San Bernardino is the seat of San Bernardino County just east of Los Angeles, between Barstow and Riverside. It lies along Interstate 215, (See Los Angeles Freeways), near the Angeles National Forest and the San Bernardino Mountains. Locals call the surrounding region the "Inland Empire".
In 1810, Spanish Franciscan missionaries named the future town site on the day of their arrival, the feast day of San Bernardino of Siena. Mormons arrived in the mid-1800s and laid out the present-day city.
Today, fast-growing San Bernardino is a transportation, residential and commercial center with a widely diversified industrial base. Of interest are the Heritage House, exhibiting late 19th Century furnishings, and the San Bernardino Symphony Orchestra. The Route 66 Rendezvous and National Orange Show Citrus Fair are held annually. A campus of California State University is here, as well as the headquarters of the San Bernardino National Forest.
San Bernardino is part of the Riverside-San Bernardino, California metro area.
