The Key System (or Key Route) was a privately owned company that provided
mass transit in the cities of
Oakland,
Berkeley
Berkeley most often refers to:
*Berkeley, California, a city in the United States
**University of California, Berkeley, a public university in Berkeley, California
* George Berkeley (1685–1753), Anglo-Irish philosopher
Berkeley may also refer ...
,
Alameda
An alameda is a Avenue (landscape), street or path lined with trees () and may refer to:
Places Canada
*Alameda, Saskatchewan, town in Saskatchewan
**Grant Devine Dam, formerly ''Alameda Dam'', a dam and reservoir in southern Saskatchewan
Chile
...
,
Emeryville Emeryville may refer to:
* Emeryville, California
Emeryville is a city located in northwest Alameda County, California, in the United States. It lies in a corridor between the cities of Berkeley and Oakland, with a border on the shore of San ...
,
Piedmont
it, Piemontese
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,
San Leandro
San Leandro (Spanish for " St. Leander") is a city in Alameda County, California, United States. It is located in the East Bay of the San Francisco Bay Area; between Oakland to the northwest, and Ashland, Castro Valley, and Hayward to the sout ...
,
Richmond
Richmond most often refers to:
* Richmond, Virginia, the capital of Virginia, United States
* Richmond, London, a part of London
* Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town in England
* Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada
* Richmond, California, ...
,
Albany, and
El Cerrito in the
eastern
Eastern may refer to:
Transportation
*China Eastern Airlines, a current Chinese airline based in Shanghai
*Eastern Air, former name of Zambia Skyways
*Eastern Air Lines, a defunct American airline that operated from 1926 to 1991
*Eastern Air Li ...
San Francisco Bay Area
The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Go ...
from 1903 until 1960, when it was sold to a newly formed public agency,
AC Transit
AC Transit (Alameda-Contra Costa Transit District) is an Oakland-based public transit agency serving the western portions of Alameda and Contra Costa counties in the East Bay of the San Francisco Bay Area. AC Transit also operates "Transbay" ro ...
. The Key System consisted of local
streetcar
A tram (called a streetcar or trolley in North America) is a rail vehicle that travels on tramway tracks on public urban streets; some include segments on segregated right-of-way. The tramlines or networks operated as public transport a ...
and
bus
A bus (contracted from omnibus, with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a road vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van. It is most commonly used in public transport, but is also in use for cha ...
lines in the East Bay, and commuter rail and bus lines connecting the East Bay to
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...
by a ferry pier on
San Francisco Bay, later via the lower deck of the
Bay Bridge. At its height during the 1940s, the Key System had over of track. The local streetcars were discontinued in 1948 and the commuter trains to San Francisco were discontinued in 1958. The Key System's territory is today served by
BART
Bart is a masculine given name, usually a diminutive of Bartholomew, sometimes of Barton, Bartolomeo, etc.
Bart is a Dutch and Ashkenazi Jewish surname, and derives from the name ''Bartholomäus'', a German form of the biblical name ''Bartho ...
and
AC Transit
AC Transit (Alameda-Contra Costa Transit District) is an Oakland-based public transit agency serving the western portions of Alameda and Contra Costa counties in the East Bay of the San Francisco Bay Area. AC Transit also operates "Transbay" ro ...
bus service.
History
Early years
![Key Pier (cropped)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/78/Key_Pier_%28cropped%29.jpg)
The system was a consolidation of several streetcar lines assembled in the late 1890s and early 1900s by
Francis Marion "Borax" Smith
Francis Marion Smith (February 2, 1846 – August 27, 1931) (once known nationally and internationally as "Borax Smith" and "The Borax King" ) was an American miner, business magnate and civic builder in the Mojave Desert, the San Francisc ...
