Santa Clara Valley
Encyclopedia : S : SA : SAN : Santa Clara Valley
- See Silicon Valley for a discussion of the technological aspects of the Santa Clara Valley.
The
Santa Clara Valley is a valley just south of the
San Francisco Bay in
northern California in the
United States. Much of
Santa Clara County, California and its county seat
San Jose, are in the Santa Clara Valley. The valley was originally known as
the Valley of Heart's Delight for the miles and miles of fruit trees blossoming in the spring. Once primarily agricultural because of its highly fertile soil, it is now largely urbanized.
Silicon Valley is roughly synonymous with the Santa Clara Valley, although since the former is as much a state of mind as an actual location, people often refer to parts of the
San Francisco Peninsula as being part of Silicon Valley as well. Locally, the Santa Clara Valley is also referred to as the "South Bay." However, the Santa Clara Valley
American Viticultural Area remains important.
The northern end of the Santa Clara Valley is at the southern tip of the San Francisco Bay, and the southern end is in the vicinity of Gilroy. The valley is bounded by the Santa Cruz Mountains on the southwest and by the Diablo Range on the northeast. It is about 30 miles long and about 15 miles wide. The valley's largest city, by far, is San Jose.
Looking west from
Alum Rock Park over northern
San Jose (downtown is at far left) and other parts of the valley.
Cities and towns in the Santa Clara Valley include (in alphabetical order):
Because so much high-tech industry has spread out from the valley,
Fremont and
Newark, even though they are not in the Santa Clara Valley, are often included in discussions about Silicon Valley or, in the case of Fremont, is referred to as the
Gateway to Silicon Valley (a title also claimed occasionally by San Jose). Similarly,
Palo Alto, while in
Santa Clara County and considered part of
Silicon Valley, is on the
San Francisco Peninsula.
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.
