Exposition Ferry Slip and Ferry Building

The fair's plan provided 'a water entrance for visitors from across the Bay, at the Ferry slip beyond the other end of the Machinery Palace' (Todd). The slip lay near Fort Mason's transport wharves, set on a northeast–southwest axis so ferries and car floats could come in easily. Its three-track apron let freight cars roll off the floats of every railroad serving the bay. Cars could be taken from the Oakland yards and hauled right into the exhibit palaces without unloading, until the Fort Mason tunnel joined the exposition's tracks to the city's Belt Railway.

From here the exposition's own standard-gauge railway ran west along the Esplanade to the race track, and back by the Avenue of the Nations and the Avenue of Palms to a switch yard east of the Machinery Palace, with room for 200 cars and 50,000 sq ft of warehouses. Passenger service also ran to the grounds from the East Bay. The Fact Book describes a combined electric train and ferry service from Oakland, Alameda and Berkeley. The Exposition Ferry Building stood beside the slip at the east end of the Marina.

At a glance

• The large contract for the freight and ferry slip was let in February 1913 (Todd vol. 2, ch. IV).
• 'One ferry slip was found to be enough' was one of the economies in the construction budget (Todd vol. 1, ch. LXIV).
• After the fair, a warehouse near the ferry slip was used for salvage sales (Todd vol. 5).
• The exposition's riprap seawall ran east along the Marina to a bulkhead protecting the slip (Todd vol. 5).

Afterward

Left to the city with the seawall; Todd called the slip 'no small gain.' Its later history is not traced in the sources consulted; the area lies at the east end of today's Marina Green near Fort Mason.

Sources

• Todd, The Story of the Exposition, vol. 1, chs. XXXII, XXXIII, LXIV, LXIX
• Todd, The Story of the Exposition, vol. 2, ch. IV
• Todd, The Story of the Exposition, vol. 5, chs. XXXVII–XXXVIII
• The Exposition Fact Book (1915), transportation to the grounds