All Aboard! Electric Rail Line to Santa Monica Officially Opens May 20, 2016

Crowd Gathers for Opening Day of the Electric Car Line in Santa Monica, April 1, 1896 
California Historical Society at University of Southern California

It is with great excitement—as suggested in the image above, when Santa Monica greeted the first electric car line in 1896—that Santa Monica welcomes the completed, 6.6-mile, $1.5-billion light rail extension of the Expo Line on May 20. Seven new stations link the existing station in Culver City to our Pacific shore.

For the first time in 63 years, it is possible to ride from downtown Los Angeles to the beach and, through Los Angeles’s rail network, to traverse some 40 miles of greater Los Angeles—from Asuza in northeastern Los Angeles County to Santa Monica in western Los Angeles County.

City Rising for the 21st Century: San Francisco Public Transit 1915, now, tomorrow

Fageol auto train at the Panama Pacific International Exposition, San Francisco, 1915. California Historical Society, CHS2014.1807.

The 288-day Panama-Pacific International Exposition was more than a celebration of technological achievement and art.  It marked the rebirth of San Francisco after the 1906 calamity and its new global position as gateway to the U.S.’s newly acquired possessions in the Pacific after the completion of the Panama Canal.  Just rebuilt, San Francisco was also the “most modern city on Earth.” 

Twin Peaks Tunnel : A Film Screening and Discussion

Wednesday, August 29, 2012 at 6:00 PM

Twin Peaks Tunnel : A Film Screening and Discussion

Free event at the California Historical Society, 678 Mission Street,San Francisco

RSVP at twinpeakstunnel.eventbrite.com/

Please join us for a rare screening of the 1917 sponsored documentary Twin Peaks Tunnel.  Shot during they years 1914-16, the film features exceptional footage of the construction of the Twin Peaks Tunnel, the clearing of Sutro Forest, as well as development of the Westwood Park residential district.  Sponsored by the Baldwin and Howell Real Estate Company of San Francisco, newspaper advertisements indicate that the film was first shown on October 13, 1917 in their Kearny Street storefront.

In 2009 an original 28mm print of the film was donated to the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum.  Recognizing the historical value of this motion picture time capsule, film restorer and preservationist Rob Byrne and museum historian David Kiehn applied for and received a grant from the San Francisco based National Film Preservation Foundation to preserve and restore the film.

Rob Byrne will tell a brief history of the film and its preservation, the background of the Twin Peaks Tunnel project and the development of western San Francisco followed by a screening of the complete 19 minute Twin Peaks Tunnel (1917).

Woody LaBounty from Western Neighborhoods Project will also discuss Westwood Park, the building of the tunnel, and show some additional footage not included in the Niles print.

Rob Byrne is president of the board of directors for the San Francisco Silent Film Festival a nonprofit organization promoting the artistic, cultural, and historic value of silent film.

Woody LaBounty is director of the Western Neighborhoods Project, a nonprofit focused on preserving and sharing the history of western San Francisco, which includes the Westwood Park neighborhood, prominently featured in the Twin Peaks Tunnel film.

This program is presented by the Western Neighborhoods Project, the San Francisco Silent Film Festival and the California Historical Society.