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Did you know a railroad line once connected San Francisco to Pacifica and points south?
Indeed, the vision included going all the way to Santa Cruz.
The initial construction of the Ocean Shore Railway Company began in late 1905. The coastal towns of Pacifica, El Granada, Moss Beach, Montara and Half Moon Bay would be linked. From there, plans included connections to Santa Cruz.
The plan was to provide passengers with spectacular vistas, as the route chosen was right along the very edge of the coastline. This decision to run right along the coast side edge turned out to be a headache of significant proportions.
On April 18, 1906, a disaster struck in the form of a significant earthquake. This caused a sizeable rockslide, which sent tons of equipment and over 4,000 feet (three-quarters of a mile) of railroad tracks tumbling into the sea below.
Much of the remaining track was terribly twisted.
This became a significant blow to the project. Investors dropped out, and all appeared doomed. However, some hearty, well-to-do investors decided to give things another go. In 1907, work began on the revitalized project. In terms of construction, all went fine, with the exception of traversing the vast solid rock of Point San Pedro.
A ledge was cut into the cliff edge of the huge rock. Then, a tunnel was built for supplies to get through. Finally, a ship was anchored offshore, and a tramway transferred supplies to the onshore workers. To obtain a level bed for tracks on Devil’s Slide, they blew up the top of the mountain, which provided a road bed.
By the end of 1907, the line went from San Francisco (12th & Mission) to Pacifica.
However, the land in and around the Devil’s Slide area was unstable, which caused more than one rockslide to interrupt travel. One such slide closed the train for two months, costing several hundred thousand dollars before operations could resume.
In time, along with unstable ground, the ultimate undoing of the rail project was mainly due to the automobile.
Thus, in 1920, the fledgling project was finally shut down. Plans never materialized for another railroad.
Everything else is just history
