USA > California > Alameda County > Oakland > Illustrated album of Alameda County, California; its early history and progress-agriculture, viticulture and horticulture-educational, manufacturing and railroad advantages-Oakland and environs-interior townships-statistics, etc., etc > Part 7
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12
The Oak Grove Tannery, located also in East Oak- land, G. S. Derby proprietor, was established in 1860. It works about sixty thousand hides per annum, which represent an output of about $70,000. Over four thousand sides of leather are constantly in course of tanning. Sixty-eight vats consume six hundred cords of bark every year, and the principal manufacture con- sists of harness, skirting, and sole leather. The pelts average sixty pounds each. The roller has a pressure of seven thousand pounds. This tannery has a large Eastern trade.
MANUFACTURE OF PAINTS AND OILS.
In 1884 the Paraffine Paint Company located its works near Shell Mound Park, at Emeryville. The company manufactures a paint adapted to the preser- vation of wood and ironwork, tin, roofs, bridges, etc. The factory turns out fifteen thousand gallons a month, worth, according to quality, from ninety cents to $1.75 per gallon. Branch houses for the sale of
32
ILLUSTRATED ALBUM OF ALAMEDA COUNTY.
this paint have been established in New York, St. Louis, and Chicago. 'The sales of paint alone amount to $180,000 annually, besides which the company has a heavy demand for a patent waterproof roof- ing of burlap, backed with paper and coated with paraffine paint, these sales amounting to $90,000 a year.
The works of the Petroline Paint Company are sit- uated on First Street, Oakland, on the line of the old overland railroad. The company receives a sort of crude petroleum oil from wells in Ventura County. The lighter quality is sold to the gas company. The heavier parts of tar are used for sidewalks, and the asphaltum for paints. The company manufactures large quantities of waterproof petroline roofing. The paints manufactured are water and fire proof, and are used for painting ironworks, smokestacks, gas works, roofs and tin, preventing oxidization.
E. G. Buswell & Co. have a plant at the corner of Broadway and Fourth Street, Oakland, for the manu- facture of the various kinds of mineral paints, with a capacity of ten tons per month.
CHAPTER V. RAILROADS IN ALAMEDA COUNTY.
The Terminus of the Transcontinental Lines-Local Passenger Traffic -- Street Car Lines Run by Cables and Electricity -- Electric Cars Run on the County Roads -- Rapid and Fre- quent Transit from Surburban Towns to the Cities of Oakland and San Francisco-Car Shops, etc.
As all roads during the time of the Roman Em- pire's greatest success led to Rome, so for many years all visitors to the metropolis of the Pacific Coast by transcontinental travel passed through Alameda County and across the Bay of San Francisco.
The commencement of the present railroad system of the Pacific Coast was the incorporation in 1862 of the Alameda Valley Railroad Company, to build a railroad from Oakland to Niles. This road was built by the Central Pacific Railroad Company some years later and became a part of the transcontinental line over the Rockies. The first railroad, being four miles long, and running from Broadway, Oakland, to the ferry wharf, was operated in 1863. In 1865 this line was extended to Brooklyn, now East Oakland Station, and this was connected with the San Francisco and Ala- meda Valley Railroad and extended to Hayward and completed. This line was extended during the latter part of this year and the one succeeding to connect with the Western Pacific, a section of the transconti- nental line then under construction in Alameda Cañon, and through the Livermore Pass, in the Contra
Costa Range. The Central Pacific Railroad in 1867 bought up the various railway lines and consolidated them, agreeing upon making the terminii of al the lines intending to reach San Francisco at Oakland, and crossing the bay from this point. The Central Pacific Company, then building its line to connect with the Union Pacific at Ogden, had also determined at this time to reach San Francisco via the Livermore Pass, Alameda Cañon, Oakland, and a ferry system across the bay, and on the eighth day of November, 1869, the first overland train reached Oakland.
Then it became apparent that the metropolis had been founded on the wrong side of the bay-that it ought to have been on the mainland where Oakland now is, with a scope and capacity of containing a city of two million inhabitants, instead of on the peninsula of San Francisco. A line of ferry steamers was put on by the Central Pacific Railroad Company, and a pier built out on piles two miles into the bay, where these steamers landed. Owing to a feeling of dis- trust expressed by many in reference to the trestle, the company some years ago filled in all around it with earth and stone, making a solid mole extending from the pier to the mainland. The travel and freight traffic became so heavy that the railroad determined to build a line around the bay shore, which it did, to avoid the heavy grades through the Livermore Pass. It also built an immense ferry steamer to cross the Straits of Carquinez for the overland travel via Og- den and Omaha. This steamer carries an entire train of sleepers, passenger coaches, dining cars, etc., with the accompanying engine, at one load, the train divided in half. The road via the Livermore Pass is now used for local traffic. The trains for the south- ern routes follow around the bay shore into Contra Costa County and the San Joaquin Valley.
