[reaperducer]

> SV is unique in the USA in that it's a major industrial area that evolved into a huge urban center

Not unique at all. That's how most large urban areas in America got started. They became urbanized because people lived close to their jobs in the days before highways.

Chicago, New York, Baltimore, and pretty much any east coast city became urban because of heavy industry. Factories located there because of the ports which brought in raw materials. Those ports then spawned more heavy industries (railroads, shipyards, etc...)