Ferries to the Rescue

The Great Earthquake of April 18, 1906, and the fire that convulsed the San Francisco afterward for four long days, created one of the largest civilian evacuations by water in history.

Photo from “Earthquake Exodus, 1906” with permission from the author, Richard Schwartz.

1906… 1979… 1982… 1989… 1997…

By Wes Starratt, PE
Published: April, 2006

The Great Earthquake of April 18, 1906, and the fire that convulsed the San Francisco afterward for four long days, created one of the largest civilian evacuations by water in history. The ferries never stopped running, carrying terrified residents, free-of-charge to the safety of the East Bay, which had suffered only minor damage from the quake.

According to one ferry captain, Southern Pacific ferries carried 70,000 people on April 19 alone. Add to that the Key Route ferries, Marin County and other bay point ferries, plus, refugees carried on the day of the quake and the other days when fires continued to burn; and it can be estimated that the ferries may have evacuated as many as 150,000 persons.

Inbound by ferry were medical and other supplies, including drinking water, that were in critically short supply. Richard Schwartz, author of Earthquake Exodus, 1906, describes how water wagons used for Berkeley’s dusty streets were filled and driven onto San-Francisco-bound ferries to provide drinking water to desperately thirsty people along the Embarcadero. To keep out sight seers and souvenir hunters, nobody was allowed onto the San-Francisco-bound ferries without a pass from U.S. Army Brigadier General Funston, the commanding officer at the Presidio, who had taken charge of the City’s waterfront.

From Nancy Olmsted, author of The Ferry Building, we learn that General Funston, who realized that water provided the only dependable means of escape for multitudes of people fleeing down Market Street, gave orders to ‘Save the Ferry Building and keep the ferry boats operating.’ Only in this way could he rescue fleeing citizens and bring in medical supplies, doctors, and nurses, and dynamite for the soldiers to use. Burn victims could also be carried by water to Oakland hospitals. So, he used the Navy’s fireboat, Leslie, and the state-owned fireboat, Governor Markham, to spray bay water onto the Ferry Building and the important cluster of buildings at the foot of Market and Mission Streets.

Thus, the fire was stopped at the Embarcadero, leaving the Ferry Building and maritime facilities intact, and according to Olmstead, Escape by water became the answer to urgent prayers.

Following the 1906 Earthquake and its dramatic demonstration of the vital role that ferries can play, the Bay Area’s fleet grew, reaching a total of some 50 ferry boats by 1935, carrying almost 60 million passengers. By then, a total of 250,000 passengers passed through San Francisco’s Ferry Building every working day.

With the completion of the Bay Bridge and the Golden Gate Bridge in the late 1930s, dominance of the ferries began to wane.

For several years, Southern Pacific continued to operate ferries connecting its mainline trains at the Oakland Mole, but by 1958, there were no more scheduled ferries on the bay.

The Key Route, which operated an extensive rail system throughout the East Bay, connecting to its own ferry terminal offshore from Oakland, ceased ferry operations in the ’30s after a fire destroyed its ferry terminal, and instead, began running trains across the newly constructed Bay Bridge. But, the dominance of the automobile eventually forced the trains off the bridge.

Key System was purchased, and its extensive rail system was dismantled by National City Lines, an affiliate of General Motors.

Taking the place of Key Route’s transbay rail system on the bridge was Bay Area Rapid Transit System (BART), a system that began running trains through a concrete tube under the bay. BART started operations in 1972 and has continued to grow to a system of 108 miles of revenue track with 43 stations.

On Jan. 17, 1979, BART experienced a serious transportation dislocation with a major fire in its transbay tube. Fire damaged or destroyed 10 cars and caused injuries to numerous passengers and employees. Service through the tube was shut down and did not resume until almost three months later. Bridges became gridlocked; transbay traffic had to find alternative routes.

Unfortunately, there was no ferry service from the East Bay at that time. Regular ferry service to Alameda and Oakland would not be reborn until nearly 10 years later.

The role of ferries during disasters was again demonstrated in Jan. 1982 when a massive rainstorm hit the North Bay. Mary Currie of the Bridge District relates that Residents, who were virtually cut off from San Francisco due to mudslides on the Waldo Grade and flooding at Corte Madera, had to rely on the Golden Gate Ferries as their only means of reaching San Francisco. After chartering additional vessels, over 12,000 passengers were carried on the Larkspur Ferry in one day alone.

The Oct. 1989 Loma-Prieta Earthquake was the strongest quake to hit San Francisco since 1906. It created extensive damage, collapsed a section of the east span of the Bay Bridge and put the bridge out of commission for several months. With the Bay Bridge out, commuters were forced to seek alternate transportation. During that time, the Larkspur-San Francisco ferry ridership jumped 40 percent.

With funding from Caltrans, tour boats on the bay and ferries from Washington state were put into service. The boats were slow, and emergency service to Berkeley and Richmond lasted only until the bridge re-opened. But, on the other hand, they served as a springboard for the rebirth of ferry systems, which continue to serve Oakland/Alameda and Vallejo today.

In Vallejo, there was already a fledgling ferry service, but with Caltrans funding, three boats were borrowed from Washington State Ferries and put into operation with service to San Francisco. Although the borrowed boats were returned when the Bay Bridge was back in operation, the feasibility of ferry service to San Francisco had been demonstrated.

