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Sacramento became a port (79 nautical miles northeast of San Francisco) when a schooner loaded with iron and steel arrived at the wharf in downtown Sacramento. Ships bringing mining tools and equipment, to Sacramento and its nearby gold fields enabled the river port to prosper.
Major Paul Norboe, assistant state engineer for California, saw Sacramento's potential as a port in 1916, and he campaigned for a deeper harbor. Norboe's efforts convinced the state and the Sacramento Chamber of Commerce to make a feasibility study for a deep-water channel and harbor. At the end of World War II, Mr. William G. 'Bill' Stone (later considered "The Father of the Port of Sacramento") convinced the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers to restudy the deep-water project. The Corps' study proposed a 43-mile channel cut to Lake Washington in Yolo County, in what is now the City of West Sacramento. The channel would begin at the Sacramento River near Rio Vista, California.
The U.S. Congress authorized the Sacramento port construction project in July 1946, signed by President Harry S. Truman. Roy Deary, president of the Sacramento Chamber of Commerce, appointed a port district organization committee, with meetings held with the County and the City. The Sacramento-Yolo Port District was created in 1947, with the ground breaking ceremony in 1949.
The first major storage facility at the port was a 500,000 bushel (18,000 m³) capacity grain elevator. This was later expanded to 875,000 bushels (31,000 cubic meters) and received its first truck shipments of wheat in 1950. On June 29th, 1963, with 5,000 spectators waiting to welcome her, the Motor Vessel Taipei Victory arrived. The Port was open for business. The Nationalist Chinese flag ship, freshly painted for the historic event, was loaded with 5,000 tons of bagged rice for Mitsui Trading Co. Its destination was Okinawa. Carried on deck were 1,000 tons of logs for Japan. She was the first ocean-going vessel in Sacramento since the steamship Harpoon in 1934.
The city's current charter was adopted by voters in 1920, establishing a city council and city manager form of government, still used today.
The city of North Sacramento incorporated in 1924, and merged into the city of Sacramento in 1964.
The current mayor is Heather Fargo.
The city has a few professional sports teams. Currently, The city hosts two professional basketball teams, the Sacramento Kings ( NBA), and the Sacramento Monarchs ( WNBA). In addition, Sacramento also has a minor league baseball team called the Sacramento River Cats (affiliate of the Oakland Athletics). In the past, the city was host to two professional football teams, the Sacramento Surge of the WLAF and the Sacramento Gold Miners of the CFL. At one team, it was also the home to an indoor soccer team, the Sacramento Knights of the CISL and later WISL.
The California State Fair is held in Sacramento in the latter weeks of the summer (ending on Labor Day). Over one million people attended this state fair in 2001.
Sacramento is also home to California State University at Sacramento, founded as the Sacramento State College in 1947, with a 2000 enrollment of around 27,000. The Los Rios Community College District hosts several 2-year colleges- American River College, Consumnes River College, Sacramento City College, Folsom Lake College, plus a large number of outreach centers for those colleges.
The primary newspaper is the Sacramento Bee (www.sacbee.com), founded in 1857. Its rival, The Sacramento Union started publishing six years earlier, in 1851. Before it closed its doors in 1994, it was the oldest daily newspaper west of the Mississippi. The Union also had a familiar reporter -- Mark Twain, who worked at the Union in 1866.
| The Big Four Building in Old Sacramento |
The oldest part of the town, other than Sutter's Fort, lies on J to L Streets between the Sacramento River and Interstate 5, and is now known as Old Sacramento. It forms the Old Sacramento State Historic Park. Many buildings from the 1860s on have been either preserved, restored or reconstructed, and the district is now a substantial tourist attraction, with rides on steam-hauled historic trains and paddle steamers available.
The "Big Four Building", built in 1852, was home to the offices of Collis Huntington, Mark Hopkins, Leland Stanford, and Charles Crocker. The Central Pacific Railroad and Southern Pacific Railroad were founded there. The original building was destroyed in 1963 for the construction of Interstate 5, but was re-created using original elements in 1965. It is a National Historic Landmark.
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