Fort Mason Tunnel

Fort Mason Tunnel
	The west portal of the Fort Mason Tunnel in disuse
Overview
Line	State Belt Railroad
Location	San Francisco, California
Coordinates	37.8054°N 122.43118°W
Status	Closed
Start	Van Ness
End	Marina Blvd. at Laguna St.
No. of stations	None
Operation
Opened	1914
Closed	1993
Owner	National Park Service
Character	Tunnel
Technical
No. of tracks	1
Track gauge	4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge

Fort Mason Tunnel is an abandoned single-track railway tunnel in San Francisco. It was built in 1914 to bypass Fort Mason. The east portal is near the north end of Van Ness Avenue, and the west portal feeds onto the east end of Marina Boulevard at Laguna Street.

History

The tunnel's construction in 1914 served several purposes. The rail link supplied goods and mass transit to the Panama Pacific International Exposition the following year,[1] and the US Army utilized the line for construction of the Port of Embarkation.[2] The tunnel operated as part of the State Belt Railroad until the route's suspension in 1993.

Future

Fort Mason extension

					Fort Mason	proposed
					Fort Mason Tunnel	proposed
					Van Ness	proposed
					Powell–Hyde
					Hyde and Beach	proposed
					Jones and Beach

In 2012, the National Park Service released a final environmental impact report on providing extended service through the tunnel to the San Francisco Municipal Railway F Market & Wharves line.[3] The cost of refurbishment and extension of the rail line was estimated at $60 million in 2017.[4] The E Embarcadero line may also see extension through the tunnel.

References

Saperstein, Susan. "San Francisco Tunnel History and Miscellany". Guidelines. SF City Guides. Retrieved 5 August 2015.
"The San Francisco Port of Embarkation". NPS.gov. National Park Service. Retrieved 5 August 2015.
"Extension of F-Line Streetcar Service to Fort Mason Center". NPS.gov. National Park Service. Retrieved 12 August 2015.
Chappell, Jim (28 June 2016). "Bring streetcars to Fort Mason". The San Francisco Examiner. Retrieved 4 June 2017.

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[1] Saperstein, Susan. "San Francisco Tunnel History and Miscellany". Guidelines. SF City Guides. Retrieved 5 August 2015.

[2] "The San Francisco Port of Embarkation". NPS.gov. National Park Service. Retrieved 5 August 2015.

[3] "Extension of F-Line Streetcar Service to Fort Mason Center". NPS.gov. National Park Service. Retrieved 12 August 2015.

[4] Chappell, Jim (28 June 2016). "Bring streetcars to Fort Mason". The San Francisco Examiner. Retrieved 4 June 2017.