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Los Gatos Weekly-Times file postcard photograph
The 3,549-ton Solano, built in 1879, was replaced in 1914 by the larger, 4,483-ton Contra Costa. Both were scrapped in 1930. Similar railroad ferryboats were used on the Mississippi before railroad bridges were built.
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Best of Picture from the Past
Single step began trip that included Solano ferryboat
By John S. Baggerly
It has been said that every trip--no matter how long--starts with a single step. And so it was when the Southern Pacific Railroad Company's Solano, the world's largest train ferryboat, linked two sides of San Francisco Bay at the Carquinez Straights, a wide body of water where the Sacramento River enters the San Francisco Bay.
The Solano connected all rails along the Oakland side of the Bay with the north side, from which the Southern Pacific tracks led to Sacramento and eastward through the Sierra Nevada to Nevada, over the salt flats of Utah, through the Rocky Mountains and across the plains states to Chicago, the largest rail center in the world.
The Solano entered service in 1879 and was supplemented in 1914 by the larger Contra Costa. This pair served until a railroad bridge was opened across the straights on Thanksgiving Day in 1930. Similar railroad ferryboats served on the Mississippi River in pre-railroad bridge days.
But let's get back to that first step in Los Gatos. That was contacting the stationmaster with an itinerary and check in hand.
Perhaps the question most asked by Los Gatos newcomers is "Where was the local train depot?" The Southern Pacific Railroad Co. tracks entered town from the north midway between N. Santa Cruz and University avenues, ran southward across Main Street through what today is the Town Plaza, through the front door of the U. S. Post Office, up the canyon through the face of Lexington Dam and reservoir and, hence, through tunnels and on to Santa Cruz. The depot stood on what is now the east side of the Town Plaza.
Ticket in hand, a Los Gatan traveled by train up the east side of San Francisco Bay and onward to the good ship Solano. From the north side of the straights, the train would press eastward through Sacramento and up into the Sierras. At Truckee, some passengers would transfer to a short line to Lake Tahoe and the lake's principal resort, Tahoe Tavern, and a vacation at one of the lakeside resorts. Passage was by one of two prop-driven ships that "sailed" daily in opposite directions, passing at about midday. Historian Bill Wulf reports that at the beginning of World War II, the ships were sunk to render them useless in case of a Japanese invasion.
The main line through the Sierras was protected by wooden snow sheds, later replaced by more reliable concrete sheds.
Pressing on through Nevada, the traveler came upon the Utah salt flats, crossed the great Salt Lake on a train trestle to Ogden, and then went over the Rocky Mountains and through Wyoming, Nebraska and Iowa, ending in Chicago.
During World War II, thousands of individual servicemen passed through Chicago and were bunked overnight on canvas cots placed on the ballroom floors of elegant waterfront hotels facing Lake Michigan. Soldiers' Field, home of the Chicago Bears professional football team, was also on view from the elegant hotels.
John Baggerly is now semi-retired. This column is from the Los Gatos Weekly-Times archives.
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Los Gatos, California Since 1881
