The Valley

Mountain View is a city in Santa Clara County, in the San Francisco Bay Area of California. It is named for its views of the Santa Cruz Mountains. The city shares its borders with the cities of Palo Alto, Los Altos, and Sunnyvale, as well as Moffett Federal Airfield.

Situated in Silicon Valley, Mountain View is home to many high technology companies. In 1956, Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory, the first company to develop silicon semiconductor devices in what came to be known as Silicon Valley, was established in the city by William Shockley. Today, many of the largest technology companies in the world are headquartered in the city, including the Fortune 1000 companies Google, Symantec, and Intuit.

Mountain View is located on the San Francisco Peninsula, at the north end of State Route 85, where it meets U.S. Route 101. The historic route El Camino Real also runs through Mountain View. It is bounded to the northwest by Palo Alto, to the southwest by Los Altos, to the southeast by Sunnyvale.

Mountain View has a pedestrian-friendly downtown centered on Castro Street. The downtown area consists of the seven blocks of Castro Street from the Downtown Mountain View Station transit center in the north to the intersection with El Camino Real in the south.

Going south from the downtown station, there are approximately four blocks with a high concentration of diverse restaurants, cafes, and shops. Chez TJ, one of the few restaurants rated by the prestigious Michelin Guide in the Bay Area, is located a block from Castro Street on Villa Street. Tied House, located next door, was one of the first brewpubs to open in the Bay Area, and remains a popular stop in downtown.

The core of downtown is the plaza shared by City Hall, the Mountain View Center for Performing Arts and the award-winning Mountain View Public Library. Behind those buildings is Pioneer Park, which enjoys a quiet environment resulting from the City Hall building blocking out the noise from Castro Street. The Plaza between City Hall and the Performing Arts Center is a well-used spot for community gatherings and events, and features an impressive collection of public art. The Mountain View Police Department is located two blocks away from Castro Street on Villa Street.

Since 1971, the city has held the annual Mountain View Art & Wine Festival on Castro Street by closing down the street to traffic for two days. There is a farmer's market in the Caltrain parking lot every Sunday morning. Every summer, once a month, the city celebrates Thursday Night Live (TNL) by closing off Castro street to cars and providing live music events and car shows on Castro Street.

Mountain View is one of the major cities that make up Silicon Valley, and has many notable Silicon Valley companies either headquartered there or with a large presence.

The top employers in the city are Google, Symantec, Microsoft, Intuit, Synopsys.