A few years after the completion of the main line the company built a line from Niles down through the southern end of the county, running through the Santa Clara Valley, through San José, to Santa Cruz and Monterey. By a branch line running down from San Francisco to San José, a circuit of the lower end of the Bay of San Francisco-one hun- dred miles-is made, and freight not desired to be risked on the bay is sent round to San Francisco. "Big Betsy," the immense gun sent out from the East for the warship Monterey, was sent around in this way from Oakland. The company have two large steam- ers, upon which they load a train of freight cars and take them across the bay to San Francisco, and vice versa, of freight going east from Japan, China, or other oriental countries, or the Hawaiian and other islands of the Pacific, and Australia. So much for
RESIDENCE OF CHARLES NELSO
-
PLATE 14.
SEMINARY AVE., EAST OAKLAND
1
33
ILLUSTRATED ALBUM OF ALAMEDA COUNTY.
the overland roads, which were all leased some years ago and are still controlled by the Southern Pacific Company of Kentucky.
About thirteen years ago an opposition company, known as the South Pacific Coast Railroad Company, built and equipped a narrow-gauge line starting from a pier built out into the bay from Alameda Point, along the south training wall of the Oakland estuary, and paralleling the broad-gauge line down through Alameda County and the Santa Clara Valley to San José, Santa Cruz, and Monterey. This line runs be- tween the broad gauge and the bay. In 1887 it was purchased by the Southern Pacific Company for $5,- 500,000, and it is now operated by it.
Tlc California and Nevada Narrow Gauge Railroad Company built a line a few years ago from Emeryville, via Berkeley and San Pablo, to Walnut Grove, in Contra Costa County, which runs during the summer months. The line is being extended, and it is understood that it will be put through into the San Joaquin Valley in the near future.
The California Railway Company runs a narrow- gauge train from the city line of Oakland at Fruitvale to the foothills at Laundry Farm, being a direct line to Mills College. This company furnishes rock for street macadamizing purposes from its quarries at Laundry Farm.
In 1891 the Southern Pacific Company built a short line from Martinez through to its old overland line near Livermore, opening up a rich farming district to railroad facilities, so that there is scarcely a farm in the county that is not within a few miles of a railroad sta- tion and has an outlet to get its products to the local markets.
The following is a chief summing up of the present transcontinental roads, of which the little line of four miles operated in 1863 was the beginning : Theoldest of the lines now forming a part of the coast and transconti- mental systems is the Central Pacific, leased and oper- ated by the Southern Pacific. This line starts from Oakland pier and connects. with the Union Pacific at Ogden. One train leaves Oakland daily, via Sacra- mento, crossing the Sierra Nevada Mountains, via Truckee, to Reno, Nevada, where it connects with the line to Carson and Virginia City, and that line with the Carson and Colorado line, through Southern Ne- vada, Mono, and Inyo Counties, in this State, to the Colorado River. At Reno the Central Pacific also connects with a railway being built northward to Las- sen County, and to extend the whole length of Sur- prise Valley, Modoc County, and into Oregon. At Battle Mountain the Central connects with the Nevada Central Railroad, running from Battle Mountain to
Austin, Nevada. At Palisades the Central connects with the Eureka and Palisades Railroad, and the rich mines of the Eureka mining section of Nevada. At Ogden the Central connects not only with the Union Pacific, but also with the Denver and Rio Grande, the Utah Central, Utah and Northern, and the Oregon Short line-branching to all points of the compass, north, south, east, and west ..
Then come the Southern Pacific lines, running also from the pier to the Eastern States through Central and Southern California. Practically, two overland trains leave Oakland over this route each day, as south- ern connections amount to that. These trains leave Oakland pier, via Port Costa, following the San Joa- quin River, via Lathrop, through San Joaquin Valley to Mohave and the Needles, connecting with the com- plicated systems of the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad, the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fé system, the St. Louis and San Francisco system; or via Los Ange- les and Yuma, connecting with the Maricopa and Phoenix Railway; with the Sonora Railway, at Nogales, to Guaymas; and at El Paso with the Mexican Cen- tral Railway, through the Mexican States, to the City of Mexico; or to the Texas border, connecting with the whole Texas and Southern system; or to Galves- ton and New Orleans, and the great systems of rail- ways traversing with their connections the whole con- tinent.
