1.
Caltrain
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Caltrain is a California commuter rail line on the San Francisco Peninsula and in the Santa Clara Valley. The northern terminus of the line is in San Francisco at 4th, extra trains were often run for special events held in AT&T Park in San Francisco, Stanford Stadium in Palo Alto, and SAP Center in San Jose. Caltrain operates 92 weekday trains,6 of which are extended to Gilroy, weekday ridership in February 2016 averaged 62,416, up 83% since 2010. Caltrain is governed by the Peninsula Corridor Joint Powers Board which consists of agencies from the three counties served by Caltrain, San Francisco, San Mateo and Santa Clara, each member agency has three representatives on a nine-member Board of Directors. The member agencies are the City and County of San Francisco, SamTrans, Caltrain has 29 regular stops, one football-only stop, and two weekend-only stops. As of October 2012 Caltrain runs 92 weekday trains,36 Saturday, the original commuter railroad built in 1863 was the San Francisco and San Jose Rail Road, it was purchased by Southern Pacific in 1870. Southern Pacific double-tracked the line in 1904 and rerouted it via Bayshore, after 1945, ridership declined with the rise in automobile use, in 1977 SP petitioned the state Public Utilities Commission to discontinue the commute operation because of ongoing losses. To preserve the service, in 1980 Caltrans contracted with SP. Caltrans purchased new locomotives and rolling stock, replacing SP equipment in 1985, Caltrans also upgraded stations, added shuttle buses to nearby employers, and dubbed the operation CalTrain. The Peninsula Corridor Joint Powers Board was formed in 1987 to manage the line, subsequently, San Mateo and Santa Clara Counties commissioned Earth Metrics, Inc. to prepare an Environmental Impact Report on right-of-way acquisition and expansion of operations. With state and local funding, the PCJPB bought the right of way between San Francisco and San Jose from SP in 1991. The following year, PCJPB took responsibility for CalTrain operations and selected Amtrak as the contract operator, PCJPB extended the CalTrain service from San Jose to Gilroy, connecting to VTA Light Rail at Tamien Station in San Jose. In July 1995 CalTrain became accessible to passengers in wheelchairs, five months later, CalTrain increased the bicycle limit to 24 per train, making the service attractive to commuters in bicycle-friendly cities such as San Francisco and Palo Alto. In July 1997 the current logo was adopted, and the name became Caltrain. A year later, VTA extended its rail service from north Santa Clara to the Mountain View Caltrain station. In June 2003, a connection for the Bay Area Rapid Transit. In 2006, Caltrain announced that wireless internet access would be available on trains at no additional charge, Caltrain invested more than $1 million in researching and testing WiFi in 2006. Caltrain still hopes to offer the service eventually as part of a comprehensive communication package
2.
Train station
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A train station, railway station, railroad station, or depot is a railway facility where trains regularly stop to load or unload passengers or freight. It generally consists of at least one platform and a station building providing such ancillary services as ticket sales. If a station is on a line, it often has a passing loop to facilitate traffic movements. The smallest stations are most often referred to as stops or, in parts of the world. Stations may be at level, underground, or elevated. Connections may be available to intersecting rail lines or other modes such as buses. In British usage, the station is commonly understood to mean a railway station unless otherwise qualified. In the United States, the most common term in contemporary usage is train station, Railway station and railroad station are less frequent. Outside North America, a depot is place where buses, trains, or other vehicles are housed and maintained and from which they are dispatched for service. The two-storey Mount Clare station in Baltimore, Maryland, which survives as a museum, first saw service as the terminus of the horse-drawn Baltimore. The oldest terminal station in the world was Crown Street railway station in Liverpool, built in 1830, as the first train on the Liverpool-Manchester line left Liverpool, the station is slightly older than the Manchester terminal at Liverpool Road. The station was the first to incorporate a train shed, the station was demolished in 1836 as the Liverpool terminal station moved to Lime Street railway station. Crown Street station was converted to a goods station terminal, the first stations had little in the way of buildings or amenities. The first stations in the modern sense were on the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, manchesters Liverpool Road Station, the second oldest terminal station in the world, is preserved as part of the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester. It resembles a row of Georgian houses, dual-purpose stations can sometimes still be found today, though in many cases goods facilities are restricted to major stations. In rural and remote communities across Canada and the United States, such stations were known as flag stops or flag stations. Many stations date from the 19th century and reflect the architecture of the time. Countries where railways arrived later may still have such architecture, as later stations often imitated 19th-century styles, various forms of architecture have been used in the construction of stations, from those boasting grand, intricate, Baroque- or Gothic-style edifices, to plainer utilitarian or modernist styles
3.