. After having made a fortune in Borax and gained his nickname, "Borax", the entrepreneur turned to real estate and electric traction for streetcars. The Key System was founded as the San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose Railway (SFOSJR), incorporated in 1902. Service began on October 26, 1903, with a four-car train carrying 250 passengers, departing
downtown Berkeley
Downtown Berkeley is the central business district of the city of Berkeley, California, United States, around the intersection of Shattuck Avenue and Center Street, and extending north to Hearst Avenue, south to Dwight Way, west to Martin Luther Ki ...
for the
ferry pier, with service to San Francisco. Before the end of 1903, the general manager of the SFOSJR devised the idea of using a stylized map on which the system's routes resembled an old-fashioned key, with three "handle loops" that covered the cities of Berkeley, Piedmont (initially, "Claremont" shared the Piedmont loop) and Oakland, and a "shaft" in the form of the Key pier, the "teeth" representing the ferry berths at the end of the pier. The company touted its 'key route', which led to the adoption of the name "Key System".
In 1908, the SFOSJR changed its name to the San Francisco, Oakland & San Jose Consolidated Railway; it changed to the San Francisco-Oakland Terminal Railway in 1912. After it went bankrupt in December 1923, it was re-organized as the Key System Transit Co., adopting a marketing concept as the name of the company.
![1909 Key System, oakland (cropped)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ac/1909_Key_System%2C_oakland_%28cropped%29.jpg)
Following the Great
Crash of 1929
The Wall Street Crash of 1929, also known as the Great Crash, was a major American stock market crash that occurred in the autumn of 1929. It started in September and ended late in October, when share prices on the New York Stock Exchange colla ...
, a holding company called the Railway Equipment & Realty Co. was created, with the subsidiary Key System Ltd running the commuter trains. In 1938, the name became the Key System.
During
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
, the Key System built and operated the
Shipyard Railway
The Shipyard Railway was an electric commuter rail/interurban line that served workers at the Richmond Shipyards in Richmond, California, United States, during World War II. It was funded by the United States Maritime Commission and was built an ...
between a transfer station in Emeryville and the
Kaiser Shipyards
The Kaiser Shipyards were seven major shipbuilding yards located on the United States west coast during World War II. Kaiser ranked 20th among U.S. corporations in the value of wartime production contracts. The shipyards were owned by the Kaise ...
in Richmond.
National City Lines era
National City Lines
National City Lines, Inc. (NCL) was a public transportation company. The company grew out of the Fitzgerald brothers' bus operations, founded in Minnesota, United States in 1920 as a modest local transport company operating two buses. Part of the ...
acquired 64% of the stock in the system in 1946.
The same year E. Jay Quinby hand published a document exposing the ownership of National City Lines (
General Motors,
Firestone Tire
Firestone Tire and Rubber Company is a tire company founded by Harvey Firestone (1868–1938) in 1900 initially to supply solid rubber side-wire tires for fire apparatus, and later, pneumatic tires for wagons, buggies, and other forms of wheele ...
, and
Phillips Petroleum). He addressed the publication to ''The Mayors; The City Manager; The City Transit Engineer; The members of The Committee on Mass-Transportation and The Tax-Payers and The Riding Citizens of Your Community''. In it he wrote "This is an urgent warning to each and every one of you that there is a careful, deliberately planned campaign to swindle you out of your most important and valuable public utilities–your Electric Railway System".
The new owners made a number of rapid changes. In 1946 they cut back the A-1 train route and then the express trains in 1947. The company increased fares in 1946 and then in both January and November 1947. During the period there were many complaints of overcrowding.
On April 9, 1947, nine corporations and seven individuals (constituting officers and directors of certain of the corporate defendants) were
indicted
An indictment ( ) is a formal accusation that a person has committed a crime. In jurisdictions that use the concept of felonies, the most serious criminal offence is a felony; jurisdictions that do not use the felonies concept often use that of ...
in the
Federal District Court of Southern California on two counts: '
conspiring to acquire control of a number of transit companies, forming a transportation
monopoly
A monopoly (from Greek el, μόνος, mónos, single, alone, label=none and el, πωλεῖν, pōleîn, to sell, label=none), as described by Irving Fisher, is a market with the "absence of competition", creating a situation where a speci ...
