The San Gabriel Valley is one of the principal valleys of Southern California, United States. It lies to the east of Los Angeles, to the north of the Puente Hills, to the south of the San Gabriel Mountains, and west of the Inland Empire. It derives its name from the San Gabriel River that flows southward through the center of the valley. The river itself was named for the Spanish Mission San Gabriel Arcángel, which was originally built in the Whittier Narrows in 1771. At one time predominantly agricultural, the San Gabriel Valley is today almost entirely urbanized and is an integral part of the Greater Los Angeles metropolitan area. It is one of the most ethnically diverse regions in the country. About 200 square miles (520 km2) in size, the Valley includes 31 cities and five unincorporated communities. In 1886, Pasadena was the first independent incorporated city still located in Los Angeles County (both Anaheim and Santa Ana are now located in Orange County).
Read more about San Gabriel Valley: Cities and Communities, Early History, Demographics and Ethnic Diversity, Local Interest, Transportation, Climate, Institutions of Higher Learning, Local Sites of Interest, Company Headquarters, Area Codes
Famous quotes containing the words san, gabriel and/or valley:
“We had won. Pimps got out of their polished cars and walked the streets of San Francisco only a little uneasy at the unusual exercise. Gamblers, ignoring their sensitive fingers, shook hands with shoeshine boys.... Beauticians spoke to the shipyard workers, who in turn spoke to the easy ladies.... I thought if war did not include killing, I’d like to see one every year. Something like a festival.”
—Maya Angelou (b. 1928)
“The rose and poppy are her flowers; for where
Is he not found, O Lilith, whom shed scent
And soft-shed kisses and soft sleep shall snare?
Lo! as that youth’s eyes burned at thine, so went
Thy spell through him, and left his straight neck bent
And round his heart one strangling golden hair.”
—Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828–1882)
“As I went forth early on a still and frosty morning, the trees looked like airy creatures of darkness caught napping; on this side huddled together, with their gray hairs streaming, in a secluded valley which the sun had not penetrated; on that, hurrying off in Indian file along some watercourse, while the shrubs and grasses, like elves and fairies of the night, sought to hide their diminished heads in the snow.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)