In 1989 , in the middle of the World Series match between two Bay Area baseball teams , the Loma Prieta earthquake struck and caused widespread infrastructural damage , including the failure of the Bay Bridge , a major link between San Francisco and Oakland . Even so , the Bay Area 's technology industry continued to expand and growth in Silicon Valley accelerated that the United States Census confirmed that year that San Jose had overtaken San Francisco in terms of population . The commercialization of the Internet in the middle of the decade rapidly created a speculative bubble in the high-tech economy known as the Dot-com bubble . This bubble began collapsing in the early 2000s and the industry continued contracting for the next few years , nearly wiping out the market . Companies like Amazon.com and Google managed to weather the crash however , and following the industry 's return to normalcy , their market value increased significantly
Loma Prieta earthquake
1989 Loma Prieta earthquake
San Francisco Bay Area