Alameda Mole

A mole is a massive structure, usually of stone, used as a pier, breakwater, or junction between places separated by water.

Historically, the term "mole" was used in the San Francisco Bay Area in California to refer to the combined structure of a causeway and wooden pier or trestle extending out from the eastern shore and utilized by various railroads, such as the Key System, Southern Pacific Railroad (two), and Western Pacific Railroad. None of the four moles survives today, although the causeway portions of each were incorporated into the filling in of large tracts of marshland for harbor and industrial development.

The Alameda Mole, on the West end (the end facing San Francisco, that later became the Alameda Naval Air Station) was served by local trolley cars (such as the Red Line), ferries to San Francisco, by regular trains running in a horseshoe pattern (dubbed the Horseshoe Line) to the Oakland Mole, by local steam commuter lines of the Southern Pacific Railroad (initially, the Central Pacific) which were later transformed into the East Bay Electric Lines. Southern Pacific's electrified trains were not streetcars, but full-sized railroad cars which connected to the mainland by bridges at Webster Street and Fruitvale (only the latter bridge survives today). The trains ran to both the Oakland Mole and the Alameda Mole. Soon after the completion of the Bay Bridge, Alameda trains ran directly to San Francisco on the lower deck of the bridge, the ferries having been rendered unnecessary.

In the 1930s Pan American Airways established a seaplane port along the fill that led to the Alameda Mole. This was the original home base for the famous China Clipper. With the advent of World War II, a vast stretch of the marshy area southwest of the Alameda Mole was filled and the Naval Air Station Alameda established. This major Naval facility included a large airfield as well as docks for several aircraft carriers. It closed in 1997.

ee also

Mole (architecture)

External links

* [http://www.alamedainfo.com/Alameda_CA_Postcards_3.htm alamedainfo.com]