Not long after, the Vallejo City Council approved the Vallejo Ferry Plan, which eventually led to Vallejo’s successful BayLink ferry service, now with four high-speed catamarans providing 50-minute service to San Francisco.

For Alameda and Oakland, Caltrans provided boats borrowed from a Bay Area tour boat operator and temporarily funded operations. The City of Alameda set up a dock at Main St., and the Port of Oakland provided a docking facility adjacent to the Jack London Waterfront. Ernest Sanchez, general manager of the Alameda-Oakland Ferry Service said, At first, the service proved to be quite popular, but several months later, when the bridge was put back in operation, ridership declined rapidly, since the schedule was limited and the boats were slow. Nevertheless, the City of Alameda and the Port of Oakland established a joint-powers agreement that eventually led to the present Alameda-Oakland Ferry Service.

Today, the Alameda-Oakland Ferry Service has four high-speed catamarans providing service to San Francisco from Alameda, the Jack London Waterfront and Bay Farm Island.

Both Vallejo’s BayLink ferry service and the Alameda-Oakland ferry service got a shot-in-the-arm several years later, in 1997, as a result of a BART system strike. Suddenly, some 275,000 week-day riders had to find alternative means of transportation. The press reported that road traffic backed up 25 miles and ferries crossing the bay were filled to capacity. Fortunately for transbay commuters, the strike lasted only eight days. But, once again, ferries came to the rescue and provided transportation for frenzied commuters to cross the bay.

Today, 13 ferries operate scheduled service on San Francisco Bay. Add to that 22 privately-owned tour and excursion boats, all of which that are all available to provide mutual assistance, and that makes 35 boats with 17,000 seats that are able to respond to emergencies. But, that’s still not sufficient for the emergency service needed for a disaster.

It took 100 years of disaster response and rescue by bay ferries, and an exploding Bay Area population teetering on the brink of traffic grid-lock, to bring attention to the obvious—a need for an enlarged regional ferry system.

Finally, in 1999, the California Legislature, under a bill sponsored by Oakland’s Senator and Senate President pro-Tempore, Don Perata, established and funded the San Francisco Bay Area Water Transit Authority (WTA) to create and implement a regional water-transit service. The WTA assembled a distinguished staff and completed an Implementation and Operations Plan for the Regional Ferry System, as well as a system-wide environmental impact report. Basic funding for the proposed ferry system was secured through the passage of a regional measure that raised bridge tolls.

Ever since, WTA has been moving toward the establishment of initial ferry services to South San Francisco and Berkeley, followed by service to other Bay Area communities such as Richmond, Hercules and Redwood City.

The initial WTA fleet will comprise eight vessels, which we are now in the process of building. And there are another 20 vessels in WTA’s long-range plans, said Steve Castleberry, executive director of the WTA.

A disaster response plan for ferries is now being developed and coordinated by WTA. It has been in the process for a little over a year. Called the ‘Regional Maritime Contingency Plan,’ it includes input from the U.S. Coast Guard and other key transportation agencies.

WTA’s ferry plan is a part of a larger plan being prepared by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) and the State’s Office of Emergency Services (OES) that will ensure that the state’s transportation elements work together in the event of an emergency.

As reported in the Mar. ’05 issue of Bay Crossings, Perata requested that the Bay Area Council (BAC) make recommendations to give Bay Area ferries a primary role in disaster recovery. In response, a Blue Ribbon Task Force was formed to make recommendations by April 15. As of press time, the Task Force is reported to have held its first meeting. No news was available, but it should be noted that the governor’s multi-billion bond plan for upgrading the state’s infrastructure may appear on the Nov. ballot.

James Delassandro, author of 1906: A Novel, stressed that San Francisco’s next major quake is likely to encounter major problems that didn’t exist in 1906 when there were probably only 200 automobiles in the city. Today, there must be several thousand automobiles in the city during weekdays. Those automobiles could be the biggest impediment to fighting fires and evacuating people. Intersections would be blocked, and people would abandon their automobiles. Streets would become impassable, and if the bridges are damaged, the problems would be even greater.

Evacuating people by water will be the only way; so, we need a massive ferry boat presence on the bay. The waterfront is the key to the survival of San Francisco in a major earthquake and fire.

Commemorate, Celebrate and Educate

On April 18, 1906 an earthquake shook San Francisco like a wet dog. The shock waves were felt as far east as central Nevada and from southern Oregon to Los Angeles. The quake was estimated 7.9-8.25 on the Richter. The firestorm that came on its heels destroyed 28,000 buildings and leveled almost 500 blocks. Although initial reports indicated 674 individuals were killed, today’s historians put the figure at closer to 3,000. A century later, San Francisco is remembering the 1906 earthquake and fire with commemorations, celebrations and educational programs.

More than 50,000 spectators and survivors are expected to attend a commemoration at Lotta’s Fountain, at the corner of Kearny and Market Street. Lotta’s Fountain served as the communication point for thousands of deeply worried San Franciscans looking for news of their families and homes after the devastation. Call (415) 777-7400

In honor of the 1906 earthquake and fire centennial, special free tours of the Barbary Coast Trail will be held every Sat. in April. The tour is being led by the SF Museum and Historical Society. Meet at the Old U.S. Mint (Fifth near Mission Street). For more information: (415) 459-3434 or gnance2@sbcglobal.net

1906 Commemoration Events http://1906centennial.org/activities/calendar/