Built from 1925 to 1928 and designed by Henry H. Meyers in a Beaux Arts derivative and Art Deco style, the Oakland Portal is the elaborate Beaux Arts façade for the Posey Tube, an underwater automobile tunnel. The portal conceals eight massive fans that draw in fresh air to the tube. At the time of its construction, the tube was the largest underground tunnel in the world and the first built entirely of reinforced concrete. Its forms were towed by tugs from Hunters Point in San Francisco to the district. The structure’s powerful architectural presence includes a three-story central section on each portal, flanked by hip roof towers connected by a huge arched industrial sash window. Construction of the tube tore through blocks of tenements, a nickelodeon, gambling establishments, and a scrap iron yard.
