Transportation

Throwback Thursday: Golden Gate Ferry origins

By Mark Prado
Golden Gate Ferry circa 1979.
Golden Gate Ferry circa 1979.

Next year will mark the 50th anniversary of Golden Gate ferries plying the bay waters, delivering Marin commuters and tourists to San Francisco.

On Aug. 15, 1970 the bridge district launched service from Sausalito and began to build a system that today includes a terminal in Larkspur, special event service to baseball games and concerts at Oracle Park.

In the past several years, the system has grown in recent years, transporting about 2 million passengers annually.

Golden Gate helped re-establish ferry service on San Francisco Bay after its demise in the late 1950s. In 1921, the three largest ferry operators carried almost 50 million passengers across the bay. But after the Golden Gate and Bay bridges went up, ferry service dropped and by 1958, there were none left.

But as road traffic began to grow, the bridge district hatched a plan to reintroduce service and others followed suit. The bridge district has a nice write up of its transit service here.

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