Mountain View is a city in Santa Clara County, California, United States, part of the San Francisco Bay Area.

[8] Mountain View was integral to the early history and growth of Silicon Valley, and is the location of many high technology companies.

Mountain View houses the headquarters of many of the world's largest technology companies, including Google and Alphabet Inc., Unicode Consortium, Intuit, Applied Intuition, NASA Ames Research Center, and former or existing headquarters for Microsoft, Symantec, 23andMe, LinkedIn, Samsung, Quora and Synopsys.

The fertile land between the Santa Cruz Mountains and the shores of the southern San Francisco Bay once supported multiple villages of the indigenous Ohlone people.

[13] The Mexican land grant of Rancho Pastoria de las Borregas was given in 1842 by Alta California Governor Juan Alvarado to Francisco Estrada.

Reverend Henry Merrill Henderson, born in Maryland, arrived here at age 35 with his family in 1852; he was meeting relatives: the Ricketts and others who had migrated from Missouri and Kentucky.

[citation needed] The U.S. Navy's adjacent 1,000-acre (4.0 km2) Moffett Field Complex was constructed beginning after 1931; its development attracted many workers and it brought many economic opportunities.

In 1940, the city was the base of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (now the NASA Ames Research Center), which had a strong influence on the development of aerospace and electronics industries.

[22] Due to its history as a center for semiconductor manufacturing, Mountain View has seven sites on the Environmental Protection Agency's Final National Priorities List (NPL), a list of hazardous waste sites in the United States eligible for long-term remedial action financed under the federal Superfund program.

The sites were formerly used by companies including Fairchild Semiconductor, Intel, Raytheon, CTS Printex Inc., Spectra-Physics, Jasco Chemical, GTE and Teledyne.

However, both summers and winters are somewhat moderated due to its relative proximity to the Pacific, although it has a lesser maritime influence than San Francisco further north on the peninsula.

[31] Starting on January 1, 2019, the minimum wage was to be "adjusted annually based on the San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose regional Consumer Price Index.

[34] Subsequently, on December 30, 2018, it was announced that Mountain View's minimum wage would rise to $15.65 on January 1, 2019, with the increase delayed by one year for companies with 25 or fewer employees.

[44] In August 2017, the Mercury News reported that Mountain View had seen RVs and recreational vehicles become the choice of residence for many working poor in the city.

The Mountain View Adobe, a small events center on Moffett Boulevard, is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

The second floor of the library has a special collection in a room devoted to the history of Mountain View, which features a portrait of Crisanto Castro, for whom the major downtown thoroughfare is named.

On the north side, facing the Bay, the park includes tidal ponds and mudflats, accessible via pedestrian and bicycle paths.

Stevens Creek is home to coyotes, gray foxes, black-tailed deer, butterflies, dragonflies, and 150 species of birds,[54] as well as shorebirds that feed in the mudflat.

[62] Springer Elementary, although located within the borders of Mountain View, is governed by the Los Altos School District.

Some Mountain View residents attend Almond Elementary and Egan Junior High in the Los Altos School District.

After the creation of the JPA, the Shoreline Regional Park Community shared less than $1 million per year with the elementary and high school districts.

[64][65] In 2008, a citizen-supported parcel tax, largely aimed at reducing class sizes, was renewed in an overwhelmingly positive vote.

Caltrain provides all classes of service in Mountain View, with Baby Bullet trains stopping at the main downtown station.

Many large local employers (including Google, Microsoft, Apple Inc., and NASA Ames Research Center) operate employee shuttles that stop at the Downtown Mountain View Station.

There is also a free community shuttle bus that serves 50 stops in a loop within Mountain View, which connects the major shopping areas with the residential neighborhoods.

Moffett Federal Airfield is located just north of Mountain View, but it is restricted to government, military, and private use.

[71] The city is one of the region's largest users of Recycled Water, mostly for landscaping in the area North of US-101 covering Shoreline Park and the Google campus.

[72] On August 16, 2006, after over a year of test deployments, Google announced that its implementation of free IEEE 802.11g wireless service for all of the city was fully operational.

[73] On February 19, 2014, the City of Mountain View and Google announced a new connectivity plan for residents, to replace the existing system.

Other areas to be covered included Rengstorff Park, the Mountain View Public Library, Senior, Community, and Teen Centers.