San Francisco and Alameda Railroad

The San Francisco and Alameda Railroad (SF&A) was a short-lived railroad company in the East Bay area of the San Francisco Bay Area. The railroad line opened 1864–1865 from Alameda Terminal on Alameda Island to Hayward, California, with ferry service between Alameda Terminal and San Francisco started in 1864. After being bankrupted by the 1868 Hayward earthquake, it was acquired by a subsidiary of the Central Pacific Railroad in August 1869. Part of the SF&A line between Alameda Terminal and San Leandro served as a portion of the First transcontinental railroad starting in September 1869 (though most was replaced by the San Francisco and Oakland Railroad by November 1869), while the southern section was abandoned in 1873. The remaining part of the line became part of the Southern Pacific Railroad. From 1911 to 1941, the section on Alameda was used for electrified commuter service. Freight service on Alameda lasted until 1960. The middle section of the SF&A line between Fruitvale and San Leandro is still in service as part of the Union Pacific Railroad Niles Subdivision. It is used by Amtrak Capitol Corridor and Coast Starlight passenger trains and Union Pacific freight trains.

History In 1863 A. A. Cohen, a prominent San Francisco attorney, together with Charles Minturn, an operator of river steamboats and bay ferries, E. B. Mastick, a prominent Alameda landowner, and others incorporated the San Francisco and Alameda Railroad to provide passenger and freight ferry-train service to Alameda, San Leandro, Hayward (then called Haywards) and perhaps farther.

Construction

System construction began in 1864 on a wharf and railroad station (Alameda Terminal) at the foot of Pacific Avenue in Alameda and a railroad from there along Pacific Avenue to 4th Street, private right-of-way to 5th Street, Linnet Street (later Railroad Avenue, then Lincoln Avenue) to Alameda station at Park Street with a few intermediate stations including Mastick, east of 8th Street, and Encinal, east of Grand Street, named after the neighborhood, but also known as Fasskings after the nearby entertainment pavilion. Service began later that year. Construction continued via private right-of-way between the Oakland Estuary and San Leandro Bay, (Alameda was then a peninsula rather than an island) to stations named Fruit Vale (later renamed Fernside) at Fernside Boulevard and Pearl Street near the present Fruitvale Bridge, to Simpson's (later renamed Melrose) near the present 48th Avenue and then, turning southeastward, to Fitch's (later named Fitchburg) near the present 77th Avenue, to Jones (later Elmhurst) near the present 98th Avenue to the Bay side of San Leandro near Davis Street. At San Leandro, the track turned sharply left (heading east) there onto Ward (now West Estudillo) Street to the SF&A San Leandro station at the intersection with the county road (now East 14th Street). The track then turned sharply to the right to follow the county road southward (now East 14th Street in San Leandro, and Mission Boulevard in Hayward). Near Hayward, the track angled to the right on private right-of-way to A Street and Watkins Street, following Watkins Street to D Street where a station was built. Service to Hayward started in 1865. There were five trips daily, linking Hayward to San Francisco, and made commuting for Hayward area residents a viable option for the first time. But with only 30 homes in Hayward at that time, it was not profitable.

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