THE SEARCH FOR A TERMINAL
Progress of Construction
Under its various construction contracts, the Central Pacific steadily
progressed, between 1863 and 1869, from Sacramento to a junction with
the Union Pacific near Ogden. The official statement of the progress of
construction is as follows:[125]
Broke ground at Sacramento January 8, 1863
Laid first rail October 27, 1863
Sacramento to Roseville (18 miles) Constructed in 1863
Road opened as follows:
To Newcastle 31 miles January, 1865
” Auburn 36 ” May 15, 1865
” Clipper Gap 42 ” June 10, 1865
” Colfax 54 ” September 4, 1865
” Secret Town 66 ” May 8, 1866
” Alta 78 ” July 10, 1866
” Cisco 94 ” November 9, 1866
” Summit 105 ” July, 1867
” State Line 278 ” January, 1868
” Reno 294 ” May, 1868
” Wadsworth 329 ” July, 1868
(362 miles constructed in 1868)
” Monument Point 667 ” April 15, 1869
” Ogden 743 ” May 10, 1869
Driving last spike, and opened
for business from Sacramento;
distance San Francisco to
Ogden, per time card 883 ” May 10, 1869
Relations with Western Pacific
It has already been noted that the line from Sacramento via Stockton
to San José was not part of the original plan, and that the rights,
grants, and franchises of the Central Pacific in it were assigned to
other parties in the course of the Congressional fight. The original
assignment of December 4, 1862, was to a group of men which included
Timothy Dane, the original projector, and president of the San
Francisco and San José Railroad, Charles McLoughlin, and A. H. Houston.
In 1864, the first assignees having waived their rights, the Central
Pacific Railroad made the same assignment to the Western Pacific
Railroad of California.[126] The Western Pacific Railroad in turn let
contracts for construction to Houston and McLoughlin, but by 1867,
McLoughlin had become involved in litigation regarding his contracts
and asked that all arrangements between himself and the Western Pacific
be canceled.[127]
This led the Western Pacific to enter into a contract with the Contract
and Finance Company, with the result that substantially all the stock
of the first-named corporation came into the hands of the Huntington
group. McLoughlin retained the federal land grant; the federal subsidy,
however, of $16,000 per mile, reverted to the Western Pacific as did
the local subsidies, and through it passed to the Contract and Finance
Company. The railroad from Sacramento to San José was opened September
15, 1869; on June 22, 1870, the Central Pacific and the Western Pacific
filed articles of consolidation.
Lack of Terminal Facilities
In September, 1869, the transcontinental railroad from Omaha to San
José was in working order. It would be an exaggeration to say that the
line was in good shape. There was little or no ballast, and a good rain
was said to make miles of the road-bed run like wet soap. Little had
been done to eliminate grades and curves, sleeping-car accommodation
at first was insufficient, the journey speed from Sacramento to Ogden
was only 19 miles an hour, while schedules were not always adhered to.
Cars were heated by stoves, and passengers disembarked for their meals.
But in a measure these were conditions to be expected at the start,
and interfered only in a minor degree with the interest and excitement
of a transcontinental trip. The great fact was that a railroad existed
which could be used, and over which relatively direct, rapid, and cheap
communication with the East could be secured.
The greatest weakness of the Central Pacific Railroad in 1869 lay in
its lack of terminal facilities on San Francisco Bay. When the company
decided to begin work at Sacramento, its reasonable expectation had
been that a railroad under one management would be built from that
city around the southern end of San Francisco Bay to the city of San
Francisco. The Central Pacific was willing to forego the advantage of
this construction itself in order to gain friends, and did it the more
willingly because this stretch of line was likely to be unprofitable
by reason of steamship competition on the bay and on the Sacramento
River. These conditions changed, however, when the Contract and Finance
Company took over the construction of the railroad from Sacramento to
San José. The Central Pacific interest then obtained a connection of
its own with Niles near Oakland, and it was thus led to consider the
question of terminals on the eastern side of San Francisco Bay.
