Northern Railway

After the first transcontinental railroad was completed in 1869, its route from Sacramento to Long Wharf in Oakland followed a circuitous path south to Stockton and west through Niles Canyon, bypassing the area north of Oakland that later became Emeryville. Seeking a more direct route from Sacramento to San Francisco Bay despite the barrier of the Carquinez Strait, the Northern Railway, a subsidiary of Southern Pacific, built a line in 1876-1879 up the east shore of the Bay from Oakland to Martinez and then north to Suisun, where it connected with the California Pacific route from Sacramento to Vallejo completed in 1870. To cross the strait, the world's largest railroad ferry began service on December 1, 1879, and operated for 51 years until the railroad bridge between Benicia and Martinez opened in 1930. By 1880, the Central Pacific and Union Pacific were operating the Overland Route from Oakland to Omaha via Northern Railway tracks. Southern Pacific acquired Central Pacific in 1885, and the Northern Railway was merged into Southern Pacific in 1898. Southern Pacific then operated the railroad through Emeryville for 111 years until Union Pacific acquired it in 1996. Meanwhile, the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad built a transcontinental route to Richmond in 1899 with a branch line to Oakland through Emeryville, but after receiving permission in 1978 to use the Southern Pacific mainline tracks, it abandoned the Emeryville branch line; in 1996 Santa Fe merged with Burlington Northern Railroad to form BNSF. Today, both Union Pacific and BNSF freight trains run on the old Northern Railway route through Emeryville. Passenger service through Emeryville remained under Southern Pacific until 1971, when Amtrak took over, and today the Emeryville Amtrak station is California's fourth busiest, serving long-distance trains to Los Angeles, Seattle, and Chicago and commuter trains to the Central Valley, San Jose, and Sacramento. The railroad's arrival transformed Emeryville from a sleepy suburb of Oakland into a highly desirable location for heavy industry, and by the 1930s almost 100 major companies were based there.

Emeryville, California · United States