Circle the Bay: Day 19: West Oakland BART to Jack London Square

Day 19: West Oakland BART to Jack London Square
(Oakland to Oakland)

Circle The Bay Part 3

June 7th 2018

9.7 miles in 2 hrs 11 mins

(Total: 210.5 miles in 55 hrs 14 mins)

Until today I have never quite understood the layout of West Oakland, and how the freeways and cargo container cranes came to be where they are. This bike trip gave me all that, so I'd recommend it for anyone who wants to understand the Port of Oakland and its surrounding environment.

Starting at the West Oakland BART I biked west on 7th St. out the Middle Harbor Shoreline Park. 7th St. is one of two routes into the port, and crosses under and over the railroads and I-880 as needed. On the way to the park I had to bike by a mile long back up of semi trucks (parked in the bike lane) waiting to either pick up or drop off a container.

It seems there were 3 different harbors that made up the Port of Oakland. The Middle Harbor was a Naval facility, now being restored into a environmentally protected shallow bay and wetland. The other two were organized around two different set of tracks that made their way down 5th St. and 1st St. respectfully, for the Central Pacific and Southern Pacific transcontinental railroads.

A restored control tower from the Central Pacific train yard explores this rivalry, telling the story of how hired muscle from the Southern Pacific landed on newly dredged landfill next to a newly constructed jetty (on the northern side of the Oakland/Alameda estuary) to claim it for their company, to break through the monopoly their competition had on the waterfront of Oakland.

From here freight or passengers can depart for far away lands or San Francisco, whatever their pleasure. For the first time I took the ferry from Jack London Square in Oakland to San Francisco. Which means I have to take the ferry back on the next trek. Which worked out to be quite a lucky break, because the Warriors swept the NBA championship, which makes a million people descend on Oakland for a parade, most using BART if they're smart. But for my circumnavigation of Alameda Island I can sneak in and out on ferries, never having to cross under I-880 or over the Central Pacific or Southern Pacific tracks.