The third great line leaving the terminus at Oakland pier is the Oregon line, or Shasta Route, as it is gener- ally termed, with its connections, spanning the great Northwest. Daily train's leave the pier via Sacramento, Marysville, and Red Bluff, passing at thevery foot of ma- jestic Mount Shasta, connecting at Montague, in Shasta Valley, with the line of railway to Yreka; or to the Oregon line, climbing the Siskiyou Mountains, through Rogue River Valley, connecting with the Oregon sys- tem of railways; on to Portland, connecting with two lines of the Northern Pacific; to Washington, with its system of railways, and with the Canadian Pacific; through Idaho, Montana, Dakota, with their systems of railways, to the Great Lakes and the East.
The State system of roads connecting San Francisco and Oakland with the remainder of the great common- wealth runs through Alameda County.
Three trains leave Oakland pier daily for Port Costa, Benicia, Suisun, 'and Sacramento, and intermediate towns, connecting at Sacramento with trains for Marys- ville, Chico, and Red Bluff, and intermediate towns. Two trains leave daily for Sacramento via Livermore, Lathrop, Stockton, and intermediate towns, connect- ing at Galt with trains for Ione, Amador County, and at Stockton with trains to Copperopolis, Calaveras
34
ILLUSTRATED ALBUM OF ALAMEDA COUNTY.
County, and intermediate towns; also line to Stanislaus and other counties and the Yosemite. Two trains leave daily via Port Costa and Davisville for Wood- land, Red Bluff, and Redding, connecting at Williams with trains for Colusa and intermediate towns; also at Woodland with trains for Knight's Landing. Two trains leave daily via Vallejo Junction for Napa and Calistoga and intermediate towns, connecting with trains at Napa Junction for Creston, Cordelia, and Suisun. Three trains leave daily via Vallejo Junction for Santa Rosa, Sonoma County, and intermediate towns. Two trains leave daily via Lathrop, through the San Joaquin Valley, to Los Angeles, connecting with the Southern California network of railways. Two trains leave daily by the narrow-gauge line for Los Gatos, Santa Cruz, and intermediate towns, con- necting at Felton with the Boulder Creek and Pesca- dero line, Big Trees, etc., and at San José with the New Almaden line. Two trains leave daily by the broad- gauge line via Niles, San José, and Santa Cruz, Pajaro, Watsonville, Martinez, and intermediate towns, to Paso Robles, San Luis Obispo County, and intermediate towns.
Sacramento trains connect at Elmira with trains to Vacaville, Madison, Rumsey, and intermediate towns. Also at Sacramento with trains to Folsom and Placer- ville, and intermediate towns.
The foregoing has been devoted principally to the overland and State systems of steam railways having terminii in Alameda County. The suburban system of the county comprises the lines of railways connect- ing Oakland with the principal towns of the county. Seven trains leave Oakland daily for Melrose, Semi- nary Park, San Leandro, San Lorenzo, Hayward, De- coto, and Niles. Five trains leave Oakland daily for Niles, Irvington, Warm Springs, Milpitas, and San José. Three trains leave daily for Niles, Suñol, Pleas- anton, and Livermore; all broad-gauge lines. On the narrow-gauge lines five trains leave Oakland daily for Alameda, West San Leandro, West San Lorenzo, Russells, Mount Eden, Alvarado, Halls, Newark, Mowry's, Alviso, Santa Clara, and San José.
STREET CAR LINES.
Until the latter part of the year 1887, aside from the local trains which made connection with half-hour boats from San Francisco to Oakland, Alameda, and Berkeley, there were only six horse-car lines in the county. These were between Central and West Oak- land, between East and Central Oakland, between Oak- land and Alameda, between Oakland and Berkeley, and to the Mountain View Cemetery. These were as slow
as the slowest. In 1887 the Oakland Railway Com" pany completed a cable line to the northern suburbs of Oakland. In 1890 a cable line was completed to Piedmont Springs, a distance of about four miles. These two cable roads are now in operation, and carry a large number of people to the suburbs.