The easiest part of San Francisco Bay for the Western Pacific Railroad
to reach was undoubtedly the shore south of Oakland or Alameda. It
would probably have been possible to build from Stockton to Richmond,
as the Santa Fé did later, or to develop Benicia or Port Costa, or even
to build a terminus on an island in the bay. Yet as compared with
these alternatives, the Oakland terminus had many advantages. It was
near to the Western Pacific main line; it was served by two railroads
which possessed valuable franchises that could be bought at not too
great expense; and, most important of all, the conditions under which
the water-front at Oakland was held were favorable to the acquisition
of the necessary terminal facilities.
Oakland Water-Front
The situation at Oakland was briefly as follows: The first army of
settlers in the city had been squatters on a portion of the Peralta
grant. Among these had been Horace W. Carpentier, Edson Adams, and A.
J. Moon. In 1852 the state legislature had incorporated the town of
Oakland, had fixed its boundary, and had granted to it the land lying
between high tide and ship channel along the whole of its water-front,
with a view to facilitating the construction of walls and other
improvements.[128] There were 75 to 100 inhabitants in Oakland at
this time, with half a dozen residences, two hotels, a wharf, and two
warehouses. There were no streets—only cattle trails.[129]
As soon as incorporated, the town held an election, and chose Adams,
Moon, Carpentier, and two others as trustees. Mr. Carpentier did not
qualify or serve. On May 17 and 18, 1852, the board of trustees made
two important grants: In the first place, it gave to Horace Carpentier
for the period of thirty-seven years, the exclusive right to construct
wharves, piers, and docks at any point within the corporate limits of
Oakland, with the right of collecting wharfage and dockage; and in the
second place, it sold, granted, and released to the said Carpentier
all the town title in the land lying within the limits of the town of
Oakland between high tide and ship channel.
In return for this grant Carpentier agreed to build three wharves
and a schoolhouse, and to pay to the town 2 per cent of his wharfage
receipts—certainly a modest recompense. Mr. Marier, president of
the board of trustees, later testified that Carpentier told him when
the deed was signed that he would be willing at any time to reconvey
the property to the town on being reimbursed for the moneys he had
expended; and this was also the recollection of others.[130] But the
understanding, if any existed, never could be enforced,[131] so that
Carpentier was firmly established in his control of the tide-lands of
the city of Oakland, and in spite of petitions, riots, and litigation,
sat unshaken in 1867 when the Central Pacific became interested in the
matter.[132]
Oakland Water Front Company
Sometime prior to 1867 Carpentier had several talks with Leland
Stanford, and endeavored to persuade him to build north from Niles
across the Ravenswood cut-off. In the fall of 1867, Carpentier and
Stanford talked again, and Stanford came to entertain the idea as a
matter of reasonable negotiation. John P. Felton was engaged by the
city of Oakland to look into its rights. Carpentier says that he
offered the railroad one-half of his water-front if it would make
his property its terminus. He says that this mode of adjustment was
acquiesced in by Mayor Merritt and Mr. Felton, and that about the end
of the year (1867), it came to be understood between them and Governor
Stanford and himself that something should be done on approximately
this basis.[133] Judge E. B. Crocker, however, attorney for the Central
Pacific, asked that outstanding disputes regarding the water-front be
first settled. The legislature was soon to be in session, and it was
urged that all should act together in trying to get an authorization
for the settlement of difficulties.
This was done.[134] On the 27th of March, 1868, as a part of a
series of compromise arrangements, the Oakland Water Front Company
was incorporated. The subscribers and original directors were H. W.
Carpentier, president; Samuel Merritt, vice-president; Lloyd Tevis,
secretary; Leland Stanford, treasurer; E. R. Carpentier and J. B.
