<P> Yerba Buena was the original name of the settlement that later became San Francisco, California . Located near the northeastern end of the San Francisco Peninsula, between the Presidio of San Francisco and the Mission San Francisco de Asís, it was originally intended as a trading post for ships visiting San Francisco Bay . The settlement was arranged in the Spanish style around a plaza that remains as the present day Portsmouth Square . </P> <P> The name of the town was taken from the yerba buena (Micromeria douglasii) plant, native to the pueblo site . Franciscan missionary Pedro Font, accompanying the Juan Bautista de Anza expedition of 1775 - 76, applied the Spanish name to the common native herb he found abundant in the landscape . The plant's common name, yerba buena, the same in English and Spanish, is an alternate form of the Spanish hierba buena (meaning "good herb"). </P>

Originally called yerba buena this city is famous for its cable cars