Chronicle archives/1965

Since we started the Let’s Go to the Morgue! series, the most frequent request has been BART photos. I’ve received separate suggestions to search the archives for Transbay Tube assembly images, photos of construction on Market Street and confirmation of the legend that Richard Nixon once rode on BART during a campaign stop.

You can see all of the above in this week’s special Let’s Go to the Morgue! extended BART edition — the perfect way to kill 19 minutes while you wait for the next Dublin/Pleasanton train! Thanks to Chronicle photo editor Rick Romagosa for cleaning up the photos — note that every other one no longer looks like I spilled a cup of coffee on it. You can buy most of these images and more in the Chronicle Pictopia photo store.

I’m planning to post a few early BART concept photos later today or early Friday, featuring BART trains in Burlingame and underneath the Golden Gate Bridge. (Which Burrito Justice wrote about two years ago. That guy always beats me …)

Enjoy this flashback. Your BART memories in the comments.

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Bill Young/Chronicle 1965

June 27, 1965: According to the photo, this is the unveiling of the first BART car. The logo on the front of the train looks like it says “BARTO,” but I’m guessing that’s a “D” for Bay Area Rapid Transit District. Kudos to the team that designed the BART logo, which has changed very little in almost 50 years. And thumbs up to my 1960s journalism colleagues, who wore cool hats and suits to press conferences! (I’m guessing at least one of those guys has an ascot. These days even the TV guys are wearing fleece vests and ball caps.)

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Art Frisch/Chronicle 1966

March 11, 1966: This is Martin Kelley and C.L. Gallimore, two of the head engineers behind the BART Transbay Tube, displaying some plans. I’m really liking Gallimore’s double finger point move. I have every confidence that he blew imaginary smoke off his index fingers, holstered his hands and then said “BART — coming to you on time and under budget in 1969!”

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Chronicle archives/1966

Oct. 7, 1966: This photo shows the enormity of the Transbay Tube sections. The dozens of construction workers in this photo look like ants on a Ho-Ho. The Transbay Tube was completed in 1969. I showed this to my son, to prove that BART doesn’t actually go underwater. Whenever he rides through the tube he keeps looking for fish.

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Jerry Telfer/Chronicle 1966

Oct. 24, 1966: BART construction was a trial for commuters throughout the Bay Area, but I’m betting workers in the Financial District were more pissed off than anyone. Market Street was especially hard hit, because they had to reroute all of the infrastructure underneath the street before they put in the subway. This photo was taken at the corner of Market & Montgomery. Notice the glory of the Pig & Whistle bar (on the left), still at its Market Street location.

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Art Frisch/Chronicle 1967

July 24, 1967: This looks like a bunch of lazy adults exploiting child labor, but I’m pretty sure it was part of a kid-friendly groundbreaking ceremony of some sort. According to the BART timeline the official construction of the Market Street subway began a day later on July 25, 1967. “Cool Hand Luke” wouldn’t come out until November of the same year, robbing these children of that obvious pop culture reference.

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Chronicle archives/1968

April 28, 1968: This 324-foot-long section of Transbay Tube gets towed past a train bridge, about a year before the tube was completed. I’m impressed that two boats could drag a chunk of steel and concrete longer than a football field.

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Chronicle archives/1968

Sept. 30, 1968: Don Hughes rides a bike through a BART tunnel during construction. If there’s one binding theme in this Let’s Go to the Morgue! series, it’s the fact that half the men in the 1960s and 70s looked like Ron Swanson from “Parks and Recreation.”

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Peter Breinig/Chronicle 1969

Nov. 7, 1969: This is what I’ve always imagined the line to hell is going to look like — enhanced by the fact that someone in the 1960s messed with the photos to take everyone look ghostly. (Except the guy on the front/left, who looks like O.J. Simpson.) It’s one of several photos I found featuring Bay Area citizens on a walking tour through the unfinished tunnels.

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Barney Peterson/Chronicle 1972

Sept. 12, 1972: This was taken on the second day of passenger service. At the time, BART only served from Fremont to Oakland, with eight trains that were two or three cars long. In the earliest BART photos, it’s neat to see grown men and women staring out the windows like little kids. Fast forward to 2011 … I noticed only one guy looking toward the window during my afternoon commute yesterday, and he was asleep with his face pressed against the glass.

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Associated Press/1972

Oct. 18, 1972: You can find a second Nixon BART photo if you search around on Google, but this one is much better. From the caption: “This was the scene in Lan Leandro (sic) today as President Nixon and General Manager B.R. Stokes … got set to board a BART train for a ride to Oakland. The President was in California for a day of campaigning.” Nixon would later walk off the train at the Lake Merritt station.

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Dave Randolph/Chronicle 1973

Nov. 6, 1973: People still find BART confusing. I see this scene pretty much every week in 2011, usually at the Powell Street station. But I’m guessing that in 1973, going through a BART turnstyle was like you or me being teleported to the moon.

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Clem Albers/Chronicle 1974

Sept 14, 1974: This was taken at the Montgomery Street station less than a year after service from Daly City to San Francisco started, and two days before the beginning on transbay service. Note how sharp everyone is dressed — even the Allman Brothers Band-looking dude near the front left is wearing a tie. Looking through these photos, it’s also surprising how clean and advertising-free the walls are in the stations.

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Jerry Telfer/Chronicle 1978

Feb. 2, 1978: Sporting a single black leather glove on BART free ride day is Davis Damian, then 15 years old, of Richmond. If anyone knows Davis (it’s possible the photo credit is switched and his name is Damian Davis), please have him contact me at phartlaub@sfchronicle.com. I have so many questions. Starting with what was playing on the radio …

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Mike Maloney/Chronicle 1982

Jan. 26, 1982: This pair of Ford trucks (The caption identifies them as King Cabs!) are combing the BART tracks for a periodic cleaning and maintenance. The re-placement of the license plate to the front of that metal roller is what intrigues me the most. Is that in case the truck gets in a high-speed chase through the BART tunnel? Is there a police car on the tracks a few hundred feet behind? UPDATED! I’m told by commenter “schaffner” that these trucks ride on the street as well, thus the need for a license plate. Apologies for not figuring that out on my own.

Sorry to end on an anticlimax. We’re going with trains next week. Or stewardesses. Or skateboarding. I haven’t decided yet.

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If you have a request for a future archive search, please send it to me on a postcard at:

Let’s Go to the Morgue!

C/O Peter Hartlaub

San Francisco Chronicle

901 Mission St.

San Francisco, CA 94103.

Include your city of residence, plus your first name and last initial — or full name if you’re comfortable with that. Make sure my name is on the postcard, otherwise it will never get to me.