Santa Clara occupies the south end of the San Francisco Bay, in the center of what became known as Silicon Valley, and is one of the larger cities in Santa Clara County with a population of roughly 130,000. It sits between San Jose to the south and east and Sunnyvale to the west, with major freeways — U.S. 101, Interstate 280, and State Route 237 — framing its edges. Known as the "Mission City," Santa Clara pairs one of California's deepest historical roots with one of the world's densest concentrations of technology industry. The city's history begins with Mission Santa Clara de Asís, established in 1777 as the eighth of California's 21 Spanish missions. The mission became the site of Santa Clara College, founded by the Jesuits in 1851 and today Santa Clara University, the oldest operating institution of higher learning in California. That heritage is visible in the mission church, the university campus, and the Old Quad neighborhood that grew up around them. In the late 20th century, the city's orchards and farmland gave way to the semiconductor and computing industries that defined Silicon Valley. Santa Clara is home to the headquarters of Intel, Nvidia, and Applied Materials, among others, and to Levi's Stadium, the home of the San Francisco 49ers, plus the California's Great America amusement park. The result is a city where residential neighborhoods, a research university, and global technology campuses sit side by side. Santa Clara appeals to a wide range of households: technology professionals who can walk or cycle to major employers, families drawn to the single-district school system and neighborhood parks, and residents who value the city's transit connections, central location, and mix of historic and modern housing. It is at once a company town of the tech economy and one of the Bay Area's oldest settled places.