' and 'Conspiring to monopolize sales of buses and supplies to companies owned by National City Lines'. They were convicted of conspiring to monopolize sales of buses and supplies. They were
acquitted
In common law jurisdictions, an acquittal certifies that the accused is free from the charge of an offense, as far as criminal law is concerned. The finality of an acquittal is dependent on the jurisdiction. In some countries, such as the ...
of conspiring to monopolize the ownership of these companies.
In 1948 National City Lines proposed a plan to convert all the streetcars to buses.
They placed an advertisement in the local papers explaining their plan to 'modernize' and 'motorize' Line 14. The Oakland City Council opposed the plan by 5–3.
The
Public Utilities Commission (PUC) supported the plan which included large fare increases.
In October 1948, 700 people signed a petition with the PUC "against the Key System, seeking restoration of the bus service on the #70 Chabot Bus line".
The city councils of Oakland, Berkeley and San Leandro opposed the removal of street cars. The traffic planners supported removal of the streetcar lines to facilitate movement of automobiles.
Local governments in the East Bay attempted to purchase the Key System, but were unsuccessful.
Streetcars were converted to buses during November/December 1948.
In 1949 National City Lines,
General Motors and others were convicted of conspiring to monopolize the sale of buses and related products to their subsidiary transit companies throughout the U.S.
Between 1946 and 1954 transbay fares increased from 20¢ to 50¢ ($ to $ adjusted for inflation). Fares in this period were used to operate and for 'motorisation' which included streetcar track removal, repaving, purchase of new buses and the construction of bus maintenance facilities. Transbay ridership fell from 22.2 million in 1946 to 9.8 million in 1952.
The Key System's famed commuter train system was dismantled in 1958 after many years of declining ridership as well by the corrupt monopolistic efforts of National City Lines. The last run was on April 20, 1958. In 1960, the newly formed publicly owned AC Transit took over the Key System's facilities.
Most of the rolling stock was scrapped, with some sold to Buenos Aires, Argentina. Several streetcars, interurbans and bridge units were salvaged for collections in the United States. Of the large bridge units, three are at the
Western Railway Museum
The Western Railway Museum, in Solano County, California is located on Highway 12 between Rio Vista and Suisun. The museum is built along the former mainline of the
Sacramento Northern Railway. Their collection focuses on trolleys, as it is ...
near Rio Vista, California while another is at the
Orange Empire Railway Museum
The Southern California Railway Museum (SCRM, reporting mark OERX), formerly known as the Orange Empire Railway Museum, is a railroad museum in Perris, California, United States. It was founded in 1956 at Griffith Park in Los Angeles before movin ...
in southern California.
System details
![1926 Key System map](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6a/1926_Key_System_map.jpg)
The initial connection across the Bay to San Francisco was by ferryboat via a causeway and pier ("
mole
Mole (or Molé) may refer to:
Animals
* Mole (animal) or "true mole", mammals in the family Talpidae, found in Eurasia and North America
* Golden moles, southern African mammals in the family Chrysochloridae, similar to but unrelated to Talpida ...
"), extending from the end of Yerba Buena Avenue in
Oakland, California
Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast of the United States, West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third ...
, westward 16,000 feet (4,900 m) to a ferry terminal near
Yerba Buena Island
Yerba Buena Island ( Spanish: ''Isla Yerba Buena'') sits in San Francisco Bay within the borders of the City and County of San Francisco. The Yerba Buena Tunnel runs through its center and connects the western and eastern spans of the San Franc ...
. Filling for the causeway had been started by a short-lived narrow-gauge railroad company in the late 19th century, the
California and Nevada Railroad. "Borax" Smith acquired the causeway from the California and Nevada upon its bankruptcy.
On May 6, 1933, a major fire erupted on the pier end of the mole, consuming the ferry terminal building as well as gutting the ferryboat
''Peralta''. The pier was subsequently reconstructed and a new terminal building erected.
The Key System operated a fleet of ferries between the Key Route Pier and the San Francisco Ferry Building until January 15, 1939, when a new dual track opened on the south side of the lower deck of the
San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge
The San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge, known locally as the Bay Bridge, is a complex of bridges spanning San Francisco Bay in California. As part of Interstate 80 and the direct road between San Francisco and Oakland, it carries about 260,000 ...
