Sacramento
is the capital of the U.S. state of California, and the
county seat of Sacramento County. Located along the Sacramento
River and just south of the American River's confluence
in California's expansive Central Valley, it is the seventh-largest
city in California, with a 2007 estimated population of
475,743.[2] Sacramento is the core cultural and economic
center of its four-county metropolitan area (El Dorado,
Placer, Sacramento, and Yolo counties) with a combined population
of 2,136,604. The Sacramento Metropolitan Area is the largest
in the Central Valley, and is the fourth-largest in California,
behind the Greater Los Angeles Area, the San Francisco Bay
Area, and the San Diego area. Greater Sacramento has been
cited as one of the five "most livable" regions
in America in 2004,[3] and the city was cited by Time magazine
as America's most integrated in 2002.[4] Sacramento became
a city due to the efforts of John Sutter, a Swiss immigrant,
and James W. Marshall. Sacramento grew faster due to the
protection of Sutter's Fort, which was established by Sutter
in 1839. During the California Gold Rush, Sacramento was
a major distribution point, a commercial and agricultural
center, and a terminus for wagon trains, stagecoaches, riverboats,
the telegraph, the Pony Express, and the First Transcontinental
Railroad.
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