Alameda Mole

The Alameda Mole was a facility, no longer existing, that served as a transit and transportation artery for ferries landing in the San Francisco East Bay. It was located on the West end of Alameda (the end facing San Francisco), and later became part of the Alameda Naval Air Station. It was one of three neighboring moles, the others were the Oakland Mole and the WP Mole (Western Pacific). The purpose of the mole was to extend tracks of rail-based transportation lines beyond the shallow mud flats along the shore of the East Bay, until they extended into water that was deep enough to accommodate the ferries that could transport passengers (or train cars) to San Francisco.

The Alameda Mole was used by: (i) local trolley cars (such as the Red Line), (ii) ferries to San Francisco, (iii) regular trains running in a horseshoe pattern (dubbed the Horseshoe Line) to the Oakland Mole, (iv) local steam commuter lines of the Southern Pacific Railroad (initially, the Central Pacific) which were later transformed into the East Bay Electric Lines. Southern Pacific's electrified trains were not streetcars, but full-sized railroad cars which connected to the mainland by bridges at Webster Street and Fruitvale. The trains ran to both the Oakland Mole and the Alameda Mole.

Soon after the completion of the Bay Bridge in 1936, the Alameda trains ran directly to San Francisco on the lower deck of the bridge, and thus the ferries and the mole were rendered somewhat obsolete.

In the 1930s Pan American Airways established a seaplane port along the fill that led to the Alameda Mole. This was the original home base for the China Clipper. With the advent of World War II, a vast stretch of the marshy area southwest of the Alameda Mole was filled and the Naval Air Station Alameda established. This major Naval facility included a large airfield and docks for several aircraft carriers. It closed in 1997.