San Francisco
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San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the cultural, commercial, and financial center of Northern California. It is the birthplace of the United Nations, the California Gold Rush of 1849 brought rapid growth, making it the largest city on the West Coast at the time. San Francisco became a consolidated city-county in 1856, after three-quarters of the city was destroyed by the 1906 earthquake and fire, San Francisco was quickly rebuilt, hosting the Panama-Pacific International Exposition nine years later. In World War II, San Francisco was a port of embarkation for service members shipping out to the Pacific Theater. Politically, the city votes strongly along liberal Democratic Party lines, San Francisco is also the headquarters of five major banking institutions and various other companies such as Levi Strauss & Co. Dolby, Airbnb, Weebly, Pacific Gas and Electric Company, Yelp, Pinterest, Twitter, Uber, Lyft, Mozilla, Wikimedia Foundation, as of 2016, San Francisco is ranked high on world liveability rankings. The earliest archaeological evidence of habitation of the territory of the city of San Francisco dates to 3000 BC. Upon independence from Spain in 1821, the became part of Mexico. Under Mexican rule, the system gradually ended, and its lands became privatized. In 1835, Englishman William Richardson erected the first independent homestead, together with Alcalde Francisco de Haro, he laid out a street plan for the expanded settlement, and the town, named Yerba Buena, began to attract American settlers. Commodore John D. Sloat claimed California for the United States on July 7,1846, during the Mexican–American War, montgomery arrived to claim Yerba Buena two days later. Yerba Buena was renamed San Francisco on January 30 of the next year, despite its attractive location as a port and naval base, San Francisco was still a small settlement with inhospitable geography. The California Gold Rush brought a flood of treasure seekers, with their sourdough bread in tow, prospectors accumulated in San Francisco over rival Benicia, raising the population from 1,000 in 1848 to 25,000 by December 1849. The promise of fabulous riches was so strong that crews on arriving vessels deserted and rushed off to the gold fields, leaving behind a forest of masts in San Francisco harbor. Some of these approximately 500 abandoned ships were used at times as storeships, saloons and hotels, many were left to rot, by 1851 the harbor was extended out into the bay by wharves while buildings were erected on piles among the ships. By 1870 Yerba Buena Cove had been filled to create new land, buried ships are occasionally exposed when foundations are dug for new buildings. California was quickly granted statehood in 1850 and the U. S. military built Fort Point at the Golden Gate, silver discoveries, including the Comstock Lode in Nevada in 1859, further drove rapid population growth. With hordes of fortune seekers streaming through the city, lawlessness was common, and the Barbary Coast section of town gained notoriety as a haven for criminals, prostitution, entrepreneurs sought to capitalize on the wealth generated by the Gold Rush
4.
Peninsula Commute
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See Caltrain for the commuter rail service currently operating on the San Francisco Peninsula. This service ran as a private, for-profit enterprise beginning in 1863, due to operating losses, the Southern Pacific Railroad petitioned to discontinue the service in 1977. Subsidies were provided through the California Department of Transportation in 1980 to continue service, since 1863 the San Francisco Peninsula, the series of towns between San Francisco and San Jose, has been served by a railroad. The Southern Pacific first provided freight and passenger service, followed briefly by the California Department of Transportation, the Central Pacific Railroad transferred its rights for the construction of the right-of-way between San Jose and Sacramento to the Western Pacific Railroad in late 1862. In December 1865, the Southern Pacific Railroad Company was incorporated to build a line between San Francisco and San Diego. Under Southern Pacific the line was double tracked in 1904 and had record ridership during World War II, during the war,26 trains ran between San Jose and San Francisco, with headways as low as 5 minutes in the mornings and 3 minutes in the evenings. However, after the war, roads were improved, with the four-lane undivided Bayshore Highway becoming a divided freeway between 1949–1962, and Interstate 280 was added in the 1970s. Train ridership declined with the rise of automobile use, several times during the 1960s and 1970s, SP talked about discontinuing the commute service due to increasing deficits and flat ridership. Ridership was 11,500 daily passengers on 22 trains in 1970, all SP passenger locomotives were transferred to Peninsula commute service except for those which were sold to Amtrak. In 1977 SP filed a petition with the CPUC to discontinue the operation due to the ongoing losses. At that time, SP was running 44 trains a day, to preserve the commuter service, Caltrans took over financial responsibility on July 1,1980, and contracted with SP to operate the service. Bay Area Rapid Transit List of Peninsula Commute locomotives SP timetable from 1978 at the Wayback Machine McGovern, Caltrain and the Peninsula Commute Service. The Bay Shore and Dumbarton Cut-Offs of the Southern Pacific, section of Energy and Environment, Office of Proceedings, Interstate Commerce Commission. CS1 maint, Multiple names, authors list
5.
