Ferry boats leaving, San Francisco, CA, 1932

About this postcard

Ferry boats pull away from the San Francisco waterfront, among them the Southern Pacific steamer El Paso, its white superstructure lettered "SOUTHERN PACIFIC" and "EL PASO." The Ferry Building's clock tower rises above the red-roofed piers behind the boats. The card's text describes the "Ferry Tower of the four clock dials" greeting visitors, who passed through its turnstiles onto the Embarcadero and into the city's traffic. Completed in 1898, the Ferry Building was the busiest transit point in San Francisco. Southern Pacific ferries carried commuters and train passengers to and from Oakland and Sausalito until the Bay Bridge and Golden Gate Bridge ended the ferry era in the late 1930s.