Ocean Shore Railroad and Granada
Ocean Shore R.R. and Granada The whistle of the first Ocean Shore Railroad passenger train from San Francisco to Granada echoed off nearby hills on June 10th, 1908. There were 300 San Franciscans, great good-time-loving people, who were treated to free picnic lunches and sales pitches in rolling lots. The main Granada station was just a few hundred feet oceanward. Granada, designed by Daniel H. Burnham, famed architect of the 1905 San Francisco plan, boasted curved streets lined with concrete palaces and new eucalyptus trees. When the last train whistled down to Tunitas in July 1920 only a few homes had been built here on Burnham's magnificent boulevards. The Ocean Shore R.R. never made it non-stop to Santa Cruz, its intended destination. The track stopped at Tunitas Creek, south of Half Moon Bay. Passengers could ride Stanley steamers, switch and take another Ocean Shore train to Santa Cruz. Ocean Shore's motto was "reaches the beaches", but the beaches it finally reaches by hillsides along the ocean bluffs were too distant from big cities for commuters. During the 1920s the motor car won out along the rugged San Mateo County coast. Erected by Native Sons of the Golden West Designed by September 1991 Verba Buena No. 1 Native & Associate Order of E Clampus Vitus Submitted by: Simon Willison