San Francisco

First of all, I apologize for not updating the blog with my adventures. After leaving San Francisco, I was not able to find any internet for the rest of my trip. I did write every so often, so now that I am home, I will post the stories I wrote as if I was still on the trip. This is the first one, that I wrote on board the California Zephyr after visiting San Francisco.

On Friday, July 22 I took a day trip into San Francisco. I have always wanted to visit this city, as it is kind of unique among American cities. San Francisco was built on a spit of land with a bay on one side and the Pacific Ocean on the other side and steep hills in the middle. Oakland, Emeryville, and other cities lie across the bay. The famous Golden Gate Bridge leaves San Francisco in the north part of the city and crosses the entrance to the San Francisco Bay, known as the Golden Gate. The bay has several islands including Angel Island and Alcatraz Island. Angel Island was known as the Ellis Island of the west, it is where all the Chinese and Japanese immigrants checked into the United States in the early 20th Century. Alcatraz Island's history is a litte darker, it hosted a United States military prison, which was later converted to a maximum security civilian prison that housed several famous criminals including Al Capone himself. The prison has since been shut down, and is now open for public tours. I do not believe the facilities on Angel Island have been preserved.

I got on Amtrak's Capitol Corridor in Davis, one stop west of Sacramento. I took that train to Jack London Square in Oakland. Jack London Square is an interesting place. After Emeryville, the train passes a coach yard and then enters Oakland. The train slows down, sounds the horn several times, and enters the street. The train follows the street for several blocks until the street ends, and the Jack London Square station begins. There are two tracks through the street, and all the side streets have gates that go down at the intersections. Since the train does not go into San Francisco itself, I had a few choices. I could have gotten off at Emeryville and ridden an Amtrak bus into San Francisco, I could have gotten off at Richmond and ridden BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit, one of several transit agencies operating the Bay area) into San Francisco, or I could get off at Jack London Square and take the ferry across the bay. This sounded the most appealing, so that is what I did. I had to walk back the length of the street with the tracks in it to get to the ferry terminal, but it was a short walk and easy to find.

The ferry left the dock right on time. I was able to buy my tickets on board the Encilla, as the ferry was called, so I bought a round trip so I could take the ferry back. The ferry stopped in Alameda before going to the Ferry Building at the end of Market Street and then on to Fisherman's Wharf. I got off at the Ferry Building. Inside the Ferry Building, I bought a one day MUNI Passport. MUNI is not actually an abbreviation, so it is incorrect to capitalize it, but everyone in San Francisco does. MUNI is short for the San Francisco Municipal Railway, which is the biggest transit agency in the city. MUNI operates the cable cars on Nob Hill, the historic streetcars and the modern light rail lines, as well as many of the transit buses in the city. The MUNI Passport cost $14 for one day and was good on anything operated by MUNI, including the cable cars.

The cable cars were my first stop. There are three lines the climb Nob Hill. The California Line starts at California and Market Streets and goes straight down (well, up) California Street as far as California and Van Ness. These cable cars are double ended and do not have the armstrong turntables to turn them, so they are not overrun with tourists. I rode this line out and back, and was glad I bought the MUNI Passport, because the cable car fares are a steep $6 one way! The Powell/Mason and Powell/Hyde lines both leave from Powell and Market Streets, a bit further down Market Street from the California Line. Powell and Market Street has the famous armstrong turntable for turning the cable cars by hand. There was an enormous crowd around the turntable, but I managed to fight my way in and get some photos of this very interesting operation. I fought my was to the nearest cable car and got on board the front so I could take photos as the car went through the streets. This was a Powell/Mason car and was completely crowded. The Powell/Mason line operates up Powell Street, then turns left for one block and turns right again onto Mason Street, which it takes to Fisherman's Wharf. The Powell/Hyde line, which I did not ride, turns left at the same place but turns right a few blocks later onto Hyde Street. I expected the tourists to ride the car to the end of the line, but by the time the car got there, I was one of only a few on board. There was, of course, another armstrong turntable at that end of the line, but nobody was there to watch the operation. This third ride would have cost me a total of $18, so my $14 MUNI Passport had been more than paid for already.