Caltrain Express
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California State Senator Jackie Speier and Caltrain leadership are credited with the idea to provide an express service for Caltrain during a brainstorming session. The funding request for the Caltrain express service was incorporated directly into the Governors budget. CTX was one of the projects recommended by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission under Resolution 3434 in December 2001, CTX officially broke ground during a ceremony held at 4th and King on June 28,2002. At the time, it was the largest capital improvement program for Caltrain, during CTX construction, Caltrain shut down weekend service for two years starting in July 2002 to allow track work. M. and the line only had two intermediate stops, at Hillsdale and Palo Alto. After construction was complete and weekend service resumed in June 2004, during construction, service was also reduced to a single track on Thursday and Friday nights after 9 P. M. By April 2004, Caltrain was showing off the stock it had acquired for Baby Bullet service. The first southbound Baby Bullet left San Francisco with 420 passengers at 7,20 AM, Baby Bullet trains often ran at standing room capacity during the first year. Just prior to the inauguration of Baby Bullet service, Caltrain served an average of 27,000 riders per weekday. One year later, Caltrain ridership had increased by 12%, and by 2014, ten years later, Caltrain ridership had more than doubled to over 60,000 riders per weekday. In addition to having one of the new locomotives named for her, CTX received a Tranny award from the California Transportation Foundation as the Program of the Year for 2004. During the same ceremony, Speier was honored as the Legislator of the Year, Caltrain split the CTX project into two separate phases, based on geographic region. The North CTX extended from San Francisco to Redwood City, the North CTX contract was awarded in April 2002 to the joint venture partnership of Herzog Contracting Corporation and Stacy and Witbeck. Herzog-Stacy-Witbeck also won the South CTX contract, as announced in January 2003, the key elements of CTX were the overtake tracks, high-speed crossovers, and a central traffic control system which collectively allowed a single office to route trains. To support smoother operation at higher sustained speeds, Caltrain also laid down continuous-welded rails, during the CTX project, Caltrain rebuilt the Bayshore station, relocating it slightly south of the prior location to accommodate the north quad track overtake section ending just south of Tunnel #4. A small rail bridge south of Bayshore was built over a creek as part of CTX, Lawrence Station was in the right-of-way planned for the south quad-track overtake section, so Lawrence was rebuilt with new platforms and an under-track pedestrian tunnel. Work at Lawrence was anticipated to be completed by the end of 2003, the Millbrae station also received some upgrades, a third track was added and existing tracks were relocated, requiring Caltrain to demolish the existing platform. Millbrae station updates were scheduled to complete with the opening of the new station in January 2003. CTX added quad-track overtake sections near the cities of Brisbane and Sunnyvale, during the initial design phase, overtakes were also announced for Millbrae and Redwood City
6.
