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 which runs under a small hill upon which sits a portion of the old Fort Mason. The tunnel was constructed in 1913 and opened to rail traffic in 1914.[1] The east portal is near the north end of Van Ness Avenue; the west portal feeds onto Marina Boulevard at Laguna Street.

History

The tunnel's construction served several purposes. The rail link supplied goods and mass transit to the Panama Pacific International Exposition the following year; the U.S. Army utilized the line for construction of the port of embarkation at Fort Mason.[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]

References

4th Biennial Report of the Department of Engineering of the State of California, pp. 41-42
"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" (PDF). NPS.gov. National Park Service. Retrieved 15 September 2020.
Chappell, Jim (28 June 2016). "Bring streetcars to Fort Mason". The San Francisco Examiner. Retrieved 4 June 2017.

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[1] 4th Biennial Report of the Department of Engineering of the State of California, pp. 41-42

[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" (PDF). NPS.gov. National Park Service. Retrieved 15 September 2020.

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