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| An instant landmark the day it opened in 2000, the San Francisco Giants' ballpark will be served by the historic streetcars of the E-line beginning late 2006. |
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The E-Embarcadero historic streetcar line is scheduled to begin service in late 2006. It will run between Fisherman’s Wharf and the Caltrain Depot in Mission Bay. Along the way, you’ll see sights both historic and modern.
Mission Bay and China Basin
The E-line begins its inbound run at the Caltrain Depot at 4th & King Streets in Mission Bay. From this heavy rail depot serving the Peninsula cities and San Jose, the E-line runs on King Street to SBC Park, the spectacular bay-side home of the San Francisco Giants, widely considered to be the finest ballpark in baseball.
Past SBC Park, King Street becomes The Embarcadero, and the E-line runs through South Beach and passes under the San Francisco/Oakland Bay Bridge, headed toward the rising clocktower of the 1898 Ferry Building.
The Embarcadero
At the Ferry Terminal stop, the E-line joins up with the F-line and runs an identical route between the Ferry Building and Fisherman's Wharf. The Ferry Terminal stop is the place to get off the E-line to visit the San Francisco Railway Museum, just across Ferry Plaza at the F-line Steuart Street stop.
Heading north along The Embarcadero, remember that this was San Francisco’s booming maritime center for decades. The landmark pier bulkheads (the arched buildings on the water side) led to bustling finger piers where squads of longshoremen unloaded cargoes from everywhere. A steam railroad ran the length of The Embarcadero. Taking out the disused railroad track in the 1990s made space for the beautiful waterfront boulevard you see here, as well as the F-line right-of-way.
The first stop past the Ferry Building, Washington Street, is a gateway to the Jackson Square National Historic District, four blocks west. It is the city’s oldest intact commercial district, dating to 1852, and spared by the 1906 Earthquake and Fire. Today, antique dealers and art galleries dominate the scene. The famed Transamerica Pyramid adjoins this district, but there is no public viewing area atop the landmark structure.
At the Broadway stop, there is wonderful public access to bay views on the public Pier 7. Farther along, at the Greenwich Street stop, you’ll see Coit Tower to the west, perched atop Telegraph Hill, an Art Deco 1933 monument to San Francisco’s volunteer firefighters of the distant past. Wonderful Depression-era murals with social and historical themes wrap around the inside of the tower’s base.
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| Boston Elevated PCC No. 1059 runs past Pier 39 at Fisherman's Wharf. These art deco streetcars will likely remain as the workhorse of the F-line, while the vintage streetcars and international trams work the E-line between Caltrain Depot and the Wharf. |
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Great views are available from the top of the tower, and on the way up as well. If you get off at Greenwich and walk west (away from the water), you’ll pass through the park-like Levi’s Plaza, headquarters of Levi Strauss & Co. Walk toward the hill on either Greenwich or Filbert Street (one block south), and you’ll come to a cliff with tenuous staircases clinging to their face. These stairways are actually city streets. The rights-of-way of these streets on the hillside have been turned into beautiful gardens by residents. The Filbert gardens are especially lovely, planted by the late Grace Marchant over decades in the unforgiving, rocky soil of the hill. Old cottages once owned by sea captains flank the gardens and boardwalks constitute side streets.
You can reach Coit Tower by either the Filbert or Greenwich Steps, but be advised it’s a strenuous climb. An easy alternative is staying on the F-line car until you reach the Pier 39 stop, then walking across the street to Beach & Stockton to catch Muni’s 39-Coit bus, which reaches the tower via a scenic route through North Beach.
Fisherman's Wharf
Usually ranked as America’s most visited attraction, what tourists think of as Fisherman’s Wharf begins at Pier 39 (itself a major visitor attraction of shops and entertainment), and extends west to the terminal of the F-line and beyond. The Embarcadero ends in this area, and the F-line merges onto Jefferson Street westbound to reach its terminal at Jones, returning on Beach Street, one block south. On Jefferson, the Powell stop is the one to use if you’re heading for the Alcatraz Ferry, the Taylor stop for the heart of the Wharf—restaurant row and the fishing fleet.
From the last stop, on Jones Street, walk west two more blocks on Jefferson to reach San Francisco Maritime National Historic Park, a world-class collection of historic ships and maritime memorabilia in a unique national park setting. Market Street Railway and the park are among many groups working to extend historic streetcar service to directly serve the park, and another national park unit beyond at Fort Mason.
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