Across the Bay Bridge is the municipality of
Oakland. As complex as San Francisco, it has a
completely different flair.
There are neighborhoods rather than Districts and the downtown has a much more
industrial feel to it. With the same background as the other cities (Huchiun
Indians then Spanish settlers, then part of Mexico, and finally claimed by the
US) Oakland was
originally called encinal, Spanish for ‘oak grove’, because of the extensive
oak forest that covered the area. The Oakland Long Wharf at Oakland Point and
the major terminus for the Central Pacific Railroad proved the wisdom of Horace
Carpentier, Edson Adams, and Andrew Moon in establishing the city in the
mid-1800s. Other entrepreneurs, such as Francis "Borax" Smith
developed a streetcar company; other such innovations as electric service and
telephones connected Oakland and Berkeley, making both cities desirable places
to live and work. By 1920, Oakland boasted many manufacturing industries,
including metals, canneries, bakeries, internal combustion engines,
automobiles, and shipbuilding. A short nine years later, Chrysler added another
automobile manufacturing plant, making Oakland the ‘Detroit of the West’. Thankfully,
it has not suffered the same fate as Detroit.
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| Getting on the Bay Bridge |
