Niles Canyon

Niles Canyon is a canyon in the San Francisco Bay Area formed by Alameda Creek. The canyon is largely in an unincorporated area of Alameda County, while the western portion of the canyon lies within the city limits of Fremont and Union City. The stretch of State Route 84 known as Niles Canyon Road traverses the length of the canyon from the Fremont district of Niles to the unincorporated town of Sunol. Two railroads also follow the same route down the canyon from Sunol to Niles: the old Southern Pacific track along the north side and the newer Union Pacific (formerly the Western Pacific) track a little to the south. At the west end are the ruins of the Vallejo Mill, which goes back to pre-American California.

At the canyon's western mouth, Essanay Film Company had a studio located in Niles from 1912–1916, where Charlie Chaplin made The Tramp and a few other films in early 1915. The canyon itself was the setting for a number of early films.

The route of El Camino Viejo came through Niles Canyon.

The abandoned Sunol Aqueduct runs through the canyon. The aqueduct, built in the 1920s, formerly provided half the water supply to San Francisco before it was replaced by the Hetch Hetchy system.