The Evening statesman. [volume] (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1906-12-29
Southern Pacific Buys Up San
Francisco Property
TO BUILD ONE MILE OF WHARvEs
WATERWAY MAY AcCOMMO-
DATE LARGEST SHIPS.

T
Southern Pacific company has consum-
mated the purchase of an enormous
area of land just southwark of its
passenger terminal at Third and
Townsend streets.
In the vast holding are included
four solid blocks on each side of Chan
mel street, which is a waterway reach
ing in from the bay. Along both edges
of this saltwater inlet the railroad
company will build wharves from
Third street to Seventh street, and it
will dredge the channel to a depth
sufficient for the largest ocean steam
ers to come alongside the railroad
tracks.
The acquired land and the contem-
plated improvements represent an in
vestment estimated to be approximate
ly $1O,OOO,OOO.
What unbounded faith the company
has in the great commercial future of
San Francisco is shown in the COM
pletion of this plan for enlarged ter
minal facilities and the establishment
of direct contact of transcontinental
freight trains with transpacific steam
erS.
Rail and Ship to Meet.
When these Channel-street wharves
shall have been built all the Southern
Pacific's through freight will be trans
% ~%1 o. <hot
point. Transcontinental freight ship
ments will come in solid trains round
by way of Dumbarton Point cutoff,
across the lower end of the bay and
into the city by the new Bay Shore
cut off Nor will the Southern Pacific
be the only company to benefit by that
mile of wharves. The switching ar
rangement entered into by the South
ern Pacific and the Santa Fee will per-
NIT any railroads freight cars to
Channel street wharves.
Part of the plan of this big railroad
district is to attain for the Southern
Pacific what its officials declare will be
the finest double headed freight yard
in the United States. A double head
ed yard is one approached from two
directions Tracks will come into this
extensive freight area from the south
ward, and also from the northward.
Big Plan For Tracks.
From the nearest tunnel Of the Bay
Shore cutoff the Southern PACING
tracks will extend in close parallels
for several blocks, and then they will
spread out in radial lines, like the ribs
Of a fan, covering the freight yards
up as far as Channel street. And
from the northward a similar fan OF
tracks will sweep down from Town
send street to the Channel-street
| wharves.
For nearly two years the Southern
Pacific has been very quietly working
at the details of this comprehensive
scheme Here and there desired land
has been purchased, most always
| through some third person. And only
when the contemplated area had been
almost entirely bought up did few of
|
the Southern Pacific was after their
| lots. Then the land could not be
bought at anything like what the rail-
road deemed a reasonable rate. These
few owners were holding out for fancy
prices, in the belief that the company
would have to come to their terms,
Recently the Southern Pacific insti-
tuted condemnation proceedings
against four or five small plots of land
adjacent to Channel street, and it is
now only awaiting the decision of ap-
praisers as to a reasonable price for
the land before acquiring what
amounts to less than one block in a
district purchase of about fifty.
Track Laying Begun.
| Track laying in preparation for the
has already begun. And the dredging
for the steamer channel up to the flu
ture wharves will be started just as
soon as the court determines the val
uation of the little unpurchased pieces
of property.
| WITH tne DullQlIlS OI TIE WudTVeS
along Channel street the Southern Pa
cific will abandon it's freight ferry car
shipments across from Oakland creek
to the bay shore slips in the neighbOr-
hood of the foot of King street.
| Southeastward of the bay entrance
to Channel street the Santa Fe is busy
constructing its great freight termi-
nal and ocean steamer wnarves in the
space known as China basin, north
westward of the Southern Pacific's
passenger station at Third and Town
send streets, will be located the flu
ture terminal of the Western Pacific,
and its tracks will skirt the Southern
Pacific's freight yards round to the
south and west. That whole section
of the city will be teeming with the
freight life of these transcontinental
| railway terminals and nOisv with the