John Schmale: On Viaducts

Story by John Schmale

John Schmale is the author of the “Petaluma and Santa Rosa Railroad”

Email John Schmale: [email protected]

Hi John, Angelo, June,

Years ago I went through all of the newspapers that I could find day-by-day,  wishing that there was a database that could show me only what I need and not have to search the entire paper. How wonderfully the internet has changed the way we do everything. I checked my files and I indeed had the same article. The via duct was built in 1905 by the Ocean Shore Railway to cross over the Southern Pacific tracks at Florida & Division Streets in San Francisco. The approaches were  very steep and the Ocean shore crews had a hard time holding the trains on the steep grade. In 1908 the trestle was eliminated  and a regular grade crossing of the SPs old mainline was installed. The SP had completed their Bayshore Cutoff line through Brisbane and South San Francisco thus allowing the routing almost all of their traffic over the new route. The OSRY tracks had just reached Tunitas Creek. The trestle was built using the surplus timbers and material from the Viaduct. I do have photo, I will locate it.

John Schmale