USS Missouri (BB-63)
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USS Missouri is a United States Navy Iowa-class battleship and was the third ship of the U. S. Navy to be named after of the U. S. state of Missouri. Missouri was the last battleship commissioned by the United States and was best remembered as the site of the surrender of the Empire of Japan which ended World War II, Missouri was ordered in 1940 and commissioned in June 1944. In the Pacific Theater of World War II she fought in the battles of Iwo Jima and Okinawa and shelled the Japanese home islands, in 1998, she was donated to the USS Missouri Memorial Association and became a museum ship at Pearl Harbor. Missouri was one of the Iowa-class fast battleship designs planned in 1938 by the Preliminary Design Branch at the Bureau of Construction and Repair. She was laid down at the Brooklyn Navy Yard on 6 January 1941, launched on 29 January 1944, the ship was the third of the Iowa class, but the fourth and final Iowa-class ship commissioned by the U. S. Navy. The ship was christened at her launching by Mary Margaret Truman, daughter of Harry S. Truman, Missouris main battery consisted of nine 16 in /50 cal Mark 7 guns, which could fire 2,700 lb armor-piercing shells some 20 mi. Her secondary battery consisted of twenty 5 in /38 cal guns in twin turrets, Missouri was the last U. S. battleship to be completed. Wisconsin, the highest-numbered U. S. battleship built, was completed before Missouri and she stood out of San Francisco Bay on 14 December and arrived at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 24 December 1944. She departed Hawaii on 2 January 1945 and arrived in Ulithi, there she was temporary headquarters ship for Vice Admiral Marc A. Mitscher. Missouri then steamed with the carriers to Iwo Jima where her main guns provided direct, after TF58 returned to Ulithi on 5 March, Missouri was assigned to the Yorktown carrier task group. On 14 March, Missouri departed Ulithi in the screen of the fast carriers, during strikes against targets along the coast of the Inland Sea of Japan beginning on 18 March, Missouri shot down four Japanese aircraft. Raids against airfields and naval bases near the Inland Sea and southwestern Honshū continued, Missouri rejoined the screen of the carriers as Marine and Army units stormed the shores of Okinawa on the morning of 1 April. An attack by Japanese forces was repulsed successfully, on 11 April, a low-flying kamikaze Zero, although fired upon, crashed on Missouris starboard side, just below her main deck level. The starboard wing of the plane was thrown far forward, starting a fire at 5 in Gun Mount No.3. The battleship suffered only superficial damage, and the fire was quickly under control. The remains of the pilot were recovered on board the ship just aft of one of the 40 mm gun tubs, the following day he was buried at sea with military honors. About 23,05 on 17 April, Missouri detected an enemy submarine 12 mi from her formation and her report set off a hunter-killer operation by the light carrier Bataan and four destroyers, which sank the Japanese submarine I-56. Missouri was detached from the task force off Okinawa on 5 May
7.
San Francisco Naval Shipyard
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The San Francisco Naval Shipyard was a United States Navy shipyard in San Francisco, California, located on 638 acres of waterfront at Hunters Point in the southeast corner of the city. Originally, Hunters Point was a shipyard established in 1870. The shipyard was purchased by the Navy in 1940, a year before the Attack on Pearl Harbor and it began operations the next year as the San Francisco Naval Shipyard, and operated until 1974 when it was deactivated and renamed Hunters Point Naval Shipyard. Used commercially for a time, in 1986 it was taken over by the Navy again as the port of the USS Missouri battlegroup. The base was named redundant as part of the Base Realignment and Closure effort in 1991, since then the site has been part of a superfund cleanup effort to remediate the leftovers of decades of industrial and radiological use. Parcels are being sold off as they are cleaned up, mostly for condominium development, the original docks were built on solid rock. In 1916 the drydocks were thought to be the largest in the world, at over 1000 feet in length, they were said to be big enough to accommodate the worlds largest warships and passenger steamers. Soundings showed a depth of sixty-five feet. During the early 20th century much of the Hunters Point shoreline was extended by landfill extensions into the San Francisco Bay, between World War I and the beginning of World War II the Navy contracted from the private owners for the use of the docks. The docks provided deep-water facilities between San Diego and Bremerton, Washington, the main naval base in the area was at Mare Island Naval Shipyard, but the continuous silting in the area made it only suitable for relatively shallow-draft ships. The property became one of the shipyards of the west coast. It was later renamed Treasure Island Naval Station Hunters Point Annex, during the 1940s, many workers moved into the area to work at this shipyard and other wartime related industries. The key fissile components of the first atomic bomb were loaded onto USS Indianapolis in July 1945 at Hunters Point for transfer to Tinian. After World War II and until 1969, the Hunters Point shipyard was the site of the Naval Radiological Defense Laboratory, the yard was used after the war to decontaminate ships from Operation Crossroads. Because of all the testing, there is widespread radiological contamination of the site, after the war, with an influx of blue collar industry, the area remained a naval base and commercial shipyard. In 1947 an enormous crane with a 630-ton capacity was completed at the site by the American Bridge Company and it was the largest crane in the world. This was used to remove the turrets of battleships so the guns could be replaced while the old set was being refurbished on land. In 1959, a 230 foot tall tower was added to the top of the crane
8.