, bringing Key System trains to the then-new
Transbay Terminal
The San Francisco Transbay Terminal was a transportation complex in San Francisco, California, United States, roughly in the center of the rectangle bounded north–south by Mission Street and Howard Street, and east–west by Beale Street and 2 ...
in San Francisco's downtown. The bridge railway and Transbay Terminal were shared with the
Southern Pacific
The Southern Pacific (or Espee from the railroad initials- SP) was an American Class I railroad network that existed from 1865 to 1996 and operated largely in the Western United States. The system was operated by various companies under the ...
's
Interurban Electric and the
Western Pacific's
Sacramento Northern
The Sacramento Northern Railway (reporting mark SN) was a electric interurban railway that connected Chico in northern California with Oakland via the California capital, Sacramento. In its operation it ran directly on the streets of Oaklan ...
railroads.
The Key System's first trains were composed of standard wooden railroad
passenger cars
A car or automobile is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of ''cars'' say that they run primarily on roads, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport people instead of goods.
The year 1886 is regarded as ...
, complete with
clerestory roofs. Atop each of these, a pair of
pantographs, invented and manufactured by the Key System's own shops, were installed to collect current from overhead wires to power a pair of electric motors on each car, one on each truck (bogie).
The design of rolling stock changed over the years. Wood gave way to steel, and, instead of doors at each end, center doors were adopted.
The later rolling stock consisted of specially designed "bridge units" for use on the new bridge, articulated cars sharing a common central truck and including central passenger entries in each car, a forerunner of the design of most light rail vehicles today. Several of these pairs were connected to make up a train. Power pickup was via
pantograph
A pantograph (, from their original use for copying writing) is a mechanical linkage connected in a manner based on parallelograms so that the movement of one pen, in tracing an image, produces identical movements in a second pen. If a line dr ...
from overhead catenary wires, except on the Bay Bridge where a third rail pickup was used. The Key's trains ran on 600 volt direct current, compared to the 1200 volts used by the SP commuter trains. The cars had an enclosed operator's cab in the right front, with passenger seats extending to the very front of the vehicle, a favorite seat for many children, with dramatic views of the tracks ahead.
The exterior color of the cars was orange and silver. Interior upholstery was woven reed seat covers in one of the articulated sections, and leather in the other, the smoking section. The flooring was
linoleum
Linoleum, sometimes shortened to lino, is a floor covering made from materials such as solidified linseed oil (linoxyn), Pine Resin, pine resin, ground Cork (material), cork dust, sawdust, and mineral fillers such as calcium carbonate, most com ...
. During WWII, the roofs were painted gray for aerial camouflage. After acquisition by National City Lines, all Key vehicles including the bridge units were re-painted in that company's standard colors, yellow and green.
Transbay rail lines
![1941 Key System map](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/eb/1941_Key_System_map.jpg)
Until the Bay Bridge railway began operation, Key commuter trains had no letter designation. They were named for the principal street or district they served.
D was reserved for a proposed line into
Montclair alongside the
Sacramento Northern
The Sacramento Northern Railway (reporting mark SN) was a electric interurban railway that connected Chico in northern California with Oakland via the California capital, Sacramento. In its operation it ran directly on the streets of Oaklan ...
interurban railway
The A, B, C, E and F lines were the last Key System rail lines. Train service ended on April 20, 1958, replaced by buses using the same letter designations. AC Transit preserved the letter-designated routes when it took over the Key System two years later, and are still in use; AC Transit's B, C, E, F, G and H lines follow roughly the corresponding Key routes and neighborhoods.
