Named after the beautiful view of the Santa Cruz Mountains, Mountain View, California, was founded in 1849 as a stagecoach stop on the route between San Jose and San Francisco.  The area was a land grant known as Rancho Pastoria De Las Borregas, given to Francisco Estrada by governor Juan Alvarado.

At the time of its founding, Mountain View was very tiny. The town only consisted of a blacksmith shop, a general store, a saloon, a hotel, and a school, all of which served the residents of Mountain View and the stagecoaches that stopped there. However, it didn’t take long for the town to start growing. By 1852, the first Baptist minister arrived to settle in Mountain View with sights on developing a Christian village. In 1860, the population of Mountain View had grown to 560 residents, most of which depended on agriculture as their primary source of income.

Mountain View experienced an economic boom and exponential population growth after World War II, thanks to the advent of the aerospace and electronics industries, with a 370.7 percent increase in population in only one decade, from 1950 to 1960.

Mountain View has left its agricultural past behind, and the city’s economy is now based on technology. After the Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory was established in Mountain View in 1956, the city became the home of many of the most critical technology enterprises worldwide, including Google, Microsoft, Symantec and Samsung.

In 2004, Google opened its world-famous headquarters, the Googleplex, in Mountain View. This base of operations boasts many amenities for its employees, including two pools and cafeterias where employees can enjoy complimentary meals. Additionally, Google has instituted transportation shuttles to aid their employees’ travel to work. All shuttles are Wi-Fi enabled. Google also provides free Wi-Fi to the entire city.