Townspeople of Benicia and many others packed the train ferry for one final, farewell ride. Passengers of the last trip even included a United States Senator and the President of the Central Pacific Railroad.
"The train on board had sixteen coaches, to which three were added in Benicia. It was crowded with passengers." (Benicia Herald - New Era, 11/6/1930)
The Southern Pacific Railroad’s train ferry Solano was the largest train ferry in the world when it began service in 1879. Its home port was the town of Benicia, California’s former Capital, and my adopted home town. After fifty-one years of ferrying trains, its service ended in 1930 with one last trip across the Carquinez Strait. The railroad bridge’s construction was complete and the ferry Solano and her sister ship Contra Costa were needed no more. The ferries were replaced by the new train bridge.
The newspaper reported no celebration in Benicia when the first train crossed the train bridge. There was a big party though, just across the water, in Martinez. (Contra Costa Gazette 10/15/30)
Large numbers of people packed the Solano train ferry in the town of Benicia one last time. Local Charline Erwin was there. She said that "The great boat was jam-packed with teary-eyed Benicians and visitors who were making a Sentimental Journey.” (https://beniciahistoricalsociety.org/railroad-heritage/)
A “gala” was held in the City of Martinez where a new train station was constructed. My small town of Benicia thought of its new life without its train station. Its connection to the world through the railroad ended.
The Loss of the Solano
Our beloved Solano was to be taken apart and towed away! This was national news. (Photo left from article in The American Guardian, of Oklahoma City, OK, 11/28/30.)
In 1930, our train ferry Solano was replaced by the new $12,000,000 train bridge. It was announced that the Solano would be scrapped!
In 1931, it was towed to the waters off of the city of Antioch, along the San Joaquin River. It was dynamited and became a breakwater, but can still be seen today. The beloved boat became a derelict ruin. It was visited by Huell Howser in 2006 for an episode of "California's Gold!"
“Progress” came to Benicia, but the ferry was lost.
How would the town receive its mail and how would its residents be transported?
Would we have to travel to the new train station in Martinez by small ferry to catch the train west?
Could we be bussed to the train station in Crockett instead?
How many workers will lose their jobs?
What would the new train bridge be named?
The town needed to decide to be resilient and adapt!
The ferry was loved by Benicia – it was something they saw every day. In fact, you could see it from where I live! I look out and imagine it there and that I can see and hear the trains on the ferry.
Now, we see the freight and passenger trains across the water right along the shore of Contra Costa County opposite us. Their bells and train horn toots tell us that railroading is still here, but just at a distance from Benicia.
The Solano Train Ferry
The Solano was an enormous paddle steamer ferryboat. It was so sturdy and well-built that it could carry very heavy trains. It transferred entire trains across the Carquinez Strait. This included locomotives, and freight and passenger train cars! It traveled for about one mile back and forth across the waterway all day long and even at night.
Its port was in the small historic town of Benicia in Solano County. The ferryboat traveled across the Strait to the even smaller settlement of Port Costa, in Contra Costa County.
Here we see Benicia in 1928 with the Solano train ferry in her slip. Compare the size of the ferryboat with a city block and you will see how enormous it was.
This is a 1930's aerial photo of Benicia, taken after losing the Solano train ferry. Notice the empty ferry slip out into the water like a big "W" at the very bottom left of the photo.
This is a 1931 aerial photo of Benicia showing the empty train ferry slips.
This is an aerial photo taken in about 1962. It shows the Benicia Arsenal Military Base area, the new Highway 680 Benicia-Martinez Vehicle Bridge, and the 1930 train bridge. The same train bridge is still there today.
Engineering Marvel!
The Solano was in Scientific American - twice!
The Solano was designed by the Superintendent of Bridges and Buildings for the Central Pacific Railroad – Arthur Brown. He also designed the specially-created slips for the ferry. It was an amazing engineering feat. It was featured in two editions of Scientific American magazine – in 1883 and 1905! Benicia was famous because of the ferry!
The article in 1883 explained that the train ferry saved the railroad passengers a lot of time. The Solano train ferry allowed trains to cross the Carquinez Strait between Benicia and Port Costa. Before the train ferry, trains had to detour far south to then travel north along the Bay to Oakland.
The Solano weighed 3,540 tons! It was 494 feet long and 406 feet wide. Forty eight freight cars or twenty four passenger train cars could fit at one time! Most other train ferries did not transport locomotives.
An Actual Story of Riding on the Train Ferry
Englishman John Hyde wrote in 1892 about his trip across the Carquinez Strait on the train ferry in his book Homeward through America.
Mr. Hyde started his book by saying "Across the New World in a Pullman car!"
He left Oakland in the "great overland train" and told his readers that the train seemed to not want to leave the "beautiful coast." He said that "in fact, it has to be carried bodily across the straits of Carquinez twenty-eight miles from its starting point, before it can bring itself to bid a final farewell to the blue waters of the Pacific."
