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| Re: PHOTOS: SAN FRANCISCO 2010: PART 1 - MUNI (1029078) | |||
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Re: PHOTOS: SAN FRANCISCO 2010: PART 1 - MUNI |
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Posted by Dupont Circle Station on Mon Jan 24 13:02:57 2011, in response to PHOTOS: SAN FRANCISCO 2010: PART 1 - MUNI, posted by Jersey Mike on Sun Jan 23 18:07:27 2011. In case you didn't know...The Taraval car originally looped at the Great Highway like the Judah. The mainline reroute down 46th to Wawona was part of a Public Works project that opened in 1937. My father and grandfathers told me that on nice days, they still looped at the Highway and doubled-back to 46th Av until early 1942. The GH loop service was "temporarily suspended" because of WWII, but never reinstated. The section from 48th Avenue to the Highway (including the loop itself) was paved over sometime during the spring of 1948. The portion of the inbound track west of the junction at 47th Av was removed in 1949 or 1950. I'm pretty sure (but not certain) that the track west of 48th was physically removed as well when GH had some rebuilding done in the late 1960s. I don't think it's still visible since the track rebuild in the late 1980s, but you used to be able to see where the bricks were moved to give the appearance this is how it always was. The Judah line was intended to be rerouted down 46th Av as part of this project as well, in spite of community opposition. The track was actually laid to Taraval and cat went as far south as Noriega. They abandoned the project when WWII started. During WWII, the Judah usually ended at 47th Av on weekdays (switching back just west of there) but would do the loop around if someone wanted to go to the ocean, as well as during the day on weekends from April through November. The "normal" loop service resumed in 1946. After that, public backlash against the notion of losing the GH loop was loud enough to permanently put a stop to the plan. The Judah tracks in 46th Avenue sat unused except for the occasional turnaround if there was a backup west of 46th. I don't recall ever seeing them used after 1966. They were paved over and the cat removed in 1971. You could see the occasional trace of them in the roadway until the early 1990s. I don't know if they're still under there or if they finally ripped them up during one of the resurfacing projects since. Another plan that never went beyond some engineering discussions was continuing the line up 46th to Golden Gate Park to merge with the 7. Had Muni incorporated, rather than abandoned more of the streetcar network it inherited, the whole west side of town would be much different today. Unfortunately, the automobile won out over public transport. |
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