'We felt like we were floating': Monday marks 45 years since BART's maiden voyage Half a lifetime ago, the trains were a modern marvel

Transport yourself back to Sept. 11, 1972: Ronald Reagan is governor, the Apollo program is at its height, the Watergate scandal is just starting to simmer — and BART is spotless, shiny and silent.

Monday marks the 45th anniversary of the transit system's opening day. To younger waves of San Franciscans, the trains' wince-inducing screech and the cavalcade of strange and unpleasant sights within its blue-pinstriped cars are as much a part of Bay Area life as the Bay itself. But for those who were there, BART in its infancy was a gleaming technological marvel.

"It was crowded, but not as much as I thought it would be," recalled Adriaan Vanderzwan, who was 19 years old on BART's first day of service. "We felt like we were floating. Those rails, being new, made no sound at all." (Vanderzwan now lives in Hercules, about 10 miles from present-day BART's Richmond station.)

The maiden voyage was a 34-minute trip from the MacArthur Station in Oakland to Fremont. The Berkeley stations hadn't yet opened, and it would be years before the Transbay Tube was functional, but that did little to dampen the spirits of the thousands of East Bay residents who eagerly waited to ride. AC Transit even handed out commemorative "I Was There" buttons.

As The Chronicle's pop culture critic Peter Hartlaub details, BART was once billed as an ultramodern luxury, the public transit equivalent of a sports car. The floors were carpeted, the seats upholstered. On opening day, the stations didn't have clocks. After one distraught passenger pointed this out, the Chronicle reported, a BART agent replied that trains would run so frequently, there would be no need to check the time.

President Richard Nixon also rode BART in its opening weeks, and was visibly delighted by what he saw.

"The cars felt spacious, the seats comfortable, and the views from the large windows were a whole new way to see the East Bay," said Anthony Bruce, another first-day rider, in an interview conducted via Facebook. "And everything was clean and bright and new!"

Patrons enter one of the new Oakland BART stations in Oakland, Calif., on opening day, Monday, September 11, 1972. Patrons enter one of the new Oakland BART stations in Oakland, Calif., on opening day, Monday, September 11, 1972. Photo: Charles B. Peterson, The Chronicle Photo: Charles B. Peterson, The Chronicle Image 1 of / 70 Caption Close 'We felt like we were floating': Monday marks 45 years since BART's maiden voyage 1 / 70 Back to Gallery

Despite the fanfare over "space-age" automated vending machines, ticket prices were an early source of consternation. A ride from one end of the line to the other was $1. (Adjusted for inflation, that amounts to almost $6.) Most of the passengers elected to stay onboard for the return trip, as the fare was only 60 cents for those who got on and off at the same place. But not Bruce, who said he disembarked at the Hayward station and hitchhiked home. He was 23 at the time.

"At the beginning, BART had a bit of a rarified atmosphere about it," he said.

Of course, it was still BART, and the first day was not without a few technical problems. At one point, according to the Chronicle, the train stopped abruptly before crawling for several minutes along the track. Another train had to be hauled in for repair. Some of the brand-new escalators failed to function.

Now, half a century later, new test cars can be spotted on the tracks. And thanks in part to voter-approved Measure RR, other parts of the system will be getting a tuneup. Riders old and new can hope the run-down BART of today, like the glamorous BART of yesteryear, will soon be a thing of the past.