The 20th Century was a period marked by phenomenal growth, engineering achievements, and social progress.

 

The prosperity decades also witnessed the blossoming of California's love affair with the car. Automobiles became an integral part of the much-admired "California life style."

 

The San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge opened for traffic on November 12, 1936, six months before San Francisco's other famous bridge, the Golden Gate Bridge. The Golden Gate Bridge had the longest suspension span in the world when it was completed in 1937.

 

After a brief flirtation with filmmaking in northern California, the fledgling industry relocated to the Hollywood area.  The Los Angeles suburb of Hollywood offered a superior climate, a greater variety of landscapes, and something northern California simply couldn't match--easy access to the Mexican border across which worried filmmakers could flee (if ever necessary) to escape Thomas Edison's patent attorneys from New Jersey.

 

Spanish missionaries introduced the first oranges to California during the late eighteenth century, but it wasn't until a century later that citrus fruits became an important part of the state's economy. California farmers in 1876 began growing summer-ripening Valencia oranges. Southern California was soon producing two-thirds of the nation's oranges and more than 90 percent of its lemons.

 

At almost precisely 5:12 a.m. on April 18, 1906 , local time, an earthquake foreshock occurred with sufficient force to be felt widely throughout the San Francisco Bay area. The great earthquake broke loose some 20 to 25 seconds later, with an epicenter near San Francisco. Violent shocks punctuated the strong shaking which lasted some 45 to 60 seconds. The earthquake was felt from southern Oregon to south of Los Angeles and inland as far as central Nevada. 

 

The quake lasted only a minute but caused the worst natural disaster in the nation's history. Modern analysis estimates it registered 8.25 on the Richter scale.  The greatest destruction came from the fires the quake ignited. The fires lasted for four days and nights. Some property owners set fire to their damaged buildings because most insurance policies covered fire losses while prohibiting payment if the building had only sustained earthquake damage.

 

Property losses from the disaster have been estimated to be more than $400 million.  Reconstruction was swift, and largely completed by 1915, in time for the Panama-Pacific Exposition which celebrated the reconstruction of the city and its "rise from the ashes".

California's gross state product is nearly $1.5 trillion, making it one of the world's largest economies.

 

Although agriculture is gradually yielding to industry as the core of the state's economy, California leads the nation in the production of fruits and vegetables, including carrots, lettuce, onions, broccoli, tomatoes, strawberries, and almonds. The state's most valuable crops are grapes, cotton, flowers, and oranges; dairy products, however, contribute the single largest share of farm income, and California is again the national leader in this sector. The state also produces the major share of U.S. domestic wine.

 

California continues to be a major U.S. center for motion picture, television film, and related entertainment industries, especially in Hollywood and Burbank.

 

Other major industries include aerospace, computer hardware and software, oil drilling, mining (especially borax), and trade and tourism.