The Western Pacific Railroad in San Francisco

I trace some of the routes of the original Western Pacific Railroad right of ways within the city of San Francisco from the tunnel entrances under Potrero Hill on 18th Street and 22nd Streets to the remnants of their pier near todays MUNI facility at the east end of 25th St.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Western
• Pacific
• Railroad
• San
• Francisco
• Potrero
• Hill
• tunnels
• abandoned
• railroads

[ts735]

Thank you so much for posting this. I've always been fascinated with the WP in SF but it can be difficult to find good detailed maps of the operation let alone get a feel for it's physical presence nowadays. Well done.

[Amiduffer]

@ts735 You're welcome. This kind of urban archeology is a lot of fun. There used to be very detailed topo maps available on Acme Mapper, but they replaced it with more recent ones that aren't as detailed.

[MultiHornguy]

Hello. I was wondering, I went to Point Bonita lighthouse a few days back and right before you walk through the tunnel in this one mountain, if you look down, you can clearly see some types of railroad switches, ties, and broken rails. I am clueless to what railroad owned this and am very curious to know. Thanks!

-Jason in Santa Rosa, CA

[Amiduffer]

@MultiHornguy Did you get any pictures? As far as I know, unless the Army built it, it sounds like a dump for old equipment. The closest railroads from that area was the Northwest Pacific RR that had a huge ferry pier in Sausalito that shut down back in the 1930's.

[raiderpassion04]

Thanks Amidufer. Fun stuff. 

[Amiduffer]

@raiderpassion04 Thanks. There was a hell of a lot of stuff I wanted to dig up around there.

[MultiHornguy]

@Amiduffer Well, it didn't look like a scrap yard, because the rails that weren't broken were perfectly lined up on a dock made out of ties; It just looked abandoned. I'll try to get some pics from my friend.

[Amiduffer]

@neblitude I moved out of the area before I could photograph much of the line. There's a lot of abandoned ROW's that I wanted to get.

[neblitude]

You can still see tracks right outside the hardware store on Mariposa St. next to the freeway. I have a big framed photo of a switcher idling at the intersection of 16th & Rhode Island in 1973.

[rare12inchsingles]

Very informative. Thank You!