Pictures from June 22nd, 2003

Today we took a ride on the train to see the newly-opened stations on the extended BART line. The extension, 9.4 miles long, extends from Colma, south of San Francisco, to Millbrae, a little town south of San Francisco airport. There is a stop in the airport at the International terminal that connects with people mover monorails that connect all the terminals as well as parking lots and car rental companies. The pictures weren't as good as I expected, probably in large part because they were taken behind glass in pretty much all cases.

A picture of the inner portion of the Oakland waterfront, which stretches to Emeryville, about 3 miles to the north of us. You can clearly see some of the derricks, and these models are the oldest on the Pacific coast. The train tracks in the middle distance are used by freight trains up and down the Pacific coast, from as far south as San Diego to as far north as British Colummbia. The roadway in the lower right is the Cypress freeway, which is an alternate route to the Bay Bridge from 880 via 980. The train had left the West Oakland station about 2 minutes previously.

A storage area for refridgerated cargo just off the Oakland waterfront. Office buildings in Emeryville are in the background, with the Oakland hills as a backdrop. You can distinguish refridgerated containers by the electrical connectors on the front.

A last minute shot of the waterfront, showing stacks of cargo containers. The idea of cargo containerization originated here in Oakland, and lead to significant increases in loading and unloading efficiency. It's ironic, therefore, that the Oakland stevedores have been in the forefront of blocking computerisation of the waterfront operations because of the possibility of job losses. The view is partially obscured by the beginnings of the TransBay tube.

Back among with the living after about 25 minutes. We're on the train going south, and the highway on the right is HW 280. You can see Daly City in the background.

Another shot of Daly City, with the greens of the premier San Francisco golf course barely visible in the middle background. The Pacific ocean is just beyond the hills.

The closest I got to a 747, my favorite commercial jet, on the trip. I had visions of taking a picture of one just as it clears the buildings in the airport. This one was probably just over the ocean and heading out, probably bound for Asia.

A dazzling wall of dangling sequins in the San Francisco BART station. This picture does it no justice at all. The effect is rather shimmery, as light reflecting off the ripples on a pond. Really has to be seen to be appreciated.

One of the 2-car people mover monorails. There are 2 lines, Red and Blue, and they arrive about every 3 to 5 minutes. They both serve the terminals and BART station, but the Blue line goes out to the parking lots and rental car areas. You can see the houses of San Bruno in the background, which is to the west. There weren't many seats, and the stops were fairly close together. They certainly make moving between terminals more convenient, as it can be quite congested on the inter-terminal walkways. They were not particularly quick, but were quite smooth. There were suprisingly many people giving the system a once-over.

One of the east-west runways in the foreground, with the bay and an emergency jetty in the background, against the soaring San Mateo bridge in the background.

An Alaska Airlines 737 preparing to the take off. The San Franciso Airport Marriott Hotel is in the background.

Shot from the Red Line showing the BART station on the left and the hills of South San Francisco in the background. SSF has a fairly high concentration of biotech companies, including Genentech.

The International terminal from the departing BART train. Garages are shown in the middle distance on either side of the roadway.