San Bernardino, CA

Freight movement is written into San Bernardino's southeastern landscape. AllianceCalifornia occupies about 2,000 acres at the former Norton Air Force Base, with San Bernardino International Airport at its center and interstate highways, freight rail, and intermodal facilities nearby. Warehouses, distribution buildings, aviation uses, and manufacturing sites spread across the reuse area. Amazon operates a fulfillment facility there, while Stater Bros. Markets maintains its headquarters in San Bernardino. The district converts military land into a logistics and trade center linked to Interstates 10, 210, and 215 and to BNSF tracks. It forms one of three widely separated centers, alongside downtown and the university district at the northern foothills. The city seal compresses earlier versions of that transportation story into four images: the natural Arrowhead on the mountainside, orange groves, a covered wagon, and a locomotive.

ATTRDon / CC BY-SA 2.0

San Bernardino first incorporated in 1854, reverted to town status in 1869, and incorporated again in 1886, when rail service arrived. Citrus later became a defining regional industry. Conceived in 1910 and first held in March 1911, the National Orange Show established permanent grounds at Mill and E streets. Its annual fair continued after local citrus acreage declined, preserving an agricultural institution in a city now shaped heavily by logistics and services. The 1911 edition filled two canvas tents and drew more than 3,000 people; at its height, annual attendance exceeded 300,000 and the permanent grounds gained exhibition buildings and a stadium. The seal's wagon, train, orange, and mountain formation remain a concise account of settlement, transportation, agriculture, and place.

ATTRJohn Margolies / Public domain

California State University, San Bernardino forms a northern center at the base of the mountains. State legislation authorized the college in 1960, a 430-acre site was selected in 1963, and the campus opened in 1965 with three buildings and 293 students. In 2026, the university reported serving more than 20,000 students each year. Its classrooms, arts programs, athletics, and public events give the north side a rhythm far removed from the freight and airport district. The Robert and Frances Fullerton Museum of Art, established on campus in 1996, opens exhibitions and collections to the wider community. The city's main university, downtown institutions, and southeastern logistics district occupy a pronounced north-south span. Downtown supplies regional connections and turns highway history into recurring public culture.

ATTRMatt (mistergoleta) / CC BY-SA 2.0

The San Bernardino Transit Center brings together Metrolink, the nine-mile Arrow passenger line to Redlands, and local and regional buses. The sbX rapid bus continues north on E Street to Cal State and south toward Loma Linda, joining the three centers without erasing the long distances among them. Nearby streets carry the legacy of Route 66: Mount Vernon Avenue and Fifth Street became the highway's fully paved route through San Bernardino in 1938. The city's 2026 centennial program included the annual downtown Rendezvous, built around classic vehicles and road travel. Freight trains still work beside the former air base, passenger trains leave downtown for Redlands, and restored cars gather on a road remembered as Route 66.