More than one traveler upon arriving in San Francisco on a BART train from the airport has voiced as one of their first questions "— where is the train to the Golden Gate Bridge?" The
two-fingered peace sign of heavy rail transit through the core of this city seems a mistake, an underinvestment, a faux pas of the largest magnitude.
It may help to know that the BART system was originally imagined with Downtown San Francisco the recipient of a loose cross of transit lines, one path Richmond to Daly City (
as currently operated), but a second was Fremont to Marin line envisioned service along the Geary Street corridor before the train swooped across the Golden Gate Bridge and headed to points northward.
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| San Francisco BART plan with Marin Line (San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit, 1961) |
Once across the bridge, Sausalito, Mill Valley, Corte Madera, San Rafael and Santa Venetia were to be served by heavy rail transit.
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| Plan and section of BART line through Marin County ((San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit, 1961) |