About San Bernardino

San Bernardino is a city located in the Riverside-San Bernardino metropolitan area (sometimes called the "Inland Empire"). It serves as the county seat of San Bernardino County, California, United States. As one of the Inland Empire's anchor cities, San Bernardino spans 81 square miles (210 km2) on the floor of the San Bernardino Valley, and has a population of 209,924 as of the 2010 census. San Bernardino is the 17th largest city in California, and the 99th largest city in the United States.

California State University, San Bernardino is located in the northeastern part of the city. The university also hosts the Coussoulis Arena. Other attractions in San Bernardino include ASU Fox Theatre, the McDonald's Museum, which is located on the original site of the world's first McDonald's (at 34.1255°N 117.2946°W), California Theatre, the San Bernardino Mountains, and San Manuel Amphitheater, the largest outdoor amphitheater in the United States. In addition, the city is home to the Inland Empire 66ers of San Bernardino baseball team, they play their home games at San Manuel Stadium in downtown San Bernardino.

San Bernardino is the poorest city of its population size in California, and the second poorest in the US next to Detroit, Michigan.

The city of San Bernardino, California, occupies much of the San Bernardino Valley, which indigenous tribes people originally referred to as "The Valley of the Cupped Hand of God". The Tongva Indians also called the San Bernardino area Wa'aach in their language. Upon seeing the immense geological arrowhead-shaped rock formation on the side of the San Bernardino Mountains, they found the hot and cold springs to which the "arrowhead" seemed to point.

The city of San Bernardino is one of the oldest communities in the state of California. Named for Bernardino of Siena on May 20, 1810, San Bernardino, in its present-day location, was not largely settled until 1851, after California became a state. The first Anglo-American colony was established by pioneers associated with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who would be recalled by Brigham Young in 1857 due to the Utah War. The city was officially incorporated in the year 1857. Soon afterward, San Bernardino became an important trading hub in Southern California.