East Bay Street railways
![1911 Key System map](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/af/1911_Key_System_map.jpg)
The Key System's streetcars operated as a separate division under the name "Oakland Traction Company", later changed to "East Bay Street Railways. Ltd", and finally to "East Bay Transit Co.", reflecting the increasing use of buses. The numbering of the streetcar lines changed several times over the years. The Key System's streetcars operated out of several carbarns. The Central Carhouse was on the east side of
Lake Merritt
Lake Merritt is a large tidal lagoon in the center of Oakland, California, just east of Downtown. It is surrounded by parkland and city neighborhoods. It is historically significant as the United States' first official wildlife refuge, designate ...
on Third Avenue. The Western Carhouse was located at 51st and Telegraph Avenue in the
Temescal District of Oakland. The Elmhurst Carhouse was in the east Oakland district of
Elmhurst, on East 14th (International Blvd.) between 94th and 96th Avenues. The Northern Carhouse was in
Richmond
Richmond most often refers to:
* Richmond, Virginia, the capital of Virginia, United States
* Richmond, London, a part of London
* Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town in England
* Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada
* Richmond, California, ...
where today's
AC Transit
AC Transit (Alameda-Contra Costa Transit District) is an Oakland-based public transit agency serving the western portions of Alameda and Contra Costa counties in the East Bay of the San Francisco Bay Area. AC Transit also operates "Transbay" ro ...
has a bus yard. In the early years of operation, these were supplemented by a number of smaller carbarns scattered throughout the East Bay area, many of them inherited from the pre-Key companies acquired by "Borax" Smith. The Key streetcars were originally painted dark green and cream white, then orange. They were re-painted in the green and yellow scheme of National City Lines after NCL acquired the Key System.
The Key System had ordered 40
trolley coaches from
ACF-Brill
The J.G. Brill Company manufactured streetcars,Young, Andrew D. (1997). ''Veteran & Vintage Transit'', p. 101. St. Louis: Archway Publishing. interurban coaches, motor buses, trolleybuses and railroad cars in the United States for almos ...
in 1945 to convert the East Bay trolley lines. The new NCL management canceled the Key's trackless program in 1946 before wire changes were made, and diverted the order (some units of which had already been painted for the Key and delivered to Oakland) to its own
Los Angeles Transit Lines, where they ran until 1963. The last Key streetcars ran on November 28, 1948, replaced by buses.
Related rail systems
*The Key System organized its freight business in 1929 as the Key Terminal Railway, Ltd. In 1938, the name was changed to the Oakland Terminal Rail''road'', Ltd. In 1943 the Oakland Terminal Railroad was jointly purchased by the
Western Pacific Railroad
The Western Pacific Railroad was a Class I railroad in the United States. It was formed in 1903 as an attempt to break the near-monopoly the Southern Pacific Railroad had on rail service into northern California. WP's Feather River Route dire ...
and the
Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway
The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway , often referred to as the Santa Fe or AT&SF, was one of the larger railroads in the United States. The railroad was chartered in February 1859 to serve the cities of Atchison, Kansas, Atchison and Top ...
and is now known as the
Oakland Terminal Railway.
*The
Eastshore and Suburban Railway
The Eastshore and Suburban Railway (E&SR) was a formerly independent unit of the historic San Francisco Bay Area Key System which ran streetcar trains in Richmond, California, San Pablo, and El Cerrito. There were several lines with terminals ...
(E&SR) was a formerly independent unit of the Key System which ran streetcar trains in
Richmond
Richmond most often refers to:
* Richmond, Virginia, the capital of Virginia, United States
* Richmond, London, a part of London
* Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town in England
* Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada
* Richmond, California, ...
,
San Pablo, and
El Cerrito. Service to Oakland required a transfer to Oakland Traction Company trains at the County Line station and service to San Francisco required an additional transfer.
*See also the
East Bay Electric Lines
The East Bay Electric Lines were a unit of the Southern Pacific Railroad that operated electric interurban-type trains in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area.Tufveson.Ford (1977). Beginning in 1862, the SP and its predecessors opera ...
; another transbay commuter rail system operated by the
Southern Pacific
The Southern Pacific (or Espee from the railroad initials- SP) was an American Class I railroad network that existed from 1865 to 1996 and operated largely in the Western United States. The system was operated by various companies under the ...
in the East Bay until 1941.