Mr. Hyde wrote about his time on the transfer boat Solano. He said that "the facility and expedition with which the transfer is accomplished are certainly remarkable, and well worth leaving the car for a few moments to observe more closely."
Passengers could get out of the train and buy food and drinks on board the Solano. They could enjoy the scenery as they traveled across our beautiful waterway.
President Taft's Special Locomotive on the Solano Train Ferry!
(See President Taft's photo on the front of the train on left below and the American flags.)
U.S. President William Taft ran for re-election in 1911 and he traveled across the country on what was called a "whistle-stop" tour. That kind of tour was when politicians campaigned by train. They would travel through a region or the whole country, stopping to make short speeches. People would gather to see the train and hear what the candidate had to say. Taft's train traveled through Benicia, onto the Solano train ferry, and then across the Carquinez Strait.
Taft's Train is Saved from a Terrible Plot!
President Taft's train left Benicia for San Francisco on October 14. After that, it was to travel south through California. Only two days later, a man was seen attaching dynamite to a bridge over the train tracks on the way to Santa Barbara. The plan was to blow up the bridge as Taft traveled under it four hours later. The terrible plot was luckily halted by the watchman.
Can you imagine if Benicia was one of Taft's last stops?!
Wow - we were glad the plot was foiled.
Our Solano Train Ferry Crews
We had an crew of native-born and immigrant workers. Some came from places such as Ireland, Sweden, Germany, and Portugal, or were children of immigrants. They lived in Benicia! The crew members worked hard, as the Solano was said to be one of the busiest train ferries anywhere in the world. There were two crews of seventeen men, who worked twelve-hour shifts. The railroad also employed men in Benicia who stayed on dry land, not assisting with the train ferry. The jobs were difficult and accidents happened to crew and even to passengers!
What should the new train bridge be called?
We had lost:
- our train station,
- our connection to the region and the world,
- our source of jobs and our beloved Solano train ferry.
This was after fifty one years of loyalty by Benicia to Central Pacific!
Can't they include us?
The Railroad was not including Benicia in the new name of the bridge! A meeting between Martinez and the President of Southern Pacific Railroad was held without us.
A delegation was sent from Benicia to meet with the Railroad officials. Benicia protested and asked to be included in the train bridge name.
"It was argued that Benicia is as close to the bridge as Martinez and just as important a city on the Southern Pacific lines; that this community has always been loyal to Southern Pacific Co."
Our town was being bypassed because of the bridge. At least we could have the name reflect the place where the northern span of the bridge would reach – Benicia!
We lost our ferry and our train service, will we lose again by having our name left out, too? Can't Benicia be included in the name of the new bridge?
The announcement was made! Benicia is in the name!
Benicia would remain in the name! The train bridge would be named the Martinez-Benicia Bridge.
Somehow today, official sources state that the actual name of the bridge is the Benicia-Martinez Railroad Drawbridge or the Benicia-Martinez Railroad Bridge! Benicia symbolically triumphs and our name has not been lost!
(Sources: https://www.pacificarea.uscg.mil/Our-Organization/District-11/District-Units/Sector-San-Francisco/VTS-San-Francisco/Benicia-Martinez-Railroad-Bridge/ and https://historicbridges.org/bridges/browser/?bridgebrowser=california%2Fmartinezrr%2F)
A Benician named Charline Erwin rode on the last trip of the Solano. She remembered her trip on the last day the Solano traveled across the Strait.
She said that "'Progress,' the ogre of civilization, that day terminated the magnificent performance of the “Queen” of all train ferries, the ”Wonder of her Age,” Solano. Benicia’s participation in the “Golden Years of American Railroading” ceased. The lovely name of our town would never again grace the North Western and Cross-Country timetables. An era had ended!" (https://beniciahistoricalsociety.org/railroad-heritage/)
Here is our Benicia State Capitol Building of 1853 - it is a California State Historic Park.
Benicia is now a quiet waterside town that appreciates its past. We are glad to have been an important part of railroading and train ferry history.
The busy, small, then-industrial, historical town of Benicia, the State of California’s former Capital – we survived! Our town was resilient!
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This digital exhibit was created by Leann S. Taagepera, a graduate student in Sonoma State University's M.A. in Cultural Resources Management program, as a student in Sacramento State University's HIST 282Z - Special Topic Public History class in Fall semester 2021. Special thanks goes to Ty Smith, the Director of the California State Railroad Museum, and Kimberly Whitfield, Park Interpreter II of the California State Railroad Museum, and to my fellow classmates for their encouragement and inspiration.
Many thanks to the Benicia Historical Museum and its Executive Director, Jen Roger, for permission to use photos in this exhibit. Please see their website for more information about the museum and the history of my hometown of Benicia, California - https://beniciahistoricalmuseum.org/. Thank you, also, to the Benicia Historical Society, for their support.
I dedicate this exhibit to the memory of my fellow history-lover and friend Donnell Rubay. To imagine life in Benicia in the 1890's when Jack London was a resident and the Solano train ferry was busy at work, see her book "Emma and the Oyster Pirate."