One hundred Thanksgivings ago, Muni was laying streetcar track at the spot you see here, and finishing up the Stockton Tunnel in the background, all to create the original F-line, the F-Stockton, which was initially built to carry crowds to the Panama-Pacific International Exposition.
Fast forward to today, when Muni is building a rail line under Stockton Street — the new Central Subway, which will be an extension of the T-Third line when it opens, slated for four years from now.
Constructing the Union Square Station on lower Stockton required rerouting all traffic, including the 8x, 30, and 45 bus lines, off the street while it was dug up. Businesses have been suffering. But for this holiday season, they’ve laid artificial turf over the first two blocks of what’s normally the Stockton Street roadway to cover up the excavation.
People love it.
The project is called Winter Walk, and there’s a series of events that go with it. It runs through New Year’s Day, after which construction starts again. That means those two blocks of green will still be in place on December 29, the 100th anniversary of the opening of the first F-line. Sounds like a good time and place to raise a glass to Muni’s first 100 years on Stockton Street. If anyone’s interested, we’ll help!
And by the way, drop by our San Francisco Railway Museum to see our new Exhibit, “Fair, Please,” showing how Muni came of age by building lines to serve that 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exhibition. If you can’t make it down, you can read an archive article about the 1915 Fair from our Member newsletter, Inside Track. Join here to get all kinds of unique member-only content. Memberships make great gifts too!