Felton. Mr. Tevis and H. W. Carpentier were in the same year directors
of the Southern Pacific Railroad Company. The Oakland Water Front
Company was capitalized for $5,000,000, and the stock was divided into
50,000 shares. Of these shares H. W. Carpentier subscribed for 23,000,
or 46 per cent; Stanford for 17,500, or 35 per cent; and Felton for
4,999, or 10 per cent. Lloyd Tevis took 2,500 shares, E. R. Carpentier
2,000 shares, and Samuel Merritt 1 share.
On March 31, Mr. Carpentier deeded to the new corporation all the
water-front of the city of Oakland, that is to say, all the lands,
and the lands covered with water lying between high tide and ship
channel, being the water-front lands described in and granted in the
act of incorporation of May 4, 1852. He excepted from this deed only
that water-front lying between the middle of Washington Street and the
middle of Franklin Street and extending southerly to a line parallel
with First Street. By Section 2 of an agreement made the following day,
the Oakland Water Front Company agreed to deed this last-named area to
the city of Oakland.[135]
Cession of Land by Water Front Company
On April 1, 1868, two further agreements were signed. One, styled an
indenture, was between the Oakland Water Front Company, the Western
Pacific Railroad Company, Carpentier, Felton, and Stanford. Under this
indenture, and in consideration of the deed of March 31, the Oakland
Water Front Company declared that it held the property conveyed to it
subject to covenants which were particularly set forth as follows:
The Western Pacific Railroad agreed to select within three months 500
acres from the property conveyed by the deed of March 31, including
not more than one-half mile of frontage on ship channel, together with
not to exceed two strips of land over the remainder of the premises
from high-water mark to the parcels selected. The strips running from
high-water mark were each to be not more than 100 feet wide at grade.
The Oakland Water Front Company agreed to convey to the Western Pacific
Railroad the 500 acres selected, and to grant an exclusive right-of-way
over the hundred-foot strips. It undertook, moreover, to sell no
land west of the 500 acres, provided that these were located out to
a westerly water-front of 24 feet depth of water at low tide, and to
place no obstructions in front of them, or to do anything to obstruct
the free approach of vessels to the parcels.
The Water Front Company further agreed to convey to the city of Oakland
on demand “so much of the premises as [lay] between the middle of
Franklin Street and the easterly line of Webster Street, and extending
out to a line parallel with First Street, and two hundred feet
southerly of the present wharf at the foot of Broadway,” with the right
of wharfage, dockage, and tolls thereon, and to designate and dedicate
as a navigable water course for public use, the channel of San Antonio
Creek, from ship channel to the town of San Antonio, to a width of not
less than 200 feet over the shallow water at the bar, and 300 feet wide
above that place.
The Water Front Company, in the third place, undertook to convey 25,000
shares of its stock to Carpentier, 5,000 shares to Felton, and 20,000
shares to Stanford.
Finally, the Water Front Company authorized the city of Oakland, or
other parties, to construct a dam above the Oakland bridge, across the
estuary, so as to keep the land above submerged to high-tide mark, for
the use of the owners of the adjoining lands, and of the public.
