Qualla: Alameda Mole https://qualla.com/alameda-mole en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:10 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/9/q/9/p/alameda-mole-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Alameda Mole https://qualla.com/alameda-mole Alameda Mole: Introduction https://qualla.com/alameda-mole/ Photo credit Geo. Thomas, Public domain. On May 30, 1890, a Southern Pacific passenger train failed to stop for an open drawbridge at Webster Street. The drawbridge had swung wide to let a ship pass through the estuary, and the train plunged into the water. Thirteen people died. It was Oakland's worst railroad disaster of the nineteenth century, and it happened on a structure most people today have never heard of: the Alameda Mole. The word "mole" sounds wrong for a transit hub, but it describes the thing precisely -- a massive pier of rock, timber, and fill driven out across the shallow mud flats of the East Bay, pushing railroad tracks into water deep enough for ferries to dock. For six decades, the Alameda Mole was a hinge point between rail and sea, the place where passengers stepped off trains and onto boats bound for San Francisco.

Read more: Alameda Mole on Qualla

Image: Geo. Thomas | Public domain

]]> Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/q/9/p/alameda-mole-wp/9q9p-alameda-mole-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Alameda Mole: Narrow Gauge to Deep Water https://qualla.com/alameda-mole/ Photo credit Unknown authorUnknown author or not provided, Public domain. The South Pacific Coast Railroad built the mole between 1876 and 1878 as the northern terminus of its narrow-gauge line to Santa Cruz. The logic was geographic: Alameda's western shore faced San Francisco across the bay, but the water between them was too shallow for ferries to a...

Read more: Alameda Mole on Qualla

Image: Unknown authorUnknown author or not provided | Public domain

]]> Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/q/9/p/alameda-mole-wp/9q9p-alameda-mole-narrow-gauge-to-deep-water.mp3 0:06 2 full Alameda Mole: A Crossroads on Pilings https://qualla.com/alameda-mole/ Photo credit Unknown authorUnknown author or not provided, Public domain. At its peak, the Alameda Mole served as an improbable intersection of transit modes. Local trolley cars on the Red Line terminated here. Ferries departed for San Francisco. Regular trains ran in a horseshoe pattern -- the aptly named Horseshoe Line -- connecting to the Oakland Mo...

Read more: Alameda Mole on Qualla

Image: Unknown authorUnknown author or not provided | Public domain

]]> Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/q/9/p/alameda-mole-wp/9q9p-alameda-mole-a-crossroads-on-pilings.mp3 0:06 3 full Alameda Mole: Clippers and Carriers https://qualla.com/alameda-mole/ Photo credit Pi.1415926535, CC BY-SA 3.0. In the 1930s, the fill leading to the Alameda Mole found a new tenant. Pan American Airways established a seaplane port along the causeway, and this unlikely stretch of East Bay reclamation became the original home base of the China Clipper. The great flying boats departed from h...

Read more: Alameda Mole on Qualla

Image: Pi.1415926535 | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/q/9/p/alameda-mole-wp/9q9p-alameda-mole-clippers-and-carriers.mp3 0:06 4 full Alameda Mole: The Bridge That Ended the Ferries https://qualla.com/alameda-mole/ Photo credit Pi.1415926535, CC BY-SA 3.0. Ferry service from the Alameda Mole ended in 1939. The cause was visible from the mole itself: the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, which opened in 1936, rendered the ferry system obsolete almost overnight. All transbay service was rerouted across the new bridge. For passengers ...

Read more: Alameda Mole on Qualla

Image: Pi.1415926535 | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/q/9/p/alameda-mole-wp/9q9p-alameda-mole-the-bridge-that-ended-the-ferries.mp3 0:06 5 full