Ironically, in the late 1950s and early 1960s the Legislature recognized that congestion would soon reach a critical stage and authorized the Bay Area Rapid Transit system. The BART transbay tube was paid for with bridge tolls – as compensation for the two Bridge Railway tracks removed from the lower deck in the early 1960s. But ferries were still prohibited from competing with the bridges.

Over time, assisted by mounting traffic congestion, transit system emergencies, and natural disasters, ferries started to stage a comeback. Beginning with at first with the 1960s Tiburon ferries, which operated only a few daily trips, the Ferry Building today hosts about 130 arrivals and departures daily – a little less than half of the activity of the 1930s, but still a significant increase.

Natural Disasters Bring Back the Ferries

By the time the Marin County approaches to the Golden Gate Bridge were closed by mudslides in 1982, ferry service had reached a turning point. Until that time, conventional wisdom held that the Golden Gate Larkspur Ferry project was a noble but failed experiment, over-budget and with disappointing patronage. Ferry operating costs were perceived as the justification behind every toll increase on the Golden Gate Bridge. But when the mudslides cut automobile access to San Francisco, ferries suddenly had another reason for existence. Their often criticized redundancy was now seen as desirable. On one day alone, the three 700-passenger Larkspur ferries carried more than 12,200 passengers.

In retrospect, the Golden Gate Larkspur ferries fell victim to the 1960s trend to push the technology beyond reasonable limits. The large Spaulding boats were initially powered by three gas turbine engines which proved enormously expensive as fuel prices increased. The Golden Gate Bridge Highway and Transportation District was already planning a re-engineering to diesel, and when the conversion did occur, operating costs dropped. This cost decrease, coupled with the newly perceived need for redundancy, put the Larkspur service on a stable course: no expansion, but no contraction either.

In the meantime, congestion on the state-owned bridges was building and there were periodic calls for increased ferry service. Two events critically shaped the public perception of ferries: the 1979 BART transbay tube shutdown, and the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. When the BART tube fire closed the system’s transbay capacities in 1979, buses and some ferries were pressed into service. The Berkeley Ferry Committee established a new ferry route from the Berkeley Marina to San Francisco. Unfortunately, once the BART tube reopened, the Berkeley Ferry lost enough passengers from the unsubsidized operation to slip into financial deficit and it was discontinued. However, the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake awakened interest in the role of ferries as important emergency links. The ensuing month-long closure of the Bay Bridge powerfully reinforced that perception. On Wednesday November 1, 1989, two weeks after the earthquake, ferries from Alameda, Oakland, Berkeley, and Vallejo carried about 6,800 passengers in the morning peak period (about the same as could be carried in automobiles on three lanes of the bridge in one hour). All-day totals of 20,000 passengers were normal during the rebuilding period. Emergency preparedness became a priority and ferries were an important part of the preparedness picture.