New Area Code Begins Today for Some Cities in Bay Area

Cities east of San Francisco Bay get a new telephone area code today, adding 510 to the list of numbers Californians must remember if they want to talk to each other.

The new area code, nicknamed the “five-and-dime,” splits Oakland, Berkeley, Contra Costa County and the rest of Alameda County from the old 415 area code that still will be used in San Francisco and surrounding communities. It is the first split of the Bay Area dialing code since 1959, when area code 408 was created for the San Jose area.

Los Angeles County gets its own new numbers Nov. 2, when the beach cities split away from the 213 area code and become 310. The 818 area code was assigned to areas north of the city in 1984.

The 213 area code was the nation’s first when it was introduced for Los Angeles in 1947. Now, with the addition of the 510, California has 11, the most of any state. The total will reach 13 with the 310 split and the addition of a 909 code for parts of Riverside, San Bernardino and Los Angeles counties scheduled for November, 1992.