*See also the
Sacramento Northern
The Sacramento Northern Railway (reporting mark SN) was a electric interurban railway that connected Chico in northern California with Oakland via the California capital, Sacramento. In its operation it ran directly on the streets of Oaklan ...
Railroad, an interurban system running from Chico through Sacramento to Oakland which also used some of the Key System's trackage as well as the Key System's ferry pier, and later ran to the Transbay Terminal until 1941.
Other properties
From the beginning, the Key System had been conceived as a dual real estate and transportation system.
"Borax" Smith and his partner
Frank C. Havens
Frank Colton Havens (November 21, 1848 – February 9, 1918) was a real estate and water developer in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Biography
Havens was born into one of the founding families of Shelter Island, New York, the son of Wickham Sayre ...
first established a company called the "Realty Syndicate" which acquired large tracts of undeveloped land throughout the East Bay. The Realty Syndicate also built two large hotels, each served by a San Francisco-bound train, the
Claremont and the
Key Route Inn, and a popular amusement park in Oakland called
Idora Park
Idora Park was a Victorian era trolley park in north Oakland, California constructed in 1904 on the site of an informal park setting called Ayala Park on the north banks of Temescal Creek. It was leased by the Ingersoll Pleasure and Amusement P ...
. Streetcar lines were also routed to serve all these properties, thereby enhancing their value. In its early years, the Key System was actually a subsidiary of the Realty Syndicate. Berkeley's numerous paths, lanes, walks and steps, were put in place in many of the newly developed neighborhoods, often in the middle of a city block, so that commuters could walk more directly to the new train system. Berkeley's pathways are still maintained by local groups.
Legacy
![Piedmont Avenue former train station](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5f/Piedmont_Avenue_former_train_station.jpg)
Signs of the system still remain:
*The south wall of the lower level (today's eastbound lanes) of the
Yerba Buena Tunnel
The Yerba Buena Tunnel, also known as the Yerba Buena Island Tunnel, is a highway tunnel in San Francisco, California. It is the part of San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge complex that crosses Yerba Buena Island. The Yerba Buena Tunnel carries t ...
, connecting the two spans of the Bay Bridge, still contains the as-built "deadman holes", regularly spaced refuge bays into which railway workers could duck whenever a train came along.
*The eastern end of the
San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge
The San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge, known locally as the Bay Bridge, is a complex of bridges spanning San Francisco Bay in California. As part of Interstate 80 and the direct road between San Francisco and Oakland, it carries about 260,000 ...
sits on landfill which was added to the northern edge of the causeway which carried the Key System railbed to the ferry piers.
*The tunnel that Key System trains used to cross under the
Southern Pacific
The Southern Pacific (or Espee from the railroad initials- SP) was an American Class I railroad network that existed from 1865 to 1996 and operated largely in the Western United States. The system was operated by various companies under the ...
(now
Union Pacific
The Union Pacific Railroad , legally Union Pacific Railroad Company and often called simply Union Pacific, is a freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Pac ...
and
Amtrak
The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, Trade name, doing business as Amtrak () , is the national Passenger train, passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous United Stat ...
) tracks to the mole and later the Bay Bridge still exists. It is visible from the
Alexander Zuckerman Bike Path, the ramps of the Macarthur Maze, and at the southwest end of the Target store property in Emeryville, a locale that was once part of the Key System yards and shops.
*A stretch of road in
Albany that was built with a wide median for a planned extension (never constructed) of the "G"
Westbrae line is named ''Key Route Boulevard''.
*The Claremont Hotel, built by a Key System affiliate company, The Realty Syndicate, survives as the
Claremont Resort
Claremont Club & Spa, A Fairmont Hotel is a historic hotel situated at the foot of Claremont Canyon in the Berkeley Hills and located in the Claremont district, near the intersection of Claremont Avenue and Ashby Avenue; the site straddles the ...
. It was the terminus of the "E" transbay line.