The second paper, also signed on April 1, was an agreement between
the Western Pacific Railroad Company, Leland Stanford, and the Water
Front Company. By it the railroad agreed to construct or to purchase
within eighteen months and to complete a railroad from its main line,
then at Niles, to and connecting with the parcels of land described in
the indenture of the same date, together with the necessary buildings
and structures for a freight and passenger depot on the premises. The
railroad agreed to expend in new work within three years $500,000. The
railroad company agreed that in construction across the estuary between
Oakland proper and Brooklyn it would leave a space for forty feet free
for the passage of vessels.[136]
Attitude of City
Up to this point the city had not entered into any contracts. On
April 1, however, the city council passed an ordinance ratifying and
confirming the grants made under the early ordinances of 1852 and
1853, and the conveyance by Mr. Marier as president of the board of
trustees, and granted, sold, and conveyed to the said Carpentier in
fee simple forever, the city water-front, that is to say, the lands
lying between high tide and ship channel. This ordinance further
provided that Carpentier should convey to the Oakland Water Front
Company the property and franchises conveyed at that time by the city
to him, to be used in accordance with the terms and stipulations of the
contract between the Oakland Water Front Company, the Western Pacific
Railroad Company, and other parties. On the following day the council
passed still another ordinance reciting that inasmuch as the terms and
stipulations previously provided had been complied with by Carpentier,
the grant was finally settled upon him.[137]
The result of these somewhat complicated negotiations was that the
Central Pacific acquired 500 acres of water-front property in Oakland,
with a frontage of one-half mile on ship channel, merely as a reward
for coming to the city. In addition, Mr. Stanford, acting presumably on
behalf of his associates, received 40 per cent of the capital stock of
the Oakland Water Front Company, which on its part owned substantially
all of the water-front remaining. The city attorney, who was supposed
to represent the interests of the city, was rewarded with 10 per cent
of the stock of the Oakland Water Front Company, and the position of
director. The mayor of the city, Mr. Merritt, was made vice-president
of the same corporation, although the extent of his personal interest
in it is not known. He seems to have held only qualifying shares.[138]
In subsequent years the relations between the city of Oakland and the
Oakland Water Front Company were repeatedly subjects of most bitter
controversy. Extravagant as had been the consideration of the grant to
the Central Pacific for coming to Oakland, this matter was less serious
than the circumstance that the control of the remaining water-front by
the Central Pacific through the Oakland Water Front Company appeared
to make it impossible for any rival transportation company to gain
a footing in the city. The city long endeavored to free itself from
this monopoly. It contended at one time that Carpentier had secured
the election of his own agents to the board of trustees which had made
his grant, and that in any case Carpentier had agreed to reconvey
the property to the city. Neither statement could be proved. On the
contrary, in 1897 the Supreme Court of California definitely pronounced
the compromise of 1868 binding upon the municipality, although it
interpreted the words “ship channel” to mean the low-tide line and not
a depth of three fathoms at low tide as had at first been supposed.[139]
Water-Front Monopoly Broken
Ten years later the title of the Oakland Water Front Company was
again questioned in a case brought by the Western Pacific Railroad
Company. By this time two jetties had been built by the United States
government extending the lines of San Antonio Creek westward to deep
water. As a result of the deposit of material taken out of the channel
of the estuary and placed north of the northern training wall, and of
additional deposits from dredging operations conducted by the Central
Pacific and by private parties, the line of low tide had been moved
appreciably out into the bay. Under the general rule that accretions
belong to the proprietors of riparian lands, the Southern Pacific, as
successor to the Oakland Water Front Company, asserted title up to
the limit of the new line of low tide. This claim the federal court
denied. The limit of the railroad company’s property was declared to
be the low-tide line of 1852, extending first northwesterly and then
northeasterly from the mouth of the San Antonio estuary at Sand Point
as indicated in the map on page 93.[140]
[Illustration: Map of Oakland and Brooklyn, showing location of Central
Pacific terminals, 1871]
This at one stroke transformed the Southern Pacific’s holding from
a water-front to an interior location, by making it clear that the
title to the substantial area between the bulkhead line of the city
of Oakland and the low-water mark of 1852 lay in the city and not in
private hands. The city had indeed given away its water-front as it
existed in 1852, but the creation of a new water-front during the
following years relieved it of the effects of its negligence. It thus
appears that the alienation of the water-front of Oakland in 1868 did
not permanently vest in the Central Pacific interest control of the
tide-lands to which the compromise of that year referred. For the time
being, however, the company secured a well-nigh complete monopoly. Not
only had it convenient access to tide-water for its own trains, but
it was able for many years to keep other railroads from obtaining a
similar advantage. Up to this point, however, no arrangement had been
completed for a terminus on the San Francisco side of San Francisco Bay.
