Hercules, California

Hercules is a city in western Contra Costa County, California, United States, on the coast of San Pablo Bay in the eastern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, about 10 miles (16 km) north of Berkeley. At the 2020 census its population was 26,016, according to the United States Census Bureau. The site was first developed in 1881 as a manufacturing facility of the California Powder Works for its patented dynamite formulation, Hercules powder, and the Hercules Powder Company was incorporated in 1882. The small company town that grew up near the plant took the name Hercules and was incorporated at the end of 1900. From the 1970s it was heavily redeveloped as a suburban bedroom community along the I-80 corridor, and it has a very ethnically diverse population.