Oldest Continuously Operating Passenger Railroad in the West
Plaque located at the Caltrain station at 4th and Townsend streets in San Francisco's far South of Market area (and not to far from Phone Company Park, where the Giants play). Here's the text, followed by some particulars of the first day of service on the new railroad in 1864.
150 Years of Service
On the Oldest Railroad in the West
With Continuous Passenger Service
Until 1864, travel between San Francisco and San Jose was by stagecoach or steamship, a time-consuming and expensive trip. After three failed attempts to organize a railroad, construction began in May 1861 on the 49-mile San Francisco & San Jose Railroad. Upon completion to Mayfield (south Palo Alto today), daily passenger service began October 18, 1863. Thousands turned out to celebrate on January 16, 1864, when the railroad was completed to San Jose. By 1870, the SF&SF absorbed into the Southern Pacific Railroad, which owned and operated the railroad for more than a century.
Threatened in later years with declining ridership and the cessation of service, the railroad came under public agency management, first by the California Department of Transportation in 1980, when the railroad was renamed “Caltrain,” and then by the Peninsula Corridor Joint Powers Board in 1992. The JPB purchased the right-of-way in 1991.
Caltrain is the oldest continuously operating passenger railroad in the West.
The first San Francisco terminal was near 18th and Valencia streets and San Jose’s was off San Pedro and Bassett streets. The San Francisco terminal has been at Fourth and King streets since 1975. San Jose’s Cahill Street terminal opened in 1935.
Dedicated January 18, 2014
Native Sons of the Golden West
Dwight Dutschke
Grand President
The day after the first trip between San Francisco and San Jose, the Daily Alta California published an 8,700-word account of the excursion. Yes, 8,700 words. The detail that stands out is the level of nutty public excitement for the new train. The city's street railroads were overwhelmed by crowds trying to get to the depot for the first trip south. The new railroad didn't have nearly enough passenger cars to accommodate the mob, so "cattle pens, baggage and gravel cars were brought out to receive the throng." The trip from the depot in the Mission District to San Jose took about three hours. After speeches and feasting, the crowd got ready to go home. Here's how the Alta described the scene:
... At about half-past 3 o'clock, many of the excursionists who had an eye to the main chance, and knowing that there would be a jam, wended their way to the depot, and filled up, until they overflowed, all the regular passenger cars, when the stream poured into the open cars, which strung out like the tail of a first class comet.
Many ladies were forced to take outside seats or be left behind, to come in by the nine o'clock train, on which they might not fare any better; so, "making a virtue of necessity," they were" hauled up," and landed on the platforms, and by the aid of the lee of a friendly umbrella, the coat tail of a husband or brother, and a tightening of shawls, fur capes, etc., closely around their forms, they tried to make themselves comfortable.
The shades of evening were closing around, four o'clock had been struck, and yet the locomotive gave no sign. The crowd had attacked the barbecued meats, endeavoring to get a bite, when the bell sounded, the engine gave a snort or two by way of warning. Now came the rush, and passengers crowded into the cattle cars until they were black with the homeward bound. Three of the large steamers were hooked on to the long line of cars, and after several notes of warning they tugged away, and the train moved off.
A little flock of passengers had gathered into the cars alongside of the first train, apparently in a blissful state of ignorance of the fact that they were not attached to the motive power, and when the fact really flashed across their minds that they were in the wrong box, the looks of blank astonishment and amazement which lit up their faces was very funny to behold, especially to those who were on the right track. ..."
Keep that scene in mind when you're riding BART.
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Submitted by Dan Brekke