In 1891 a number of gentlemen residing in one of the interior townships-in the vicinity of San Leandro -concluded to try an electric road from the center of Oakland to Hayward on the south-sixteen miles. The road was completed in May, 1892, and has been a decided success. It makes half-hourly trips, con- necting with the local trains in Oakland. The pio- neer electric railroad, however, was that of the Oak- land Consolidated Street Railway Company, which now has six different electric lines in operation. The first of this company's lines was between Oakland and Berkeley, and was the first electric street-car line in Alameda County. It now has two lines to Berkeley, which form a loop, the cars going out one line re- turning by the other. It also has branch lines to the Sixteenth Street overland depot at West Oakland, and to Mountain View Cemetery. The company also has franchises for several other branch lines now in pro- cess of extension. It has arranged for a system of transfers with the Oakland, San Leandro, and Hayward electric line, first mentioned, by which a distance of about nine miles can be traveled for one five-cent fare.
The Oakland Street Railroad Company, operating a horse car and steam dummy line between Oakland and Berkeley, in 1892 converted it into an electric line, and now has the smoothest running and most substantial line in the United States. It has a branch line about half way between Oakland and Berkeley, run- ning across to the East Berkeley steam line at Lorin.
The East Oakland Street Railway Company com- pleted in 1892 an electric line from the junction of Broadway and Eighth Street through East Oakland to the suburbs. Other branches of this company's lines now operated by horses will be transformed during 1893 into electric lines.
The California Railway Company, owners of the Laundry Farm Railway, purchased the franchise and property of the Alameda, Oakland, and Piedmont Railroad Company, and have transformed them into electric lines, from horses. The main line runs from Seventh Street and Broadway, Oakland, across the estuary, through nearly the entire length of the city of Alameda, with a branch line on Park Street and Park Avenue, across to Twenty-third Avenue and East Twelfth Street, Oakland. 1
The Highland Park and Fruitvale street-car line has been transformed into an electric line, with double-
. PLATE 15.
.
COURT HOUSE.
35
ILLUSTRATED ALBUM OF ALAMEDA COUNTY.
decked cars, patented by Mr. E. C. Sessions, the orig- inal promoter of the line and principal owner of the East Oakland electric line. The intention of this company is to extend its lines across to Piedmont from East Oakland. It will also have a terminus at Elev- enth and Washington Streets and cross the north arm of the estuary on a bridge at Eleventh Street, making connection with its line at East Eleventh Street and Thirteenth Avenue.
Electric street franchises have been granted from Broadway to West Oakland on Eighth, Tenth, and Twelfth Streets, and these roads will all be running be- fore the end of 1893, making five electric lines from Broadway, or Central Oakland, to the western end of the city.
Franchises are before the Board of Supervisors of the county for electric lines skirting the foothills back of Oakland, and for a line to San Jose through the Santa Clara Valley. In a short time there will be no county in the Union with more facilities for rapid travel from the interior to the county seat, and from one section to another.
Horse car lines will soon be things of the past, and even the cables seem now to be doomed. In fact, several franchises originally asked for cable, were changed to electricity before work was commenced on their construction.
The City of Oakland has a local line of the Central Pacific (leased by the Southern Pacific Company) run- ning from its western end, at the Bay of San Francisco; to Fruitvale on the east, a distance of about six miles -with eight intermediate stations, less than a mile apart, with half hour trains, stopping at every station, connecting with the ferries to San Francisco. Upon this line the people travel back and forth, between stations, and from West Oakland to Fruitvale, without paying any fares. Such a thing is unknown anywhere else on the continent or in the world. It was a con- dition of the franchise of the railroad when granted, in 1868, that no fares would be collected within the lim- its of the city of Oakland. The same custom prevails in the city of Alameda across the estuary from Oak- land. Half hour trains also run from Park Street in this city via First Street, Oakland, to the Oakland pier, also connecting with the ferry. No fares are collected between the five stations within the city lim- its of Alameda. The company charges ten cents, however, for local travel between the two cities. There is also a local line from the Oakland Pier along the bay at West Oakland to Berkeley, making half-hourly trips also, connecting with the San Francisco ferry at the same time with the Oakland and Alameda trains. A branch line runs from this line at Shell Mound, just
outside the city limits of Oakland, to West Berkeley. No fares are charged on these two Berkeley lines inside the town limits, there being four local stations on each line.
There is a ferry system connecting with the South Pacific Coast (narrow gauge) Railway mentioned above, with a pier jutting out into the bay from Alameda Point near the mouth and on the south of the estuary, running half-hourly trips to San Francisco, alternating with the broad-gauge line, so that the trips between the two ferry lines are every fifteen minutes. Separate local trains connect with the narrow-gauge boats and run to Oakland and Alanieda, and no fares are col- lected on these trains within the limits of either city. The trains run in different parts of the cities. The tickets of the two lines are interchangeable, and pas- sengers may go from either line to San Francisco and return by the other.
