Mountain View began as a stagecoach stop on the road between San Francisco and San Jose and incorporated on November 7, 1902. It covers about 12.2 square miles between the foothills and the bay.
Its 1904 Board of Trade explained the name as the view of the Santa Cruz range to the west and the Mount Hamilton range across the valley. The town grew as an orchard center, then as home to Moffett Field, NASA Ames and some of the first silicon companies, and today hosts the headquarters of Google and Intuit.