page_title: San Francisco and Alameda Railroad
section_title: Construction
hierarchical_section_title: San Francisco and Alameda Railroad / History / Construction
caption_attribution_description: English: Joseph Lee's painting Alameda Shore, circa 1868. It depicts the Sophie MacLane approaching Cohen’s Wharf on August 25, 1864 - meeting the first trip of the San Francisco and Alameda Railroad.
context_page_description: The San Francisco and Alameda Railroad 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, 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.
context_section_description: 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 Ave. to 4th St., private right-of-way to 5th St., Linnet St. (later Railroad Ave., then Lincoln Ave.) to Alameda station at Park St. with a few intermediate stations including Mastick, east of 8th St., and Encinal, east of Grand St., 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 Blvd. and Pearl St. near the present Fruitvale Bridge, to Simpson's (later renamed Melrose) near the present 48th Ave. and then, turning southeastward, to Fitch's (later named Fitchburg) near the present 77th Ave., to Jones (later Elmhurst) near the present 98th Ave. to the Bay side of San Leandro. 
  At San Leandro, the track turned sharply left there onto Ward (now West Estudillo) St. to the SF&A San Leandro station at the intersection with the county road (now East 14th St). The track then turned sharply to the right to follow the county road southward (now East 14th St. in San Leandro, and Mission Blvd. in Hayward). Near Hayward, the track angled to the right on private right-of-way to A St. and Watkins St., following Watkins St. to D St. where a station was built. Service to Hayward started in 1865.
caption: Alameda Shore (Joseph Lee, c. 1868) depicts a ferry meeting the first run of the railroad on August 25, 1864.[5]
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