BART District/1962

During my search for the BART construction photos that we printed yesterday, I found an unusual amount of documents from way before the transit system was built. While BART ended up being the most ambitious transportation project in Bay Area history, the plans were once much bigger.

Above is a 1962 concept image for a long-since-abandoned BART line that would have passed through Sausalito, Mill Valley and San Rafael. Yes, that’s Tiburon in the background. This was part of a series of Bay Area Rapid Transit District photos, meant to stoke the dreams of local residents at a time when their support was needed to get the system built. (Remember that this was just three years after California residents discovered the Monorail at Disneyland.)

You’ll notice that the BART trains in these early photos look a lot more sleek and phallic than they did when the system finally opened to the public in 1972. I’m guessing that was an idea from the Don Drapers of the era, who knew that getting bond money wasn’t going to be easy. The eventual Twinkie-shaped cars may have been practical, but they weren’t as sexy as the ones shown here.

Enjoy the photos!

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BART District/1962

July 26, 1962: Here’s the BART Burlingame Depot, which would have been built about three blocks from my childhood home. You can see the trees pictured here and the current CalTrain station at the end of my first Paper Route Redux video. While I wouldn’t be born for eight years, I was vehemently against this plan, because it would have undoubtedly killed Royal Donut Shop. I’ve included the corresponding press release for this image at the bottom of the page.

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BART District/1961

Aug. 23, 1961: This is definitely the most striking and futuristic photo, featuring BART crossing the Golden Gate Bridge in a very lower-deck-of-the-Bay Bridge kind of way. I’m not sure what’s a bigger fantasy — the idea of drastically changing the architecture of the bridge, the clear day depicted here or the possibility of an aircraft carrier passing underneath the bridge at this exact moment. Burrito Justice, defender of La Lengua, wrote about this two years ago, posting a full-color photo from a General Electric ad. You can check it out here.

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BART District/1961

July 27, 1965: Here’s a pie-in-the-sky BART map, with commute times between stops. (The commute from Redwood City to Mill Valley was a breezy 51 minutes. I’m starting to get behind this plan.) Among the promises on the corresponding press release: “During morning and evening peaks, trains would operate as frequently as every 90 seconds to provide continuous service for patrons.”

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Sept. 13, 1974: This strays from the theme, but I’m still going to post this early BART rate card. My work commute from the Fruitvale to Powell Street stations was a backbreaking 65 cents.

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BART District/1957

June 15, 1957: This is the earliest concept photo I could find — and this one actually happened! (Sort of.) While the caption information is incomplete, I’m guessing this is supposed to be either the East Bay or the San Francisco airport. The unnerving penis-like front of the train looks nothing like the current BART, but the cars themselves aren’t too far off, with two sets of sliding doors. And the support beams elevating the track are nearly identical to the ones now.

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BART District/1962