City College of San Francisco
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City College of San Francisco, or CCSF, is a two-year community college in San Francisco, California. The Ocean Avenue campus, bordering the Sunnyside, Westwood Park, the College has locations across the District. City College of San Francisco first opened on September 4,1935 as San Francisco Junior College and it was nicknamed Trolley Car College in the early days since students were forced to travel extensively to get between campuses. As the enrollment grew over time, so did the CCSF campus, in February 1948, the name was changed to City College of San Francisco. It now consists of eleven campuses, the Ocean Campus being the primary one, since its founding in 1935, City College has evolved into a multicultural, multi-campus community college that is one of the largest in the country. CCSF offers courses in more than 50 academic programs and over 100 occupational disciplines, in 2012, the college began experiencing significant public turmoil. In July of 2013, the ACCJC elected to take action to terminate the colleges accreditation, subject to a one-year review, the decision was based on a variety of deficiencies in standards. A Fiscal Crisis & Management Assistance Team report was expected to be released by the end of July 2013, the 2013 decision to revoke accreditation in 2014 was put on hold pending the legal challenges. Two years later, ACCJC reaffirmed the colleges accreditation for seven years, the Student Activities Office provides resources, support and leadership training for eight Associated Students Councils and more than 80 clubs and student organizations. It sponsors a variety of concerts and lectures throughout the year. Students can also avail themselves of the Fitness Center, enjoy nationally ranked intercollegiate sports, the College also features a student-run newspaper, The Guardsman, an award-winning magazine, ETC as well as television and radio stations. Performances given by students in music, dance, and theatre Arts further enhance campus life, currently, there is a Queer Alliance student group and a Queer Resource Center on campus. The Queer Resource Center is an academic and informational resource center for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, gender queer, intersex, questioning, the Queer Resource Center aims to empower and celebrate its demographic as well as its community. The center has participated in anti-violence, anti-homophobia, and anti-transphobia rallies, on campus, there are numerous student activity groups, gender-specific courses, and health services. CCSF is part of the San Francisco Community College District which is independent and co-extensive with the City and County of San Francisco, the districts Board of Trustees is elected by San Francisco residents. District funds are allocated from the legislature, local property taxes, student tuition and fees, lottery funds, sales tax funds. On July 3,2013, the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges voted to revoke CCSFs accreditation, ACCJC has made recommendations to the college several times about major problems. In July 2012, ACCJC gave the eight months to prove it should remain accredited and ordered it to make preparations for closure
9.
Millbrae station
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The Millbrae Intermodal Terminal is an at-grade Bay Area Rapid Transit and Caltrain station located in suburban Millbrae, California, in northern San Mateo County. It was expected to support over 30,000 BART trips per day, Millbrae Station is the largest intermodal terminal in the United States west of the Mississippi. It has three tracks for BART and two for Caltrain. An island platform allows a connection between the two systems. A concourse mezzanine is above the platforms, currently two BART tracks and one island platform usually are kept out of regular service, used instead to hold train sets that are also out of service. The station is also a bus transit hub with multiple bus bays served by several SamTrans lines. Millbrae Station has about 2,900 parking spaces, including a parking garage. The Reserved Parking areas cost $2/day from 10am-3pm on weekdays, a free Library-a-Go-Go Peninsula Library System library book vending machine was added in May 2011. The station has daily Caltrain commuter rail service along the line between San Jose and San Francisco. Midday trains are hourly each way, service is frequent during commute hours. Service south of San Jose to Gilroy is limited to three weekday round trips. Passengers who board the train without a ticket are subject to fines of up to $250 plus court fees. Passengers who use the electronic Clipper card to ride the Caltrain must remember to tag on their card prior to boarding, if they board the train without tagging on, they will be subject to the same fines. In addition, Caltrain passengers are charged the maximum one way fare when they tag on prior to boarding the train, if passengers who use the Clipper card forget to tag off when they exit the train, they will be charged the highest cash fare from point of origin. In 2015, construction began on the rail system. If completed as planned, Millbrae would serve as one of one or two stations between San Francisco and San Jose, and would allow high-speed rail passengers to reach SFO via BART. $290 million has been allocated to lengthen the platforms for connection to High Speed Rail, before the Millbrae Intermodal Terminal was built for the BART San Mateo Extension terminus Millbrae had a free Caltrain shuttle bus between the station and San Francisco International Airport. The former Southern Pacific Depot has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since September 1,1978, in 1985 Caltrain service began at the original Millbrae depot, replacing Southern Pacific trains that had operated along the San Francisco Peninsula since the early 20th century
10.
