Vallejo is a city located in Solano County, California. In 1900, 7,965 people lived in Vallejo; in 1910, 11,340; in 1920, 21,107; and in 1940, 20,072. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 116,760. It is located in the Bay Area near San Francisco, Fairfield, and Benicia.

Vallejo is home to the Six Flags Marine World theme park; the now-defunct Mare Island Naval Shipyard; the California Maritime Academy (part of the California State University system); and Touro University, an osteopathic medical college. Ferry service runs from a terminal on Mare Island Strait to San Francisco, through Vallejo Transit's BayLink division.

For one week in 1852, Vallejo was the capital of California. One year later, it was again the capital. This time, it lasted for one month. The legislature left in 1853, but the government established a naval shipyard there which helped the town overcome the loss. The yard functioned for over a hundred years, finally closing in 1996.

The city was named for a Mexican military officer, Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo, who helped to settle the area. He wanted the site named Eureka, but the other citizens of the area wanted to name the new city after the general. Neighboring Benicia is named after Vallejo's wife. The man mostly responsible for the founding of the city is John B. Frisbie, who married Vallejo's daughter. He was responsible for seeing that the city remained together and helped to establish the city's government.

Downtown Vallejo retains many of its historic Victorian and Craftsman homes.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Vallejo, California".