24/7 Biohazard and Crime Scene Cleanup in Hercules, CA

Hercules is a city in western Contra Costa County on the shore of San Pablo Bay, about 10 miles north of Berkeley along the Interstate 80 corridor.

Hercules began in 1881 as a company town built around a California Powder Works plant making dynamite, sited on the bay with a railroad running through the property.

Hercules takes its name from 'Hercules powder,' the company's patented dynamite brand named for the mythical hero of strength — the town is literally named after an explosive.

Hercules was incorporated on December 15, 1900, by a vote of 103 to 3, becoming the third incorporated town in Contra Costa County; for decades nearly every council member was a powder company employee.

During World War I, the Hercules plant was the largest producer of TNT in the country, turning out about 7 million pounds a month, and it claimed some 1.8 billion pounds of ordnance produced during World War II.

Hercules stayed a tiny company village for most of its history — its population was just 274 in 1910 and still under 400 in 1940.

The old plant village, Hercules Village, survives as one of the last remaining company towns in California and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Explosives and chemical production in Hercules ended in the 1970s — the plant was sold in 1977 after nearly a century of operation — freeing the land for suburban redevelopment.

Hercules was transformed starting in 1975, when its first housing subdivision was built, and in the 1980s it was hailed as one of California's fastest-growing suburbs.

Hercules had a population of 26,016 at the 2020 census, up from only a few hundred residents during its company-town era.