Daly City: The History of the Peninsula’s Gateway

The Daly City is located in the state of California. It is considered to be the largest city in the entire county of San Mateo County. Geographically, it lies in the southern region of San Francisco. Different cities of California serve as the borders of Daly City. Cities such as Brisbane, South San Francisco, Pacifica and San Francisco surround the Daly City. Daly City also functions as a border to other unincorporated places in San Mateo County, such as San Bruno Mountain State Park, Olympic Club and other near Colma. According to United States Census Bureau, Daly City has an estimated population of 101, 123 as of 2010. Daly City ranks 1st most populous city in the San Mateo County. In terms of population, Daly City ranks the 6th most populous in the California State and 273rd most populous in the whole country. The city was incorporated in 1911, and was given the name of the original land owner, John Daly.

The famous nickname of Daly City is “Gateway to the Peninsula”. It is because of the fact that the area of the city extends between the San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean on the west. The land area of Daly City is formerly Spanish land which had been unoccupied for a good number of years. In 1769, Gaspar de Portola led his exploration party near the bay and established a military post which was called Presidio. The city of San Francisco was then discovered at the center of the bay. While San Francisco is growing to be a prosperous city, nothing much happened on the outside of its borders. This might be influenced by the outside soil, which is not good for crop plantings. Only when the California Gold Rush opened that the open spaces near San Bruno Mountain were explored with interest.

For those who did not succeed in the Gold Rush, they settled in the area instead and tried their luck in opening small businesses. Further down, towns were started, as well as farming and ranching businesses. One of the workers in the farm is John Daly, who crossed the Atlantic at the age of 13. He started on a dairy farm and married the boss’s daughter. Daly rose into prominence and built his own ranch. He also moved to San Francisco with his family and built another ranch there, but he soon realized that his ranch outside San Francisco could be used for living, than grazing cattle. In 1907, his huge property became subdivided and incorporated into a city. Once the water system was established, and the roads were paved, the inhabitants called it Daly City in honor of the kind businessmen who accommodated the surge of refugees after the devastating earthquake in 1906.