The San Francisco and Oakland Railroad (SF&O) was built in 1862 to provide ferry-train service from a San Francisco ferry terminal connecting with railroad service through Oakland to San Antonio. In 1868 Central Pacific Railroad decided that Oakland would be the west coast terminus of the First transcontinental railroad and bought SF&O. Beginning November 8, 1869, part of the SF&O line served as the westernmost portion of the transcontinental railroad. It subsequently was absorbed into the Southern Pacific Railroad (SP). The track in Oakland was electrified in 1911 and extended across the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge in 1939. Service was abandoned in 1941.
History
The San Francisco and Oakland Railroad (and Ferry Co.) was formed in October 1861 under the leadership of Rodman Gibbons and other Oakland residents in order to provide transportation to Oakland by means of a ferry from San Francisco to a small wharf at Oakland Point where passengers could take a train into Oakland. Service began in September 1862 along 7th St. to a station in downtown Oakland at Broadway.
Traffic increased steadily so an extension of the line was planned. In 1864 the track was extended across a bridge over Indian Creek Slough, the outlet to Lake Merritt, then along private right-of-way adjacent to San Antonio Creek (Oakland Estuary) to the Commerce St. Wharf (foot of 14th Ave) in San Antonio.
The cost of the extension and of building a new larger ferry boat caused Gibbons and his associates to lose control of the company SF&O in 1865 to A. A. Cohen, president of the San Francisco and Alameda Railroad (SF&A). After Central Pacific Railroad (CP) decided in April 1868 to make Oakland the western terminus of the transcontinental railroad, its subsidiary purchased the majority of the stock of the struggling SF&O from A. A. Cohen in August 1868 and began to expand the small wharf at Oakland Point. In August 1869 the CP subsidiary also purchased the majority of the stock of SF&A, bankrupt by the 1868 Hayward earthquake. In 1870 they merged the two local railroads together and then brought them back into the Central Pacific.
Meanwhile, the Western Pacific Railroad (1862-1870) had surveyed a line from San Jose via Niles Canyon and Altamont Pass to Sacramento, but ran out of money in a 1866 dispute, after laying 20 miles of track from San Jose into the middle of Niles Canyon. By 1868, a CP subsidiary had purchased the WP line and then restarted the construction of it, through a contract with Turton, Knox & Ryan, beginning February 1868 from Sacramento working south to connect with the line beginning, later in June 1869, eastward from the point Western Pacific had stopped in Niles Canyon. Also in June 1869, they added a new line, through a contract with J. H. Strobridge, from Niles northwest towards Oakland. In September 1869 this new line towards Oakland was first connected temporarily to the SF&A at San Leandro. The first through Western Pacific train from Sacramento arrived on September 6, 1869 at the SF&A Alameda Terminal, and then by SF&A ferry to San Francisco, just in time for the opening of the 1869 State Fair in Sacramento, completing the first transcontinental railroad to the Pacific.
Two months later, the connection to the SF&O was made and the small Oakland Point wharf was expanded. On the morning of November 8, 1869, the first transcontinental train to use the expanded ferry terminal at Oakland Point traversed the SF&O line and the Western Pacific Railroad to get to Sacramento and continue east on the Central Pacific Railroad. The city of Oakland held a large celebration later in the day to greet the first westbound transcontinental train.
Having large amounts of long-distance passenger and freight railroad traffic traverse Oakland on 7th St., one of its main streets, was not a good idea for either the city or the railroad. During 1869 and 1870, a bypass track was constructed starting in San Antonio and using a new bridge across Indian Creek Slough that led to 1st St. and along this street to Oakland Point. Initially the bypass was used for freight trains only, but in later years, long-distance passenger trains used it also and a new station for them was built at 1st St. and Broadway (Jack London Square).
After 1879, the transcontinental trains no longer used the Altamont Pass Niles Canyon route, taking a shorter route from Sacramento via Benicia to reach Oakland Pier instead, but trains to Los Angeles continued to use the former SF&O and Western Pacific routes to reach San Jose.