Sacramento, CA Photograph - Southern Pacific Train in Old Sacramento, a 28-Acre National Historic Landmark District and State Historic Park Along The Sacramento River in California's Capital City

Old Sacramento is a 28-acre National Historic Landmark District and State Historic Park along the Sacramento River in California's capital city. The district, which features original and re-created buildings and other exhibits from the time of the California Gold Rush and the Transcontinental Railroad in the mid-19th Century. The enclave also contains a number of restaurants, theaters, and other entertainment venues. Historic buildings include the 1849 Eagle Theater; the 1853 B. F. Hastings Building, once home to the California Supreme Court; and the 1855 Big Four Building. Old Sacramento's historical significance comes from it being the western terminus of the Pony Express postal system, the first transcontinental railroad, and the transcontinental telegraph. The California State Railroad Museum is located within the complex. Sacramento is the capital city of the U.S. state of California and the county seat of Sacramento County. It is located at the confluence of the Sacramento River and the American River in the northern portion of California's expansive Central Valley. With a population of 472,178, it is the sixth-largest city in California and the 35th largest city in the U.S. Sacramento is the core cultural and economic center of the Sacramento metropolitan area which includes seven counties; with an estimated population of 2,527,123. Its metropolitan area is the fourth largest in California after the Greater Los Angeles Area, San Francisco Bay Area, and the San Diego metropolitan area as well as the 22nd largest in the United States. Sacramento was cited by Time magazine as America's most ethnically and racially integrated city in 2002.

Credit line: The Jon B. Lovelace Collection of California Photographs in Carol M. Highsmith's America Project, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.