The Ohlone Greenway is a pedestrian and bicycle path in the
East Bay region of the
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 Gov ...
.
The path is named for the indigenous
Ohlone
The Ohlone, formerly known as Costanoans (from Spanish meaning 'coast dweller'), are a Native American people of the Northern California coast. When Spanish explorers and missionaries arrived in the late 18th century, the Ohlone inhabited the ...
, the first people who live in the area.
Route
The Greenway begins in
Berkeley at the east end of
Ohlone Park located at Martin Luther King Jr. Way and Hearst Avenue. From there, it runs westward to the west end of the park at Sacramento and Delaware. In the segment around the North Berkeley BART Station (one block west on Delaware to Acton, then one block north on Acton to Virginia), the bike path becomes a street-running bike lane.
At Virginia, the path resumes its own dedicated course just northwest of the
North Berkeley BART station
North Berkeley is an underground Bay Area Rapid Transit station located on Sacramento Street in the North Berkeley region of Berkeley, California. The station is bounded by Virginia, Sacramento, Delaware, and Acton streets in a residential area ...
and runs northwestward through the cities of
Albany, and
El Cerrito. It terminates at
San Pablo Avenue at
Baxter Creek Gateway Park in
Richmond at the eastern end of the
Richmond Greenway.
History
For most of its length, the Ohlone Greenway runs along what was formerly a railroad right of way, and alongside the elevated tracks of the BART Richmond line. For most of this stretch, the Greenway is divided into two paths, one for pedestrians, the other for bicyclists. The segment from the North Berkeley BART station to Rose Street in north Berkeley was formerly the right of way of the
Key System
The Key System (or Key Route) was a privately owned company that provided mass transit in the cities of Oakland, Berkeley, Alameda, Emeryville, Piedmont, San Leandro, Richmond, Albany, and El Cerrito in the eastern San Francisco Bay A ...
's "G"
Westbrae line. The segment from Rose to just north of the
El Cerrito del Norte BART station was formerly the right of way of the
Santa Fe Railroad
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 and Topeka, Kansas, and S ...
(and originally, of the
California and Nevada Railroad
The California and Nevada Railroad was a narrow gauge steam railroad which ran in the East Bay of the San Francisco Bay Area in the late 19th century. It was incorporated on March 25, 1884. J.S. Emery was listed as the railroad's president - t ...
). BART began revenue operation along the elevated tracks on January 29, 1973 and the last Santa Fe run over the route was on May 12, 1979, meaning it was possible to see both a BART train and a Santa Fe freight train alongside each other (the BART train above on the overhead elevated tracks) in the right of way which became the Ohlone Greenway. The "linear park" was constructed in conjunction with BART, and received federal funds for landscaping and beautification.
In late 2006, a portion of what will eventually become a branch of the Ohlone Greenway in Berkeley south to University Avenue using another segment of the old Santa Fe right-of-way was opened between University and Delaware. In November 2007, the City of Berkeley approved the use of the old Santa Fe right-of-way south of University, extending the Ohlone Greenway branch about two blocks to Strawberry Creek Park.
The last segment between Cedar Rose Park and Delaware remained an undeveloped dirt right-of-way blocked by a fence at Cedar until late 2010 when construction began to close this gap. It was opened in late 2012.
Portions of the Greenway were closed to the public from 2011 to 2014, due to a seismic retrofit project to strengthen the elevated BART tracks. The project was completed in January 2014.
The link extending the Greenway west from the terminus at Baxter Creek to unite with the new
Richmond Greenway, which runs along the abandoned former Santa Fe Railroad right of way to
Point Richmond, was completed in 2018.
[
]
See also
* Rail trail
References
External links
* Nearb
Hiking Trails in Alameda County - Berkeley Wiki
Photo of BART & Santa Fe trains, May 12, 1979, along future Ohlone Greenway
{{California hiking trails
Bay Area Rapid Transit
Bike paths in the San Francisco Bay Area
Parks in Berkeley, California
Rail trails in California
Trails in the San Francisco Bay Area
Transportation in Alameda County, California
Transportation in Contra Costa County, California
El Cerrito, California
Albany, California