South San Francisco is a city in San Mateo County, California, United States, located on the San Francisco Peninsula in the San Francisco Bay Area. The population was 60,552 at the 2000 census.
The city lies north of San Francisco International Airport in a small valley between San Bruno Mountain and the Coast Range. The city is served by two major highways, U.S. Route 101 (the Bayshore Freeway) and Interstate 280. A BART station, located directly adjacent to El Camino High School and Solaire Transit Village, opened in 2003, supplementing Caltrain service to San Francisco and San Jose. The city's small downtown and several aging residential subdivisions, such as Mayfair Village, Sunshine Gardens, Avalon Park, Winston Manor, and Rancho Buri Buri, are located west of Highway 101, while the area east of Highway 101 is dominated by bland industrial complexes interspersed with futuristic office parks, particularly the Oyster Point Marina.
South San Francisco is not known as a tourist destination, but a key landmark of the city is visible to anyone who travels along the San Francisco Peninsula or travels through the nearby San Francisco International Airport. Sign Hill, near San Bruno Mountain State Park has huge letters on its mountainside [1] which read: "SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO THE INDUSTRIAL CITY". The letters are made of concrete and sit flush with the hillside (in contrast to the raised steel letters of the Hollywood Sign in Los Angeles).
