Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas takes place in the year 1992 within the state of San Andreas, which is based on sections of California and Nevada. It contains three major fictional cities; Los Santos as Los Angeles, San Fierro as San Francisco, and Las Venturas as Las Vegas. The environments around these cities are also based on settings within the Southwestern region of the United States. Players can also drive up the half-mile (800 m) Mount Chiliad (based on Mount Diablo), parachute from various peaks and skyscrapers, and visit 12 rural towns and villages located in three counties: Red, Flint, and Bone counties. Other notable locations include Sherman Dam (based on the Hoover Dam), a large military base called Area 69 (based on Area 51), Vinewood (based on Hollywood) and the Vinewood sign (based on the Hollywood sign) which is located in Mulholland, and many other destinations too. Interestingly the bridges in San Fierro are based on the Forth road and rail bridges which link Edinburgh, the home of Rockstar North, to Fife although the road bridge is highly similar to the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge. San Andreas is 13.9 square miles (36 square kilometres), nearly four times bigger as Vice City and five times as large as the Grand Theft Auto III’s Liberty City. The three cities are linked by numerous highways, a train system, and air travel.