Ferries of San Francisco Bay

San Francisco Bay in California has been served by ferries of all types for over 150 years. Although the construction of the Golden Gate Bridge and the San Francisco – Oakland Bay Bridge led to the decline in the importance of most ferries, some are still in use today for both commuters and tourists.

The Creek Route ferries

One of the earliest ferry routes ran between San Francisco and Oakland on what was called the "creek route". The name derived from the Oakland landing site located on what is today called the Oakland Estuary, an inlet of San Francisco Bay. The estuary, which in the 1800s included what is today's Lake Merritt, was the "creek".

Railroad ferries

The first railroad ferries on San Francisco Bay were established by the Central Pacific Railroad and were an integral part of the Transcontinental Railroad. The earliest railroad ferries ran from Alameda when it was still a peninsula. Another ferry pier was established at Oakland Point, the Oakland Long Wharf. These railroad ferries mostly carried passengers, not trains, although there was some ferrying of freight cars to San Francisco. When the Central Pacific re-routed the Sacramento to Oakland segment of the Transcontinental Railroad in 1876, a ferry across the Carquinez Strait was established, and the world's largest ferryboat, the Solano was built (later joined by a sister ferry, the slightly larger "Contra Costa"), to serve the crossing. This railroad ferry actually carried whole trains. These ferries became part of the Southern Pacific Railroad when it assumed many of the facilities of its affiliate, the Central Pacific.

The Key System transit company established its own ferry service in 1903 between the Ferry Building in San Francisco and its own pier and wharf ("mole") on the Oakland shoreline, located just south of what is today the eastern approach to the San Francisco – Oakland Bay Bridge.

Auto ferries

In the 1920s, the Southern Pacific Railroad established a subsidiary, the Golden Gate Ferries, to carry automobiles on three routes: the Golden Gate between the Hyde Street Pier in San Francisco and Sausalito in Marin County; San Francisco Bay between the Hyde Street Pier and the Berkeley Pier; and San Francisco Bay between San Francisco and the Oakland Pier. These ferries ceased operation shortly after the Golden Gate and Bay Bridges were opened.

Four of these disused vessels were purchased by the Puget Sound Navigation Company and went on to serve in the waters of northwestern Washington and southwestern British Columbia: the "City of Sacramento", which operated on the Seattle-Bremerton route in the 1940s, then the Horseshoe Bay-Nanaimo route from 1952 to 1963, and finally the Horseshoe Bay-Langdale route from 1964 to 1976; the "Peralta", rebuilt as the "Kalakala", on various Puget Sound crossings and on the Seattle-Victoria-Port Angeles route; the "City of Long Beach", renamed the "City of Angeles", which operated out of Port Angeles; and the "Stockton", which became the "Klickitat" and operated on the Keystone-Port Townsend route until 2007.

Ferries today

The largest ferry system on San Francisco Bay today is operated by Blue & Gold Fleet. Others include Red & White Fleet and Golden Gate Transit. Modern high speed ferryboats of this commuter system run between the Ferry Building in San Francisco and landings in Sausalito and Larkspur in Marin County.

Other commuter ferries run from the city of Alameda, Jack London Square in Oakland and Vallejo to the Ferry Building in San Francisco.

Tourist ferries run from Fisherman's Wharf to Alcatraz Island, and from Sausalito to Angel Island.

List of ferryboats on San Francisco Bay

Past

* "Bay City" (Southern Pacific)
* "Berkeley" (Southern Pacific)
* "City of Long Beach" [ [http://www.evergreenfleet.com/lostboats Little-known ferries of Puget Sound] ]
* "City of Sacramento" (Monticello Steamship Lines, Southern Pacific-Golden Gate Ferries) [ [http://www.evergreenfleet.com/cityofsacramento.html History of the MV "Langdale Queen", ex-MV "Kahloke", ex-SS "City of Sacramento", ex-SS "Asbury Park"] ]
* "Contra Costa" (Central Pacific/Southern Pacific)
* "Eureka" (Northwestern Pacific/Southern Pacific)
* "Fresno" (Southern Pacific)cite news|url=http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/04/28/BAG8BCGI3I1.DTL&hw=ferry&sn=310&sc=862|publisher=San Francisco Chronicle|title=Ferry tale -- the dream dies hard: 2 historic boats that plied the bay seek buyer -- anybody|author=Peter Fimrite|accessdate=2007-10-31|date=2005-04-28]
* "General Frank M. Coxe" (US Army)
* "Golden Gate" (Golden Gate)
* "Hayward" (Key System)
* "Newark" (Southern Pacific)
* "Oakland" (Southern Pacific)
* "Ocean Wave" (Santa Fe)
* "Peralta" (Key System)
* "San Leandro" (Key System/Southern Pacific)
* "San Pablo" (Santa Fe)
* "San Pedro" (Santa Fe)
* "Santa Clara" (Southern Pacific)
* "Solano" (Central Pacific/Southern Pacific)
* "Stockton" (Southern Pacific-Golden Gate Ferries)

Present

* "Bay Breeze" (Alameda/Oakland)
* "Del Norte" (Golden Gate)
* "Encinal" (Alameda/Oakland)
* "Marin" (Golden Gate)
* "Mare Island" (Vallejo Baylink)
* "Mendocino" (Golden Gate)
* "Peralta" (Alameda/Oakland)
* "San Francisco" (Golden Gate)
* "Solano" (Vallejo Baylink)
* "Sonoma" (Golden Gate)
* "Vallejo" (Vallejo Baylink)
* "Zelinsky" (Blue and Gold)

Notes

References

* "San Francisco Bay: A Pictorial Maritime History", by John Haskell Kemble, Bonanza Books (1957, 1978).
* "San Francisco Bay Ferryboats", by George H. Harlan, Howell-North Books (1967).

External links

* [http://www.goldengatetransit.org/ Golden Gate Transit]
* [http://www.eastbayferry.com/ Alameda/Oakland/San Francisco Ferry official website]
* [http://www.baylinkferry.com/index.php Baylink (official Vallejo ferry website)]
* [http://home.comcast.net/~cable_car_guy/html/links.html San Francisco Bay Ferryboats]
*
* [http://www.cable-car-guy.com/ferry/html/preserved.html Cable Car Guy] - list of preserved historical ferries of San Francisco Bay