Oakland mole: Were trains transported from the Oakland pier across the bay to the SF Ferry Building?
From: "Michael Grace" mlpgrace@gmail.com
Great site ... but you have a major fact wrong regarding the Oakland mole. The trains were not transported from the Oakland pier across the bay to the San Francisco Ferry Building. The trains terminated in Oakland and the passengers were transported by ferry to San Francisco.. Has anyone been to the ferry building? The trains would have been sticking through it and going about two blocks into San Francisco?
This is incorrect ...
"Oakland Mole" California Railroad Terminal Postcard—Michael Grace, Editor, Cruising the Past
"A rare glimpse of the busy Southern Pacific Railroad's busy waterfront terminal in Oakland, Calif., where trains [sic] would be loaded onto giant railroad-operated ferries for a short trip across San Francisco Bay and into the San Francisco Ferry Building. Prior to the construction of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge in the late 1930s, this was the way train passengers (and freight trains) [sic] got from one side of the bay to the other. Use of the facility actually traces back to the late 1860s when the Central Pacific Railroad began transporting freight cars across the bay from what was then known as the Oakland Long Wharf, located at the western end of Seventh Street. The area around the pier was filled in in the early 1880s, and the Southern Pacific Railroad, which had taken over the Central Pacific Railroad, expanded and enclosed the facility into the scene pictured here. Use of the Oakland Mole declined after completion of the Bay Bridge, but some service continued there until about 1957. The Oakland Mole was demolished in the mid-1960s to allow for an expansion of the Port of Oakland cargo facilities. This postcard was published by the Newman Post Card Co. of Los Angeles, although it says it was printed in Germany. It features the longtime Southern Pacific slogan of being 'On the Road of a Thousand Wonders.' " Caption courtesy Jeffrey Aberbach.
posted from CPRR Discussion Group at 6:37 PM
4 Comments:
Was Jeffrey Aberbach mistaken? If so, how does his caption above need to be modified to be correct?
From: "Kyle Wyatt" kylekwyatt@gmail.com
Yes, Aberbach appears to be incorrect.
I'd modify it as follows – changes in CAPS:
" ... busy waterfront terminal in Oakland, Calif., where trainLOADS OF PEOPLE would be loaded onto giant railroad-operated ferries for a short trip across San Francisco Bay and into the San Francisco Ferry Building. ... " (The passengers used the ferries, not the trains.)
" ... late 1930s, this was the way train passengers (and freight trains REMOVE THIS REFERENCE TO FREIGHT TRAINS) got from one side of the bay to the other."
To elaborate, ferry service between San Francisco and Oakland started in the 1850's. In the early 1860's the San Francisco & Oakland RR (later acquired by the Central Pacific) built a connecting train service serving the ferries.
In the early 1870's the Central Pacific built a couple of car ferries, the Transit and the Thoroughfare, to haul freight cars (not whole trains) between San Francisco and Oakland – but the Ferry Building was not the San Francisco terminal for the freight cars (it was closer to Mission Bay). Note some freight trains also went around the bottom of the Bay at San Jose and up the Peninsula.
In 1879 the Central Pacific built the train ferry Solano to carry entire trains between Benicia and Port Costa as part of the new direct route between Sacramento and San Francisco/Oakland. Passengers still used the (passenger) ferries between Oakland and San Francisco. Perhaps Aberbach confused the train service on the Solano with the car service on the Transit and Thoroughfare, and the passenger service on the other ferries – and didn't realize that freight cars arrived at another San Francisco terminal other than the Ferry Building.
—Kyle
Several other pages that might be of nautical interest:
Ferry Solano
Railroad Shipped by Sea
Postcard index, including some railroad ferries
Railroad Ferry links
Steamers of San Francisco Bay and the Sacramento River
"Originally constructed in 1873, this building at 464-468 7th Street (near Broadway) was the original Oakland station for the Central Pacific Railway and served as the western terminus of the new transcontinental railroad. Passengers for San Francisco continued on a few short miles to the ferry terminal on CPRR's Oakland Long Wharf for transportation across San Francisco Bay. The land for the station was donated by the City of Oakland."
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