page_title: Oakland, California
section_title: Geography and Cityscape
hierarchical_section_title: Oakland, California / Geography and Cityscape
caption_attribution_description: English: downtown oakland
context_page_description: Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast port city, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third largest city overall in the San Francisco Bay Area, the eighth most populated city in California, and the 45th most populated city in the United States. With a population of 433,031 as of 2019, it serves as a trade center for the San Francisco Bay Area; its Port of Oakland is the busiest port in the San Francisco Bay, the entirety of Northern California, and the fifth busiest in the United States of America. An act to incorporate the city was passed on May 4, 1852, and incorporation was later approved on March 25, 1854, which officially made Oakland a city. Oakland is a charter city.
  Oakland's territory covers what was once a mosaic of California coastal terrace prairie, oak woodland, and north coastal scrub. Its land served as a rich resource when its hillside oak and redwood timber were logged to build San Francisco. Oakland's fertile flatland soils helped it become a prolific agricultural region.
context_section_description: Oakland is in the eastern region of the San Francisco Bay. In 1991 the City Hall tower was at 37.805302°N 122.272539°W (NAD83). (The building still exists, but like the rest of the Bay Area, it has shifted northwest perhaps 0.6 meters in the last twenty years.)
  The United States Census Bureau says the city's total area is 78.0 square miles (202 km²), including 55.8 square miles (145 km²) of land and 22.2 square miles (57 km²) (28.48 percent) of water.
  Oakland's highest point is near Grizzly Peak Blvd, east of Berkeley, just over 1,760 feet (540 m) above sea level at about 37.8786°N 122.2241°W. Oakland has 19 miles (31 km) of shoreline, but Radio Beach is the only beach in Oakland.
  Oaklanders refer to their city's terrain as "the flatlands" and "the hills". Until recent waves of gentrification, these terms also symbolized Oakland's deep economic divide, with "the hills" being more affluent communities. About two-thirds of Oakland lies in the flat plain of the East Bay, with one-third rising into the foothills and hills of the East Bay range.
  Ruptures along the nearby San Andreas Fault caused severe earth movement in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1906 and 1989. San Andreas quakes induces creep (movement occurring on earthquake faults) in the Hayward fault, which runs directly through Oakland, Berkeley, San Jose and other Bay Area cities.
caption: 14th and Franklin
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