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BART Construction 1960s San Francisco Subway HARD TO FIND DVD


A rapid transit system in the San Francisco Bay Area was first proposed in 1946 by Bay Area business leaders concerned with increased post-war migration and congestion in the region. An Army-Navy task force concluded that another trans-bay crossing would soon be needed to relieve congestion on the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge. The idea of an underwater electric rail tube, first proposed in the early 1900s by Francis "Borax" Smith of the Key System, was deemed the best solution in conjunction with a multiple-county rapid transit rail system.

In fact, much of BART's current territory was earlier covered by the Key System, an electrified streetcar and suburban train network that had its origins in the 1900s and ran across the lower deck of the Bay Bridge when it first opened; however, this system was removed in the 1950s due to the combined pressures of declining ridership, the automotive industry, and highway planners.

However, it was not until the 1950s that the actual planning for a rapid transit system would begin. In 1951, California's legislature created the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit Commission to study the Bay Area's long term transportation needs. The commission's 1957 final report recommended that the cheapest solution to reduce traffic tie-ups would be to form a rapid transit district that would build and operate a high-speed rapid rail system linking the cities with the suburbs. Nine counties in the region were involved in planning.[18]

Acting on the recommendations, the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District was formed by the state legislature in 1957, comprising the counties of Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, San Francisco, and San Mateo. Santa Clara County was left out of the initial stage of building, though both the proposed Palo Alto and Fremont lines could have provided service, and opted to build the Santa Clara County Expressway System instead.

By 1961, a final plan for the new system was sent to the supervisors of the five counties within the BART district for approval. The system was supposed to consist of lines to Concord, Richmond, Fremont, Arastradero Road in Palo Alto, and Novato. Each county approved the system except for San Mateo County. Instead, the San Mateo County supervisors voted to opt out of the district, citing high costs and existing service provided by Southern Pacific commuter trains. San Mateo county was also supposedly concerned about shoppers leaving the county's stores for those in San Francisco, and was of the opinion that a San Mateo line would mostly carry Santa Clara County commuters. A year later, Marin County was also forced to withdraw because the engineering feasibility of carrying trains across the Golden Gate Bridge was under dispute. Plus, Marin County's tax base could not adequately pay for its share of BART's projected cost, which had grown considerably after the departure of San Mateo County.[19] The plans for BART were finally approved by the voters of each participating county in 1962. Construction of the initial system BART construction officially began on June 19, 1964. President Lyndon Johnson presided over the ground-breaking ceremonies at a 4.4 mile (7.1 km) test track between Concord and Walnut Creek in Contra Costa County.

Enormous construction tasks were at hand, including underground rail sections in downtown Oakland, Market Street in San Francisco, and Berkeley; a 3.5-mile (5.6 km) tunnel through the Berkeley Hills; and the 3.6 mile (5.8 km) Transbay Tube between Oakland and San Francisco beneath the San Francisco Bay. The tube is the world's longest and deepest immersed tunnel and was constructed in 57 sections. It was completed in August 1969 at a cost of $180 million. 

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