*The Realty Syndicate Building at 1440 Broadway was built in 1912 and housed
"Borax" Smith and
Frank C. Havens
Frank Colton Havens (November 21, 1848 – February 9, 1918) was a real estate and water developer in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Biography
Havens was born into one of the founding families of Shelter Island, New York, the son of Wickham Sayre ...
's Realty Syndicate that created the Key System. It is listed on the National Historic Register.
*The Key System's subsequent administrative headquarters building, built as the Security Bank and Trust Company Building in 1914, still exists at 1100 Broadway in downtown Oakland and is listed on the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...
. The building suffered some damage in the
1989 Loma Prieta earthquake and is as of June 2020 unoccupied, although there are plans for the building to be rehabilitated by a developer constructing a larger new building adjacent to it.
*A building which has been converted for restaurant use at 41st Street and Piedmont Avenue in Oakland is the partial remnant of what was formerly a covered stop for trains on the C-line. (The tracks followed 40th Street, crossed Howe Street and curved through the parking lot behind Piedmont Avenue shops, then merged onto Piedmont Avenue at 41st Street and headed toward Pleasant Valley Avenue.) Old photos of the Key System are on the walls of the restaurant, as well as a mural of Key System images on one of its outside walls. In December 2014, the mural was partially destroyed during renovation of the building. This act, apparently done swiftly and without public notice, has stirred considerable controversy
*The old Key System Piedmont shops building at Bay Place and Harrison is now a
Whole Foods Market
Whole Foods Market IP, Inc., a subsidiary of Amazon, is an upscale American multinational supermarket chain headquartered in Austin, Texas, which sells products free from hydrogenated fats and artificial colors, flavors, and preservatives. A US ...
retail store. This building was originally built in 1890 as the powerhouse and car barn of the Piedmont Cable Car Co. In the 1920s, it was substantially remodeled and used as a
Cadillac showroom which closed in the mid-1990s. The building sat vacant until 2003, when Whole Foods initiated a radical interior redesign while retaining and restoring much of the facade.
*The bus yards of today's AC Transit in Emeryville and Richmond were originally the bus yards of the Key System. The Richmond yard was also previously the site of the Northern Carhouse of the Key streetcar system.
*Several streetcars and bridge trains from the Key System are preserved at the
Western Railway Museum
The Western Railway Museum, in Solano County, California is located on Highway 12 between Rio Vista and Suisun. The museum is built along the former mainline of the
Sacramento Northern Railway. Their collection focuses on trolleys, as it is ...
at Rio Vista Junction in
Solano County
Solano County () is a county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 453,491. The county seat is Fairfield.
Solano County comprises the Vallejo–Fairfield, CA Metropolitan Statistical Area, which i ...
, as well as a Bridge Unit at the
Southern California Railway Museum
The Southern California Railway Museum (SCRM, reporting mark OERX), formerly known as the Orange Empire Railway Museum, is a railroad museum in Perris, California, United States. It was founded in 1956 at Griffith Park in Los Angeles before movin ...
in
Perris, California
Perris is an old railway city in Riverside County, California, United States, located east-southeast of Los Angeles and north of San Diego. It is known for Lake Perris, an artificial lake, skydiving, and its sunny dry climate. Perris is with ...
and a streetcar at
Seashore Trolley Museum
Seashore Trolley Museum, located in Kennebunkport, Maine, United States, is the world's first and largest museum of mass transit vehicles. While the main focus of the collection is trolley cars (trams), it also includes rapid transit trains, ...
in
Kennebunk, Maine
Kennebunk is a town in York County, Maine, United States. The population was 11,536 at the 2020 census (The population does not include Kennebunkport, a separate town). Kennebunk is home to several beaches, the Rachel Carson National Wildlife R ...
.
*One of the 0-4-0
Steam locomotives
A steam locomotive is a locomotive that provides the force to move itself and other vehicles by means of the expansion of steam. It is fuelled by burning combustible material (usually coal, oil or, rarely, wood) to heat water in the locomot ...
used to push the trains during power outages is on display at the
Redwood Valley Railway
The Redwood Valley Railway is a gauge miniature railway in Tilden Regional Park near Berkeley, California.
