Docks and warehouses line Oakland's waterfront. A natural deepwater port is located on an estuary between Alameda Island and the bay shore. It stretches for more than 19 miles (31 kilometers). In northwestern Oakland are Army and Navy installations that brought many jobs to the city in the 1940s. Principal manufactured products are fabricated metal products; stone, clay, and glass products; machinery; and primary metals. The Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART), which has its headquarters in Oakland, links the city with San Francisco and other parts of the metropolitan area. Oakland International Airport faces the bay to the southwest.

Among Oakland's scenic attractions is Lake Merritt, a Y-shaped, 155-acre (63-hectare) saltwater lagoon near the central business district. It is North America's oldest wildfowl refuge. Along its northern shore are Lakeside Park, a Japanese garden, and Children's Fairyland, which is noted for its puppet shows and animated exhibits. Nearby is Kaiser Center, with offices, a shopping center, and roof garden. Farther along the lake is the restored Victorian Camron-Stanford House as well as the Oakland Museum, which houses fine permanent collections of the arts, natural sciences, and the history of California. The Art Deco Paramount Theatre of the Arts on Broadway, Oakland's main downtown street, is home to the city's ballet and opera. At the foot of Broadway is Jack London Square, a waterfront area with arcades, restaurants, and specialty shops. It is named for the author, who spent his boyhood years in Oakland.

Professional sports events as well as large musical performances take place at the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum complex. Oakland's schools include the California College of Arts and Crafts, as well as Holy Names, Laney, Merritt, and Mills colleges.

The site of Oakland was Spanish crown land granted to Luís María Peralta in 1820. In 1851 Horace Carpentier started ferry service to San Francisco. The city was incorporated in 1854, and the transcontinental railroad arrived in 1889. Its greatest growth occurred in 1906, when thousands fled from the San Francisco earthquake and fire. In 1989 another earthquake destroyed a section of California's busiest span—the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge. Oakland experienced further disaster in October 1991, when a fire spread over a residential area, destroying more than one billion dollars' worth of homes. More than 3,000 residences were lost.

Oakland adopted the city manager form of government in 1931. Population (1990 census), 372,242.