About Palo Alto

Palo Alto (/ˌpɑːloʊˈɑːltoʊ/, /ˌpæloʊˈæltoʊ/; Spanish: palo: literally "stick", colloquial: "tree" and alto: "tall"; meaning: "tall tree") is a California charter city located in the northwest corner of Santa Clara County, in the San Francisco Bay Area of California, United States. The city shares its borders with East Palo Alto, Mountain View, Los Altos, Los Altos Hills, Stanford, Portola Valley, and Menlo Park. It is named after a redwood tree called El Palo Alto.

The city includes portions of Stanford University and is headquarters to a number of Silicon Valley high-technology companies including Hewlett-Packard (HP), VMware, Tesla Motors, PARC, Ning, IDEO and Palantir Technologies. It has served as an incubator to several other high-technology companies such as Apple Inc., Google, Facebook, Logitech, Intuit, Sun Microsystems, Pinterest, and PayPal. As of the 2010 census the city had a total population of 64,403 residents. Palo Alto was established by Leland Stanford when he established Stanford University following the death of his son Leland Stanford Jr. Palo Alto is one of the most expensive cities in the United States and its residents are among the most educated in the country.

The city got its name from the tall landmark Redwood tree, El Palo Alto, which still grows on the east bank of San Francisquito Creek across from Menlo Park. One trunk of the twin-trunked tree can still be found by the railroad trestle near Alma Street in El Palo Alto Park (the other trunk was destroyed during a storm in the late 20th century). There a plaque recounts the story of the Portolà expedition, a 63-man, 200-horse expedition from San Diego to Monterey from November 7–11, 1769. The group overshot Monterey in the fog and when they reached modern-day Pacifica they ascended Sweeney Ridge and discovered San Francisco Bay. Portolà descended from Sweeney Ridge southeast down San Andreas Creek to Laguna Creek (now Crystal Springs Reservoirs and the Filoli estate, and thence to the San Francisquito Creek watershed, ultimately camping at El Palo Alto from November 6–11, 1769. Thinking the bay was too wide to cross, the group retraced their journey back to Monterey, never discovering the Golden Gate entrance to the Bay.

Palo Alto is crossed by several creeks that flow north to San Francisco Bay, Adobe Creek on its eastern boundary, San Francisquito Creek on its western boundary, and Matadero Creek in between the other two. Arastradero Creek is tributary to Matadero Creek, and Barron Creek is now diverted to Adobe Creek just south of Highway 101 by a diversion channel. The San Francisquito Creek mainstem is formed by the confluence of Corte Madera Creek and Bear Creek not far below Searsville Dam. Further downstream, Los Trancos Creek is tributary to San Francisquito Creek below Interstate 280.