Fremont is the fourth most populated city in the Bay Area after San Jose, San Francisco, and Oakland. Located in California's East Bay, Fremont is accessible via highways 880 and 680, it was incorporated in 1956 by merging six smaller communities: Centerville, Irvington, Mission San Jose, Niles, and Warm Springs. Fremont is also conveniently connected to the Peninsula via the Dumbarton Bridge.
Some of the biggest attractions in Fremont include Mission San Jose, which is a reconstruction of the famous Spanish mission originally founded in 1797. Another Fremont attraction is the Don Edwards National Wildlife Refuge, which was established on the south end of the San Francisco Bay. This consists of parkland as well as a museum.
Like much of the Bay Area, Fremont is known as a multicultural melting pot. With its extensive ethnic diversity, it is possible to find an eclectic mix of cuisines and languages from many different countries all in a single city!
According to the 2000 census, there were just over 200,000 people living in Fremont, and the median household income was $76,579. The Fremont Unified School District has several award-winning schools, such as Irvington High and Chadbourne Elementary, which have earned the titles as both California Distinguished Schools as well National Blue Ribbon Schools. Famous residents of Fremont include Olympic skater Kristi Yamaguchi and Afghan writer Abdul Rashid Benish.