Proposed Grant of San Francisco Water-Front
In order to establish the Central Pacific with complete adequacy, the
associates accordingly now turned to the western side of San Francisco
Bay and took steps to provide terminal facilities in the city of San
Francisco itself. Possibly this was because they had acquired or were
about to acquire a controlling interest in the San Francisco and San
José Railroad; possibly it was due to Carpentier’s influence, or
perhaps it was merely a recognition of the advantages of a terminal
location in San Francisco.
Unlike Oakland, the city of San Francisco had never received title
to all its tide-lands from the state, and application had to be made
to the legislature at Sacramento, direct. Early in 1868 the Senate
Committee on Commerce and Navigation, of the state legislature,
reported a bill granting to the Western Pacific Railroad Company and
to the Southern Pacific Railroad Company, submerged and tide-lands in
the Bay of San Francisco, from the foot of Channel Street to Point
San Bruno, with the right to extend the railroads of said companies
or construct branches thereof, and to purchase other railroads, and
use the same for the purpose of reaching the place or places on said
premises selected as termini for said railroads, and to maintain and
operate the same by steam or other power from the present lines of said
railroads to the said termini on said premises, and with all necessary
and proper depots, side-tracks, etc.
The boundaries of this extraordinary grant are indicated on the map on
page 96.[141]
The total length from the foot of Channel Street to Point San Bruno was
a little over 8 miles. The maximum breadth was approximately 2½ miles,
and the area was estimated by opponents of the scheme to be not less
than 6,620 acres. The value of such a water-front on the principal city
of the Pacific Coast was to be measured in millions of dollars, and its
importance to the Huntington interests was not limited to a money value
alone. The possession of the San Francisco water-front south of Channel
Street meant the occupation of the only part of the city at which a
first-class railroad could reach tide-water. The reason for this is
that all railroads must come into the city of San Francisco from the
south or the southwest on account of the shape of the peninsula, and
no railroad can conceivably be allowed to cross the main thoroughfare.
Market Street, or to penetrate the thinly settled residential districts
in the north.
[Illustration: Boundaries of Railroad Tide-Land Grant, as proposed in
1868.]
The bill provided that the Central Pacific, Western Pacific, Southern
Pacific, and the San Francisco and San José railroads, which were
the proposed grantees, should pay the fair market cash value of the
submerged lands at the time of the passage of the act, being not less
than $100 per acre for the lands lying north of Point Avisadero. But
it was also provided that the surplus over $100 due for the land north
of Point Avisadero might be spent in reclamation and improvement of
the premises, and the companies were to receive patents if within five
years not less than $1,000,000, in addition to such surplus, had been
spent in this way. In plain English, the tide-lands were to be sold for
$100 an acre, but in the case of some of them the beneficiaries might
be required to spend additional amounts in improvements. The Senate
committee defended its recommendation by saying that it was desirable
to have the water-front improved, and that this was the way to have the
thing done. It expected that the railroads would build a sea-wall; and
observed that this wall, water-front, and docks would be subject to the
control of the state harbor commissioners. How a rival railroad in the
future would get access to the docks, it did not say.[142]
Scheme Opposed
Generally speaking, arrangements for the alienation of city water-front
property into private hands are to be looked upon with suspicion
unless extensive powers of control are reserved by state or city, and
unless there is provision for the reversion of the property, including
improvements, to the public at the end of a stipulated time not too
far removed, on conditions and in a manner clearly stated. In the
particular case in hand there were no such safe-guards to the public
interest, except a general reservation of jurisdiction and control
over the water-front by the State Board of Harbor Commissioners, and
a provision that the grantees should charge no tolls or wharfage on
the water-front sold to them. This was not enough. It was therefore
fortunate under the circumstances that the improvident nature of the
proposed contract was understood and its defects given full publicity
by the San Francisco press. The _San Francisco Bulletin_ commented as
follows:
The scheme is an outrageous one. A proposition to sell to the Railroad
Companies at a reasonable price, so much of the southern water-front
as would be actually necessary for depots, warehouses, workshops,
etc., might be considered favorably, but a proposal to give to what
is or will be virtually a single corporation two-thirds of the
frontage of a city destined to be the second in America, is utterly
indefensible ... this immense property will be worth eventually as
much as the Pacific Railroad itself.[143]
The _Alta_ said:
If the parties who have so modestly presented their humble petition
for this concession had gone one step farther, and asked for a grant
of the whole State of California—all its tide and marsh lands—the
control of all its rivers, bays and inlets, we do not know that the
public amazement would have been any greater.[144]
Even the conservative _San Francisco Times_ suggested that it would
be well for the railroad companies to submit detailed estimates of
the land needed for terminals and the uses to which this land was to
be put,[145] while it refrained from commenting on the _Bulletin’s_
assertions that it was the intent of the railroads to locate their
terminus well south of the city of San Francisco to the great profit of
parties from Sacramento who were buying lands around Hunter’s Point.
