Fageol auto train at the Panama Pacific International Exposition, San Francisco, 1915. California Historical Society, CHS2014.1807. |
The City’s success at achieving the Fair (neutralizing other
California venues and subsequently besting New Orleans for the site) are
testimony to San Francisco’s wealth and grasp of political process. What is remarkable was that when awarded the
Fair in 1911 the planners had not specified the location. [It would be as if the Super Bowl were
awarded not only without a stadium but without a site].
Several site options were touted—among them the Golden Gate
Park site formerly used by the 1894 Mid-Winter Exposition, the Lake Merced
area, Lincoln Park and a compromise “All City” plan. The fact that the northern waterfront area
known as “Harbor View” was ultimately chosen reflected the realities that the
Expo was at once a local, national and regional event. The northern waterfront offered a relatively
protected area and access by ferry. It
was also within walking distance for 50,000 residents.
What it did not offer, however, was level land routes to the
City’s downtown commercial and shopping districts or to the newly established
population centers in the Mission.
This was a challenge for PPIE planners.
They enlisted the support of transit planner Bion J. Arnold
who presented a Transportation Plan to the Board of Supervisors. Planners recognized that a Fair without
crowds would be a failure. The challenge
was that an inability to transport the crowds would be recipe for a disaster.
In a world where the term “car” meant “streetcar” and the
automobile was just becoming an affordable and reliable alternative for some,
public transit was the only real option. Busses and taxis were not expected to
be significant assistance. Jitneys just
emerging as a transit option but were also an emerging impediment to public
transit. However, existing lines were
totally inadequate to the expected ridership. How to move people to the Exposition became a
civic challenge that fell to the fledgling Municipal Railway, the novel concept
of a municipally owned and operated street railway.
By Grant Ute
Grant Ute is a historian and author of San Francisco Municipal Railway, Alameda by Rails, and San Francisco's Market Street Railway.
RSVP to this event here.
Further reading: Grading California's Rail Transit Station Areas, by Next 10.
1911 - 1915 | Prepping for the Panama-Pacific Expo, SFMTA photography collection.
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