History
It was established in 1952 by Erich Thomsen as the Tilden South Gate and Pacific Railway, on a gauge, and has since expanded t ...
. It had a brief stint on the currently re-constructing
Virginia and Truckee Railroad
The Virginia and Truckee Railroad is a privately owned heritage railroad, headquartered in Virginia City, Nevada. Its private and publicly owned route is long. When first constructed in the 19th century, it was a commercial freight railroad ...
in
Virginia City, Nevada
Virginia City is a census-designated place (CDP) that is the county seat of Storey County, Nevada, and the largest community in the county. The city is a part of the Reno– Sparks Metropolitan Statistical Area.
Virginia City developed as a boom ...
. Here, the mountain grades proved too taxing for the little locomotive. It was later replaced by 2–8–0 Steam locomotive No. 29.
*Although built by the
Southern Pacific Railroad
The Southern Pacific (or Espee from the railroad initials- SP) was an American Class I railroad network that existed from 1865 to 1996 and operated largely in the Western United States. The system was operated by various companies under the ...
, the Key System inherited the
Northbrae Tunnel
The Northbrae Tunnel, also referred to as the Solano Avenue Tunnel, was built as a commuter electric railroad tunnel in the northern part of Berkeley, California, and was later converted to street use.
In 1910 the Southern Pacific Railroad (SP) ...
right-of-way, which it operated from 1942 through 1958. It was converted to street use and opened to auto traffic on December 15, 1962.
''California Highways and Public Works'', March-April 1963, pp.61-64
/ref>
*Located at the former Oakland Army Base
The Oakland Army Base, also known as the Oakland Army Terminal, is a decommissioned United States Army base in the San Francisco Bay Area of California. The base was located at the Port of Oakland on Maritime Street just south of the eastern entra ...
site, The Interurban Electric Railway Bridge Yard Shop Building, was used as a maintenance facility for the Key System electric trains. Today, the building is now known as the Bridge Yard Building and is used as a venue for events. A substation located at the site also provided electrical power to all the Key System trains.
*The site of the Interurban Electric Railway Bridge Yard Shop Building, as well as former Oakland Army Base, is now the Judge John Sutter Regional Shoreline
Judge John Sutter Regional Shoreline is a park located in Oakland, California along the shore of San Francisco Bay at the foot of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge. It is part of the East Bay Regional Parks District. The park opened on October ...
park. The park opened on October 21, 2020, and is located at the foot of the Bay Bridge.
See also
* Ferries of San Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay in California has been served by ferries of all types for over 150 years. John Reed established a sailboat ferry service in 1826. Although the construction of the Golden Gate Bridge and the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge l ...
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References
Bibliography
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External links
;General
Archive.org
The Key System presents: The March of Progress (1945 documentary)
*
Stills from the documentary
Oberail.org
Oakland Berkeley & Eastern
OaklandWiki.org
OaklandWiki – Key System description and system maps
;Pictures
1100 Broadway
Proposed redevelopment of former headquarters building
ModelSmith.com
"Key System #182 sitting in the car barn at the Western Railway Museum", September 1990
AlamedaInfo.com
A Key System bridge unit in Oakland, 1954
Bayarearailfan.org
A gallery of Key System images
Keyrailpix.org
image gallery
Museumca.org
Postcard: Key Route Pier
Images
CDlib.org
Photo: Key System train on Key Mole adjacent to new Bay Bridge, 1936
Key System train on the ramp to the Bay Bridge from the Transbay Terminal in San Francisco, 1939, Dorothea Lange photo
{{SFBAtransit
Defunct California railroads
Electric railways in California
Interurban railways in California
Passenger rail transportation in California
Defunct public transport operators in the United States
History of Oakland, California
History of Alameda County, California
History of Contra Costa County, California
Rail transportation in Oakland, California
Transportation companies based in California
History of San Francisco
Public transportation in Alameda County, California
Public transportation in Contra Costa County, California
Public transportation in San Francisco
1903 establishments in California
Defunct companies based in California