Another Plan Substituted
Whether or not this last accusation was well founded, the opposition of
the city grew so intense that the legislature did not dare to carry
out its original plan.[146] Instead, the Southern Pacific and Western
Pacific were offered each 150 acres, to be located by the companies
within specified limits south of Channel Street, and still later the
amount was reduced to 30 acres apiece, and a donation was substituted
for a sale. So amended, the act became law on March 30, 1868. It
granted and donated to the Southern Pacific Railroad Company and to
the Western Pacific Railroad Company for a terminus in the city of San
Francisco, to each of said companies, 30 acres, exclusive of streets,
basements, public squares, and docks. The land was to be selected by
the railroad companies within ninety days, but it was to lie south of
Channel Street, and outside of the Red-Line water-front of Mission
Bay, and was not to extend beyond 24 feet of water at low tide, nor to
within 300 feet of the line which should be selected by the tide-land
commissioners as the permanent water line of the front of the city. A
200-foot right-of-way was given to the companies to provide access to
their tide-lands. The lands were to be located and $100,000 spent upon
them by each of the grantees within thirty months, or the grant would
revert to the state.[147]
Compared with their original projects, the Act of 1868 represented a
considerable check to the plans of Mr. Stanford and his friends. Yet
the grant in San Francisco was important, and, added to what had been
secured in Oakland, provided satisfactorily for the Central Pacific’s
transportation needs.
In 1871 the San Francisco supervisors granted to the Southern Pacific
and Central Pacific railroads rights on various streets in the city in
order that they might reach and enjoy their lands and depot grounds in
Mission Bay. Late in the same year Stanford indicated his willingness
to make Mission Bay the main terminus of both the Central Pacific and
Southern Pacific, in consideration of a subsidy of $3,000,000 and of
alterations in the terms of the Mission Bay grant so as to make it more
acceptable. Nothing came of these last negotiations, nor of somewhat
similar proposals made in 1872 by a citizens’ committee engaged in
fighting the Goat Island scheme (see below) and submitted to popular
vote. In 1873-74, however, the city granted Stanford additional though
minor franchises, enabling him to run trains on certain city streets.
Proposed Occupation of Goat Island
It will be readily understood that feeling ran high both in Oakland and
San Francisco while the railroad negotiations for terminal facilities
were going on. Nor was the public excitement allayed by the attempt of
the Huntington group to occupy Goat Island, which occurred at the same
time. Goat Island, formerly known as “Yerba Buena” Island, is a small
body of land lying about midway between San Francisco and Oakland.
Reference to the inset accompanying the map of Oakland will show its
exact location. It is obvious enough why the Central Pacific wanted
the use of this island and of the mud flats lying directly north.
