the Delta, where experts and volunteers finally convinced him to head back to sea. In 2007, another pair of humpbacks — a mother and daughter — made a similar journey. What were their names?
- Rosy and Lily
- Delta and Dawn
- Ma and Baby Girl
In the 1970s, the spread of a disease similar to canine distemper, paired with the aggressive poisoning of ground squirrels, wiped out most of an apex predator population living on Mount Diablo. The animal has made a comeback In recent years. What is it?
- American badger
- Pacific Coast Yeti
- Mountain lion
Being a good sport
The Bay Area is known for its amazing football, baseball, basketball and hockey teams. You might bleed red and gold or hemorrhage blue and yellow, but how are you on sports trivia?
Long before the Giants started sending home run balls into McCovey Cove, they gave out pins to faithful fans who huddled at frigid Candlestick Park for extra-inning games. What were these pins called?
- The Croix de Candlestick, which included the motto “Veni, Vidi, Vixi” or “I came, I saw, I survived”
- West Coast Polar Bear Club
- Mighty Breath of the Giants
There have been a few great left-handed quarterbacks, but only two are in the Football Hall of Fame and both are Bay Area legends. Name those QBs.
- Joe Montana and Daryle Lamonica
- Y.A. Tittle and Jeff Plunket
- Steve Young and Kenny Stabler
Before the Sharks swam into San Jose, the Bay Area had another hockey team, based in Oakland. What was its name and what happened to it?
- The California Golden Seals; the team moved to Cleveland and became the Barons
- The Oakland Oaks; after suffering through five unsuccessful seasons, the team disbanded
- We’re just kidding — there wasn’t a hockey team here before the Sharks
Like a few other teams — and many of us residents — the Golden State Warriors are transplants to the Bay Area. Where did they come from?
- The Philadelphia Warriors were founded in 1946 and moved to the Bay Area in 1962, becoming first the San Francisco Warriors and later — in 1971 — changing their name to the Golden State.
- It’s complicated. The Warriors originally were the home team in Milwaukee, before relocating to Green Bay. Then they moved to Seattle and became the Washington Warriors.
- The Warriors got their start in 1942 as the Montreal Royal Guardsmen, but in the league expansion following World War II, California was awarded a franchise, and the Guardsmen decided to head to sunnier climes. They dropped the distinctive Canadian moniker and became the Warriors.
What’s in a name?
We’re all familiar with most of the cities and towns throughout the Bay Area, but do you know how they got their names?
What was Oakland’s original name?
- You’re not fooling us; it was Oakland from the start
- Encinal del Temescal, which roughly translated is “the oak grove near the sweat lodge”
- East San Francisco
How did Sunnyvale get its optimistic name?
- Residents delighted in the fact that the area had the most sunshine (or fog-free days, at least) of any Bay Area city, so they named their town Sunnyvale
- It was pure crass marketing by the real estate speculator Walter E. Crossman. The town was originally called Murphy, but Crossman pushed the Sunnyvale name as a way to “attract winter-weary Easterners to a new world of sunshine, fruit and flowers.”
- The townspeople voted to incorporate, but couldn’t decide on a name. They finally agreed that the next morning, they would look out their windows and let the weather decide. Fortunately, it was sunny that day, or the town could have been called Foggyville.
The origins of Napa’s name aren’t clear, although most historians believe it’s derived from an indigenous word for village, fish or maybe grizzly bear. But what we do know is that originally, it was spelled Nappa. What happened to the second P?
- When recording the town’s official name and zip code, a postal clerk in Washington accidentally omitted the second P — and once it had become official, the post office refused to change it.
- The two Ps were considered vulgar, and the Women’s League for Decency petitioned the town leaders to change the spelling.
- No one really knows. Sometime around 1848, the second P just disappeared from use.
What’s the meaning behind Vacaville?
- The literal translation of Vacaville is cow (vaca) town (ville), and the town once had a thriving cattle market.
- The original landowner, Juan Manuel Vaca, agreed to sell off the property for development on the condition the city was named after him. Voila.
- It was all a misunderstanding. Leaders of the new town wanted to call it Encantador Casa , meaning “enchanted home,” but something went wrong with the translation and they ended up with Vacaville.
The best of the rest
Here’s some general trivia to round things out.
San Francisco’s iconic Sutro Tower hasn’t had a major paint job in more than 20 years. Why?
- The fog routinely disrupts exterior maintenance work, including the repainting schedule.
- It’s nearly impossible to avoid dripping paint on the houses and cars below, when you’re painting at such a height, and then people complain.
- The type of paint used in the original 1971 construction is no longer available
MC Hammer was originally an Oakland kid — and Oakland A’s ball boy — named Stanley Burrell. Where did the Hammer name come from?
- At an Oakland A’s victory party, the underage Burrell got into the libations and never lived it down.
- Reggie Jackson thought he looked like Hammerin’ Hank Aaron.
- Nothing so esoteric as that: Early on in his rap and hip hop career, he was so driven, colleagues described him as hammering his way up the charts. The name stuck.
Walt Disney was one of Hewlett-Packard’s first customers. Disney bought eight HP audio oscillators to test recording equipment for which movie?
- “Fantasia”(1940)
- “Pinocchio” (1940)
- “Sleeping Beauty” (1959)
What’s the crookedest street in San Francisco?
- The Embarcadero
- Vermont Street, near 20th
- Lombard Street
The Hell’s Angels were hired to provide protection at what turned out to be the infamous “Gimme Shelter” Altamont Speedway Free Festival concert in December 1969. What were they paid for the gig?
- $50 per motorcycle
- $500 in beer
- The concert was such a disaster, they ended up making nothing.
When Super Bowl XIX was played at the old Stanford Stadium, which relatively new, soon-to-be superstar company gave away seat cushions to provide padding for all those wooden stadium benches?
- Apple
- Amazon
What now-mega event was first launched at San Francisco’s Baker Beach in 1986 with about 35 attendees?
- Burning Man
- Bottle Rock
- Coachella
Where did Francis Ford Coppola write most of the “The Godfather” screenplay?
- Caffe Trieste in North Beach
- At American Zoetrope, the film production company he founded with George Lucas
- A hospital bed
What Bay Area community bills itself as California’s First Hollywood?
- Berkeley
- Santa Clara
- Niles
KCBS Radio got its start when Charles David “Doc” Herrold, who ran Herrold’s College of Wireless and Engineering in San Jose, broadcast his first voice transmissions in 1909. Herrold began regularly scheduled broadcasts in 1912. What was the station’s radio identification?
- KNBC
- KSFO
- San Jose Calling
A California winery stunned the world when its vintage cabernet sauvignon won the 1976 Judgment of Paris, effectively putting California and its Napa Valley on the global wine map. What was the name of the winery?
- Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars
- Gallo
- V. Sattui Winery
So, how’d you do? Check your answers here to see where you rank on the Bay Area-savvy scale.
