Alameda (/ˌæləˈmiːdə/ AL-ə-MEE-də; Spanish: [alaˈmeða]; Spanish for "tree-lined path") is a city in Alameda County, California, United States, located in the East Bay region of the Bay Area.

The higher ground nearby and adjacent parts of what is now downtown Oakland were the site of one of the largest coastal oak forests in the world.

Spanish colonists called the area Encinal, meaning "forest of evergreen oak".

[12] The inhabitants at the time of the arrival of the Spanish in the late 18th century were a local band of the Ohlone tribe.

The peninsula was included in the vast Rancho San Antonio granted in 1820 to Luis Peralta by the Spanish king who claimed California.

"Alameda" referred to the village at Encinal and High streets, Hibbardsville was located at the North Shore ferry and shipping terminal, and Woodstock was on the west near the ferry piers of the South Pacific Coast Railroad and the Central Pacific.

[13] The early formation of the Park Street Historic Commercial District (or downtown) was centered near the train lines.

[13] On September 6, 1869, the Alameda Terminal made history; it was the site of the arrival of the first train via the First transcontinental railroad to reach the shores of San Francisco Bay,[16] thus achieving the first coast to coast transcontinental railroad in North America.

[18]] The need for expanded shipping facilities and increased flow of current through the estuary led to the dredging of a tidal canal through the marshland between Oakland and Alameda.

[19] In 1917, a private entertainment park called Neptune Beach was built in the area now known as Crab Cove, which became a major recreation destination in the 1920s and 1930s.

In the 1930s Pan American Airways established a seaplane port along with the fill that led to the Alameda Mole, the original home base for the China Clipper flying boat.

In 1929, the University of California established the San Francisco Airdrome located near the current Webster Street tube as a public airport.

[25] In the late 1950s, the Utah Construction Company began a landfill beyond the Old Sea Wall and created South Shore.

On February 7, 1973, a USN Vought A-7E Corsair II fighter jet on a routine training mission from Lemoore Naval Air Station suddenly caught fire 28,000 feet (8,500 m) above the San Francisco Bay, crashing into the Tahoe Apartments in Alameda.

This region experiences warm (but not hot), dry summers, and cool (but not cold), wet winters.

[30] Annual precipitation is about 22 in (560 mm), all rain (snow is extremely rare at sea level in the San Francisco Bay Area).

The low-lying island has seen sea-level and groundwater level rise threaten its infrastructure and people not just through flooding events, but through the increased liquefaction risk from more saturated soils.

[44] The Alameda Art Association has about 80 members as of January 2011, and has a gallery space at South Shore Center mall.

The Altarena Playhouse, which performs comedies, dramas, and musicals, was founded in 1938 and is the longest continuously operating community theater in the San Francisco Bay Area.

[47] It features homemade floats, classic cars, motorized living room furniture, fire-breathing dragons, and marching bands.

There are three major events when the street in Alameda's historic downtown district is closed to vehicular traffic.

The Park Street Spring Festival takes place every May during the weekend of Mother's Day and attracts over 50,000 visitors.

The Park Street Art & Wine Faire takes place the last weekend of every July and attracts over 100,000 visitors.

The Park Street Classic Car Show is held on the second Saturday every October and displays over 400 vintage vehicles.

[48] The annual Sand Castle and Sculpture Contest takes place in June at the Robert Crown Memorial State Beach.

[50] After two previous failures, voters in the city passed a ballot measure in 2000 authorizing a bond measure for construction of a new main library to replace the city's Carnegie Library, damaged during the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake.

The city also received state funds for the new main library and opened the doors to the new facility in November 2006.

Following the Encinal, several other papers appeared along geographic lines, and the Daily Argus eventually rose to prominence.

Around 1900, the Daily Argus began to fade in importance and east and west papers The Times and The Star combined to take the leading role as the Alameda Times-Star in the 1930s.