Salesforce Transit Center
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The Transbay Transit Center is a transit station and neighborhood development project in downtown San Francisco that will serve the San Francisco Bay Area’s regional transportation system. It is governed by the Transbay Joint Powers Authority and is currently under construction, during the Loma Prieta earthquake in 1989 the former Transbay Terminal suffered structural damage and was in need of replacement. To accomplish this, the Transbay Joint Powers Authority was founded in 2001, after breaking ground, the TJPA worked to demolish the preexisting structures including the bus ramps and the terminal structure. Demolition of the former San Francisco Transbay Terminal completed in September 2011, construction of the first phase and accompanying park is scheduled to be completed in late 2017. Phase 1 of the project is construction of a new multimodal, the new facility will accommodate more than 100,000 passengers each weekday and up to 45 million people per year. Phase 1 broke ground in August 2010 and is on schedule to begin operations in late 2017, the bus storage facility will be below the lower deck of the Bay Bridges western spans approach. Phase 2 of the project, the Downtown Rail Extension, will extend Caltrain 1.3 miles underground from its current terminus at 4th and King Street into the new Transit Center. Because the station will only have six tracks that Caltrain can use, 4th, City Park will be the 5.4 acre public rooftop park, comparable to the Highline Park in the Manhattan borough of New York City, atop the future Transbay Transit Center. The park was designed by PWP Landscape Architecture, the park atop the transit facility will offer amenities such as an amphitheater, water features, a restaurant, gardens and more. The rooftop park of the Transbay Transit Center will become an element in the growth of the new neighborhood around this new multi-modal transit facility. It will provide high quality space in a part of San Francisco that lacks in opportunities for park development. The park will be visible and easily reached from the street, the bus deck level is located two levels above ground. The bus deck is designed to surround a central waiting area. This level has a connection to the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, allowing buses from the East Bay to enter. A bus shed has been proposed under the San Francisco entrance/exit as part of the project, the Ground level will serve as the grand hall for the Transbay Transit Center and the primary circulation point of the facility. The main entrance will be off of Mission Square and will include ticket kiosks, automated ticketing booths, the Lower concourse serves as the connection between the ground level and the train station platform. Ticketing, waiting areas and bike storage will be available on this level, the train station platform will be two levels below street level and will contain three passenger platforms that will serve Caltrain and future California High-Speed Rail service. If Amtrak starts running trains into San Francisco, it will use the Transbay Transit Center as well
11.
Side platform
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A side platform is a platform positioned to the side of a pair of tracks at a railway station, tram stop, or transitway. Dual side platform stations, one for direction of travel, is the basic station design used for double-track railway lines. Side platforms may result in a wider overall footprint for the station compared with a platform where a single width of platform can be shared by riders using either track. In some stations, the two platforms are connected by a footbridge running above and over the tracks. While a pair of platforms is often provided on a dual-track line. Where the station is close to a crossing the platforms may either be on the same side of the crossing road or alternatively may be staggered in one of two ways. With the near-side platforms configuration, each platform appears before the intersection, in some situations a single side platform can be served by multiple vehicles simultaneously with a scissors crossing provided to allow access mid-way along its length. Normally, the facilities of the station are located on the Up platform with the other platform accessed from a footbridge. However, in cases the stations main buildings are located on whichever side faces the town or village the station serves. Larger stations may have two platforms with several island platforms in between. Some are in a Spanish solution format, with two platforms and an island platform in between, serving two tracks