It is just as obvious why, in the absence of regulation, the public
should have objected to its exclusive occupation by any single railroad
company. Yet, in March, 1868, one day after the action granting to the
Central Pacific and to the Southern Pacific 60 acres of tide-lands in
San Francisco, the state legislature granted to the Terminal Central
Pacific Railroad Company—a corporation controlled by the associates—a
defined area not to exceed 150 acres of the submerged shoal lands north
of the island, with the right to reclaim these lands for railroad
depot and commercial purposes, and to connect them by a bridge with
the Oakland, Alameda, and Contra Costa shores. The company agreed to
pay the fair appraised value of the lands into the state treasury, and
to put into operation within four years a first-class rail and ferry
communication between the city of San Francisco, the premises conveyed
to it, Oakland and Vallejo.[148]
Two years later the time for the completion of the promised road was
extended, and a railway to the Straits of Carquinez, opposite Vallejo,
was accepted as sufficient to fulfil the requirement of a line to the
town of Vallejo itself,[149] and in 1871 a still further extension of
time was given. The road which the Southern Pacific proposed to build
was probably that indicated in the notice of new construction filed at
Sacramento in March, 1867—that is to say, it was a line running from
Sacramento east of the Sacramento River past Freeport, crossing the
mouth of the San Joaquin River, and continuing west through Antioch and
over the hills to San Francisco Bay. Such a road could easily have been
brought to Carquinez Straits, but it could not have reached Vallejo.
The associates did not at this time intend to enter the territory west
of the Sacramento River.
Project Lapses
Following the vote of the California legislature, a bill was introduced
in Congress, providing for the grant to the Central Pacific Company
of the right to use Goat Island itself. This logical sequence to the
state legislation was opposed by the United States military authorities
and by the city of San Francisco. It appeared that residents of San
Francisco anticipated the permanent loss of a large part of the
transcontinental business if the Central Pacific should occupy Goat
Island. The _San Francisco Bulletin_ insisted that there was room
enough on the island and on the adjacent flat to accommodate all the
warehouses and large shipping, mercantile, and financial establishments
of a seaport of 500,000 inhabitants. It was stated that the advantages
of the location would draw the warehouses, that other firms would
follow, and that men who had business on the island would not live
in San Francisco, but would make their homes on the eastern side of
the Bay where land was cheaper, more level, and more fertile. These
statements were generally believed.
Nothing was done in 1869, 1870, or 1871 beyond the steps just
mentioned. In March, 1872, however, the San Francisco chamber of
commerce passed resolutions and prepared a memorial addressed to the
President and to Congress opposing the proposed grant, and a mass
meeting was held in San Francisco to make public protest. Following
this, conferences were held between a committee of citizens and the
president of the Central Pacific in the hope of arriving at some
general understanding relative to terminal facilities, and eventually
the whole Goat Island project lapsed.[150]
Purchase of Other Roads
By the middle of 1868 the Central Pacific had thus secured satisfactory
water-front facilities in both Oakland and San Francisco, amounting
in the case of the former city, through the Oakland Water Front
Company, to monopoly control. Needless to say, it had also abundant
accommodations at Sacramento. Through the Southern Pacific Railroad it
had also franchises in San Francisco, including the right to maintain
tracks in the vicinity of Third and Townsend Streets. Up to August,
1868, however, it does not seem to have made the connections between
its main line and Oakland that were necessary to enable its trains to
reach San Francisco Bay at all. In that month Stanford, Huntington,
Hopkins, and Crocker bought a majority of the stock of the San
Francisco and Oakland Railroad, and the following year they purchased
likewise the San Francisco and Alameda Railroad. The first-named
company had 2 or 3 miles of track eastward from Oakland’s point. The
Alameda company had about 16 to 18 miles. Both had valuable franchises,
and both owned ferry-boats and piers extending some distance into the
bay. In 1870 both of the companies were joined in the San Francisco,
Oakland and Alameda Railroad, and in the same year this company was
consolidated with the Central Pacific. By 1869 the gap between the end
of the San Francisco and Alameda Railroad and Niles had been filled,
and this in a real sense completed the transcontinental line.