Santa Ana, CA

Santa Ana is the County seat of Orange County, CA and the second most populous city in Orange County, California.

The city is part of the Greater Los Angeles Area which is the second largest metropolitan area in the U.S., with almost 18 million people. U.S. cities with more than 300,000 people, Santa Ana is the 4th-most densely populated behind only New York City, San Francisco, and Chicago.

Santa Ana lends its name to the Santa Ana Freeway (I-5), which runs through the city. It also shares its name with the nearby Santa Ana Mountains, and the Santa Ana winds, which have historically fueled seasonal wildfires throughout Southern California.

History of Santa Ana, CA

In 1810, year of the commencement of the war of Mexican Independence (1810–1821), Jose Antonio Yorba, a sergeant of the Spanish army, was granted land that he called Rancho Santiago de Santa Ana. This rancho was the only land grant in Orange County granted under Spanish Rule. Surrounding land grants in Orange County were granted after Mexican Independence by the new government.

After the Mexican-American war ended in 1848, Alta California became part of the United States and American settlers arrived in this area.

Claimed in 1869 by Kentuckian William H. Spurgeon on land obtained from the descendents of Jose Antonio Yorba, Santa Ana was incorporated as a city in 1886 with a population of 2000 and in 1889 became the seat of the newly formed Orange County.

By 1906 the Pacific Electric Railway from Los Angeles was extended to Santa Ana, running along Fourth Street downtown. The “red cars” made travel to Los Angeles easier and helped continue Santa Ana’s population boom. After US oil companies bought and ruined all train companies in the country, the train route was abandoned by the 1950s and the tracks were removed along with much of the rest of the Pacific Electric system. The closing coincided with the opening of the Santa Ana Freeway in 1953, increasing the ease of travel by automobile.

Santa Ana was the home of the original Glenn L. Martin aviation company, founded in 1912 before merging with the Wright Company in 1916. Later, Glenn Luther Martin created a second company of the same name in Cleveland, Ohio which eventually merged with the Lockheed Corporation to form the largest defense contractor in the world, Lockheed Martin.

During World War II, the Santa Ana Army Air Base was built as a training center for the United States Army Air Forces. The base was responsible for continued population growth in Santa Ana and the rest of Orange County as many veterans moved to the area to raise families after the end of the war.

Population of Santa Ana, CA

The population of Santa Ana, CA was 329,427, as of the 2011 census.

Top employers in Santa Ana, CA

• County of Orange
• Ingram Micro
• Rancho Santiago Community College District
• United States Postal Service
• Tenet Healthcare
• Freedom Communications
• First American
• Corinthian Colleges
• California Department of Mental Health
• United Building Services

Santa Ana, CA Zip Codes: 92701, 92702, 92703, 92704, 92705, 92706, 92707, 92708, 92711, 92712, 92725, 92728, 92735, 92799, 92707

Thanks to Wikipedia contributors for valuable city & community data!