The hills in this city are incredible. There are steeper portions than what the cable cars operate on, but the cable cars still feel like roller coasters. I did not look up what the grades are on those lines, but I am willing to bet they are in the area of the Mount Washington Cog Railway in New Hampshire, if not steeper. The big difference here is that a city was built on top of these steep hills! The cable cars are called such because they do not operate under their own power. A metal cable moves under the street between the rails the whole length of the line. A groove between the rails allows the cable cars to grip the cable to pull them up the hill. Since the cars do not generate or receive any electric power, there are no air brakes. There are different levers on both ends of the cars, one of them grips the cable and one of the operates the hand brake. The cars operate with two-man crews because they need to. Each brake lever only controls the brakes on that end of the car, but these hills are so steep that both brakes are needed to keep control over the car as it goes downhill. As the car goes down the hill, there is an awful screeching sound as the brakes work for all they're worth and a horrendous smell generated from the brake pads. I wonder how often they have to replace those!

I got off the cable car at Fisherman's Wharf and got something to eat. I was going to wander around Fisherman's Wharf for a little while and then ride the F line, the historic streetcars, from this end of the line to the other end on Market Street. As I was walking past the docks, however, I saw a reasonably priced boat tour of San Francisco Bay, so I took it. I boarded the Miss Farallones and the boat was off. As we passed the breakwater protecting Fisherman's Wharf, the bay got pretty choppy and tossed the boat around a bit. I think a few passengers got seasick, but having been on many boats before, and not always in the most desirable conditions, I was fine. My dad served aboard cargo ships before I was born, and he has stories of being tossed around on the North Atlantic in the winter. That is not something I wish to experience! Growing up, he has always brought us on ferries from Manhattan to Staten island, or from New London to Orient Point on Long Island. I think this is why the ferry across the bay and the boat tour appealed to me. But I digress. The Miss Farallones fought the rough seas and eventually made it to the Golden Gate Bridge. She sailed underneath the bridge and then turned back. Since the water was pushing towards the bay, the ride out to the bridge was slow but the ride back was fast. We went back by going around Alcatraz Island to see what there is to see there. You can get a tour of the island itself, but if you don't book it in advance, you won't get to the island because it regularly sells out two weeks in advance. After seeing Al Capone's alma mater, the Miss Farallones returned to port.

Fisherman's Wharf is at the end of MUNI's F line, which is the famous historic streetcar line. This line operates a fleet of PCC cars painted to represent cars from different cities of the country, including one from Boston. There are also some Peter Witt cars from Milan, Italy. I boarded a PCC car painted up as a Cleveland car and rode to the end of the line. The F line follows the Embarcadero from Fisherman's Wharf to the Ferry Building, where it turns onto Market Street. It follows Market Street to the Castro station, at Market and 17th Streets. There you can board several of the light rail lines, which all follow Market Street but underground. They come above ground past the end of the F line and branch out in different directions. I did not have time to ride any of the other lines, so I waited and got another trolley back to the Ferry Building. I boarded the next Ferry for Oakland, the Peralta. She followed the same route as the Encilla that morning. At Jack London Square, a few trains came through before mine pulled in, so I was able to get some photos of the street running operation. I boarded my train and got off at Davis right on time.

San Francisco is a beautiful city and I wish I had planned more time to spend there. It is definitely high up on my list of things to do again. I made a mental list of what I wanted to do next time I'm in San Francisco, which included everything I had done and plenty more! We'll see if I ever make it out to San Francisco again. I wish I had planned more time to spend there, as I really was not there long enough. But I had a train to catch the next day, and we'll see where that brings me and what new adventures lie ahead.