There is also a line of ferry steamers, which make hourly trips, from the foot of Broadway to San Fran- cisco, carrying freight and passengers, charging the same fare. This line of steamers will shortly increase their trips to every thirty minutes, and reduce the time between Oakland and San Francisco to twenty- five minutes.
In 1854 one little steamer connected Oakland and Alameda County with San Francisco, carrying its few passengers, at $1.00 a trip. To-day eight steamers, floating palaces, the finest ferry steamers in the world, are employed in carrying passengers and freight to and from San Francisco, carrying about twenty-four thou- sand daily, or more than eight million passengers, and millions of pounds of freight each year. For a round trip, including car fare to the landings and fare on the steamers, the price for commutation tickets is $3.00 per month, or ten cents the round trip; and single trip tickets to San Francisco and return, twenty-five cents. No line of transportation in the world carries passen- gers for so cheap a rate.
THE RAILROAD YARDS.
Bridges and Buildings, Motive Power and Repairing Depart- ments.
The headquarters of the constructive operations of the Southern Pacific Company's system are at the West Oakland yards.
The bridge and building department does all the building for the railroad and for the Pacific Improve- ment Company, a branch of the Southern Pacific, with the single exception of the laying of the rails. It primarily is designed to build all the bridges which the track and engineer departments require. The lat-
5
36
ILLUSTRATED ALBUM OF ALAMEDA COUNTY.
ter department supplies the superintendent with a pro- file of the space to be bridged and the data necessarily connected therewith. From this the designs are drawn and the parts of the bridge made and fitted in these yards. The bridge is built in place by a gang from this department, and when finished and turned over to the track department is ready to receive the rails.
The territory extends all over the Pacific Coast to the most distant points reached by the Southern Pacific Company's lines, whether owned or leased. To the south it reaches El Paso, to the east Ogden, . these yards; rebuilding is done at Sacramento. The and toward the north it runs into Oregon. Over this territory it supplies, with the exception of ties, every bit of lumber that is used by the several departments of the road, even providing the car department at Sacramento with all its material. When a new road is building, this department is at the end of track or even beyond erecting section houses, tool houses, and bunks for the use of the track department. Other gangs are at work along the scarcely finished sections of the road erecting stations, section houses, and all the necessary structures incidental to the needs of the railway. The department is even farther reaching in its scope, for it does the work of construction for the Pacific Improvement Company. The new Del Monte Hotel, at Monterey, Hotel El Carmelo, at Pacific Grove, Castle Crag, near Mount Shasta, are all the work of this department, and a singular proof of the capacity of the West Oakland yards is the fact that the task of supplying the material for this enormous structure did not in the least interfere with the usual work of the shop.
All stations, roundhouses, and other buildings are constructed from data supplied to this department. The designs are drawn and the specifications made for every piece of constructive work undertaken. All the work is done at these shops as far as possible, and the intention is always to complete the work in all its parts so that at the place of erection nothing is left the workmen but to fit the pieces together according to the orders given. The department has charge of the shipyard, also, at West Oakland, and has built or repaired all the steamers of the railroad company's large fleet. During the past year this one department has handled over fifteen million feet of lumber and has given employment to some twenty-five hundred men, of which number at least four hundred and fifty are carried upon the pay roll of the Oakland shops.
Another department of these yards is that of motive power and machinery. The steamers of the ferry service upon the bay and the Sacramento River are built and repaired, and the locomotive engines receive
all repairs short of rebuilding. The buildings of the de- partment of motive power and machinery stand close together at the shore of the bay, and in addition to a few tool houses are the machine shop, the blacksmithy, and the roundhouse. The division for which these are the repair shops extends from Oakland to San Jose by Niles, to Sacramento by Livermore on the Western Pacific, to Sacramento by Benicia on the Northern and California Pacific, and to Lathrop. All ordinary and running repairs to engines employed upon the lines between Oakland and these points are done at main line and local systems of the division keep ninety locomotives in use, all of which pass through these shops. The Oakland local train service requires seven large local engines built expressly for this use. They are built with the tender and engine in one block, and the greater part of the weight is supported upon the six driving wheels; at each end is a single truck of two ordinary small wheels. The local service to Alameda employs four small local engines, which run about two years before repairs are necessary. Seven small local engines are employed upon the Berkeley service.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.