San Fernando Valley, California

Introduction
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Southwest of Hollywood are Westwood—home of the University of California, Los Angeles—and Century City, headquarters of many motion-picture and broadcasting companies. North of Westwood and Century City, and on the other side of the Santa Monica Mountains, is the vast San Fernando Valley. The valley is dotted with commercial centers ringed by residential neighborhoods such as Studio City, Van Nuys, and Northridge.

San Fernando Valley, valley and residential and industrial region in southern California, located north of central Los Angeles. It is loosely bounded by the Transverse Range on the north, the Santa Susana Mountains on the west, and the Santa Monica Mountains on the south. The valley extends from Glendale, in the east, to Chatsworth, in the west, for a distance of 40 km (25 mi); its maximum width is about 18 km (about 11 mi).

 

Industries include aircraft and computer manufacturing. The valley also is a center of the entertainment industry; several motion-picture and television studios are located here. It is the site of the California State University at Northridge (1958). Cahuenga Pass, which connects the valley to Hollywood and downtown Los Angeles, was the site in 1847 of the signing of the treaty that ended the Mexican War in California.

 

The San Fernando Valley is named for a mission founded there in 1797. For much of the 19th century the valley was used for livestock and wheat production. With the coming of the railroad in 1874, land prices began to increase, and real estate development began in earnest in the 1880s. When water was brought in by pipeline from the Sierra Nevada in 1913, the valley's pastoral setting began to give way to a more urban and suburban environment, spawning the cities of Burbank, Glendale, and San Fernando, and the unincorporated neighborhoods of Encino, Tarzana, Northridge, Chatsworth, and Sherman Oaks. In 1915, the city of Los Angeles annexed the entire San Fernando Valley, with the exception of Burbank, Glendale, and San Fernando.

 

Immediately after World War II (1939-1945), the San Fernando Valley underwent another period of growth as sprawling groups of houses were built for veterans and their families. Today the valley's population is more than 1.3 million, up from 1 million in 1980. A devastating earthquake, centered in Northridge and measuring 6.7 on the Richter scale, struck the San Fernando Valley on January 17, 1994.