city, Santa Clara county, California, U.S. It lies on the southwest shore of San Francisco Bay. Settled in 1852 as a stagecoach station, it became a shipping point for fruit and grain and a centre of religious book publishing in the early 1900s. From 1929 to 1994 Mountain View was the home of Moffett Field Naval Air Station. In 1940 the Ames Laboratory of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (now the NASA Ames Research Center) was located nearby. These facilities influenced the development of the city's aerospace and electronics industries, which have merged with those of the rest of Silicon Valley, and high-technology firms are particularly important to the city's economy. Mountain View is home to the Computer History Museum (1996). Shoreline Amphitheatre (1986), with a seating capacity of about 25,000 people, hosts outdoor concerts. Inc. 1902. Pop. (1990) 67,460; (2000) 70,708.