In one case in Benicia, California, a housing tract was built over an old landfill.

The East Side includes the Benicia Arsenal, a former United States Army armory, which was bought by the city and is now used for a variety of purposes, most notably as live-work spaces for artists.

In 1987 Benicia was selected to participate in the California Main Street Program.

The City of Benicia was founded on May 19, 1847, by Dr. Robert Semple, and Thomas O. Larkin and Comandante General Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo, on land sold to them by General Vallejo in December 1846.

It was named for the General's wife, Francisca Benicia Carillo de Vallejo.

In his memoirs, William Tecumseh Sherman contended that Benicia was " the best natural site for a commercial city " in the region.

Benicia was the third site selected to serve as the California state capital, and its newly constructed city hall was California's capitol from February 11, 1853, to February 25, 1854.

The original campus of Mills College was founded in Benicia in 1852 as the Young Ladies Seminary, and was the first women's college west of the Rockies.

On June 5, 1889, the legendary prize fight between James J. Corbett and Joe Choynski was held on a barge off the coast of Benicia.

From 1860-1861, Benicia was indirectly involved in the Pony Express.

It was also the site of the United States Army's Benicia Arsenal.

The racial makeup of Benicia was 19, 568 ( 72. 5 %) White, 1, 510 ( 5. 6 %) African American, 135 ( 0. 5 %) Native American, 2, 989 ( 11. 1 %) Asian, 102 ( 0. 4 %) Pacific Islander, 895 ( 3. 3 %) from other races, and 1, 798 ( 6. 7 %) from two or more races.

After Monterey, the state capital was variously San Jose ( 1850 – 1851 ), Vallejo ( 1852 – 1853 ) and Benicia ( 1853 – 1854 ) until Sacramento was finally selected in 1854.

In 1847, Dr. Robert Semple contracted to provide ferry service from Martinez to Benicia, which for many years was the only crossing on the Carquinez Strait.

The community is believed to have gotten its name from Thomas J. Bedford who was the first west bound Pony Express rider to deliver the mail on its final leg from Benicia, California to Oakland, California on April 23, 1861.

In California's Contra Costa County and Solano County, a shoreline necklace of refineries, built in the early 20th century before this area was populated, and associated chemical plants are adjacent to urban areas in Richmond, Martinez, Pacheco, Concord, Pittsburg, Vallejo and Benicia, with occasional accidental events that require " shelter in place " orders to the adjacent populations.

Although state highways were designated to Benicia in 1910 ( Route 7, now I-680 ) and Vallejo in 1931 ( Route 74, now SR 29 ), this connection was not added until 1935, when Route 74 ( an unsigned designation ) was extended east from Vallejo to Benicia and north along former Route 7 to Cordelia.

He not only parceled out the town in 1856, but also, in a commercially shrewd move, arranged to have the county seat moved here in 1858 from Benicia.

The rail route also travels near historical state capitals of Vallejo ( 1852 ) and Benicia ( 1853 ).

( also serving Benicia, Discovery Kingdom, Vallejo, Napa, Petaluma, Rohnert Park, Santa Rosa, Healdsburg, Cloverdale, Ukiah, Willits, Laytonville, Leggett, Garberville, Rio Dell / Scotia, Fortuna, Eureka, and Arcata )

Later that year Stone was appointed Chief of Ordnance for the Pacific Department, a post he held until 1855, and also began construction of the Benicia Arsenal in California that year.

First occupation of the post was on April 9, 1849, when two companies of the 2nd Infantry Regiment set up camp to establish Benicia Barracks, which also housed the 3rd Artillery Regiment.

The grounds of the Benicia Arsenal are also famous for stabling the Army's one and only Camel Corps.

The Carquinez Bridge on Interstate 80, the Benicia Bridge on Interstate 680 and the Antioch Bridge on Highway 160 all connect Contra Costa and Solano county.

By 1914, a paved county road connected Vallejo and Benicia north of the Carquinez Strait, following the present Maine Street, Benicia Road, Columbus Parkway, and K Street.

Benicia is a waterside city in Solano County, California, United States.

The world's largest ferry, the Solano, later joined by the even larger Contra Costa, carried entire trains across the Carquinez Strait from Benicia to Port Costa, from whence they continued on to the Oakland Pier.

The Solano, later joined by the Contra Costa, carried entire trains across the Carquinez Strait from Benicia to Port Costa, from whence they continued on to the Oakland Pier.

The freeway passes through parts of unincorporated Solano County, then heads southeast along the Benicia State Recreation Area ( a marsh ).

It is located in Solano County west of downtown Benicia.

This is in addition to connecting service from neighboring areas with their own bus coverage including: Fairfield / Suisun Transit Route 40 from Solano County, Vallejo Transit Route 78 from Vallejo and Benicia, and WHEELS Express Route 70X from

Benicia High School competes in the Solano County Athletic Conference ( SCAC ) in Division III of the Sac-Joaquin Section.

After California's wheat output dropped in the early 20th Century and especially after the Southern Pacific ( which took over the operations of the Central Pacific ) constructed a railroad bridge at Martinez in 1930 to replace the ferry crossing, Benicia declined until the economic boom of World War II, which doubled the population to about 7, 000 residents.

* With the American champion John Morrissey refusing to fight again until 1858, the focus shifts to his eventual next opponent, the upcoming John C. Heenan, known as " The Benicia Boy ".

Since California was given official statehood by the U. S. in September 9, 1850 as part of the Compromise of 1850, the state capital was variously San Jose ( 1850 – 1851 ), Vallejo ( 1852 – 1853 ) and Benicia ( 1853 – 1854 ), until Sacramento was finally selected in 1854.

He was then assigned to the Asiatic Station, and served there on the screw sloop Benicia until 1872 and was adjutant of the land forces during the attack by Rear Admiral John Rodgers's expedition on the Korean forts on Ganghwa Island on 10 June and 11 June 1871.

The Benicia Arsenal was a staging area during the Civil War for Union troops from the West, and the installation remained a garrisoned post until 1898 when troops were assigned to duty in the Philippines during the Spanish-American War.

The Legislature would convene in the Benicia City Hall for a little more than a year, when again complaints over poor weather conditions, inadequate and uncomfortable sleeping quarters, and " the insecure condition of the public archives " arose in January 1854.

In 1871, Cyrus and Susan Mills paid $ 5, 000 for the Young Ladies ' Seminary in Benicia, renamed it Mills College, and moved it to its current location in Oakland, adjacent to what is now Seminary Boulevard.

Vallejo tried to get the California State Capital moved permanently to Benicia, California on land he sold to the state government in December 1851.

In 1854 the school was moved to Benicia, the new state capital, where it was renamed St. Catherine's Academy.