So Where
Are They Now?
The Story of San Francisco’s Steel Electric
Empire
 |
| The Santa
Rosa, “butchered” into offices, now at Pier 3 in San
Francisco |
By Guy Span
Who would believe that 75 years after they were
built, some San Francisco Bay ferries are still in existence? And
not just in Argentina (where the Yosemite vanished without a
trace) or in the stuffed and mounted manner of the steam museum
ships Eureka (San Francisco Maritime Museum) or the Berkeley (San
Diego Maritime Museum). The Berkeley deserves special mention, as
she still retains her delightful interior on the second deck, with
art glass windows fabricated in San Francisco, just after the turn
of the earlier century. But below decks and in the name of
PRESERVATION, the curators have cut a boiler in half, so we can
see inside (nobody alive ever looked inside a working boiler,
except through the firebox door).
But back to the survivors who are not stuffed, gutted or mounted
like trophy fish. In 1927, responding to the growing popularity of
the motor car and taking aim at competitor Golden Gate Ferries,
Southern Pacific Railroad (SP) took delivery of six “Steel
Electric” automobile ferries, with three each built in San
Francisco and Oakland, by the Union Iron Works. Three were for
service from Sausalito for wholly owned subsidiary Northwestern
Pacific Railroad (Mendocino, Santa Rosa and Redwood Empire) and
the last three for SP’s service from Alameda and Oakland (the
Stockton, Fresno and Lake Tahoe). While the ferries were
innovative for their steel hulls and diesel engines driving
electric propulsion motors (hence, “Steel Electric”), the
exterior design conformed to a more traditional appearance. These
vessels proved popular with the passengers and economical to
operate.
 |
| The
Mendocino, still plugging away after all these years |
But it wasn’t long before ominous plans developed to span the
bay with a pair of bridges. Southern Pacific (now combined with
Golden Gate Ferries) and the Key System could do little as the
grand plans to annihilate the private transit infrastructure took
place. You see, before the bridges opened, we had electric trains
in the Napa Valley, electric trains in Sausalito, three different
electric train companies in Oakland and one in Alameda. These
trains met the ferries, which in turn carried the passengers
direct to the Ferry Building, some thirty million a year
(including the auto ferries, which arrived at the Hyde Street
landing). It was a private transit infrastructure paid for with
investor dollars and repaid by the transit users each day.
Then, the local governments formed bridge districts to use public
money to promote automobiles. Not surprisingly, it worked (the
smart money does not compete with governments), but Southern
Pacific got off one last shot the week before the Golden Gate
Bridge opened, by reducing its auto ferry toll from $1.00 to $.50.
The bridge district directors wailed loudly, but in the end were
forced to reduce their toll to match the competition. However,
auto ferry service ended to Richmond and Berkeley’s Long Wharf
in 1936, Sausalito in1938 and Oakland in 1939 and a 1940
advertisement in the San Francisco Chronicle offered ferryboats
for sale.
 |
| The
Fresno, which today languishes in Richmond |
The buyer was Puget Sound Navigation Company (Black Ball Lines),
who bought all six Steel Electrics, two steamers, the Shasta and
the San Mateo and two other wooden diesels, the Golden Poppy and
Golden Shore. The vessels made their way up north and served under
the Black Ball flag until 1951, when Washington State refused a
fare increase and Black Ball suspended most of its services. In
turn, this forced the state to buy a slug of ferries for $5
million, to continue service. In 1953, the newly organized
Washington State Ferries ordered it’s first new vessels, after
sensibly determining that building bridges was uneconomical.
Meanwhile, the Steel Electrics continued running reliably until
1981, when they were getting seriously long of tooth. At that
point, a decision was made to completely rebuild the fleet and by
1987, four of the six sported new pilot houses and rebuilt
interiors. Two were kept in reserve and eventually sold, when it
was determined that the smaller capacities would not justify the
rebuilding costs. Of the two that were sold, both made it back to
the Bay Area and one, the Santa Rosa, was butchered into offices
and is tied up at Pier 3. She exemplifies the “preservation”
concept of the façade; where all that matters is preserving the
exterior and interior form or function have no relevance. This
curmudgeon notes that our own Ferry Building has been victimized
in the same fashion and even more thoroughly gutted, demonstrating
a passion for mindless destruction versus sensitive
reconstruction.
But in any event, the interior massacre of the Santa Rosa can be
seen today at Pier 3 and visited during normal business hours. The
other survivor, the Fresno, has been moved all around the bay and
now resides at Richmond still awaiting development plans. This is
the last Steel Electric with her original interior, including
wooden bench seats and the lunch counter, although she is now in
an advanced state of decay.
Back in Puget Sound, we find the last four of the original six
Steel Electrics plying their trade, moving automobiles and
passengers to their destinations some 75 years after they were
built. So if you want the San Francisco Bay ferry experience from
the days of yore (as God intended man to travel), a trip to
Anacortes or Port Townsend is in order. You won’t get the
bizarre museum ship experience-thank you, San Diego, (there must
be something in the water supply), but you will get the waterfront
reality of a ferry boat commute on a real-live working museum
piece, disguised and remodeled as a “modern” ferry.
