Third and Townsend Depot

The Third and Townsend Depot was the main

The depot was the terminus of Southern Pacific's Sunset Limited, running to New Orleans via Los Angeles.^[8] The service was cut back to Los Angeles in 1930, reinstated to San Francisco again in 1935, then cut back permanently in 1942.

The station had its last long distance train on April 30, 1971, when the Southern Pacific yielded operation of the Coast Daylight to Amtrak and the Del Monte was discontinued. Amtrak opted to consolidate most of its Bay Area service in Oakland. However, the bus connections between San Francisco and Oakland (and later Emeryville) continued, and are still operated as part of the Amtrak Thruway banner.

With the rise of freeways and the loss of long-distance passenger rail service, Southern Pacific built the much smaller Fourth and King Street Station to serve the Peninsula Commute in 1975. Third and Townsend was demolished in 1975–76.

Description

Designed by the Southern Pacific Architectural Bureau, the station was two stories, built of reinforced concrete in the characteristic Mission Revival architecture style,^[1][2][3][9] and was one of the best examples of the style in San Francisco.^[10] The railroad intended the style to "link San Francisco more closely with the romance and sentiment of the settlement of California", and planned to include interior murals on that theme. The initial announcement of the design included giving customers a choice of free and paying bathrooms, for the first time in a Western train station.^[7] There was a baggage building, a commissary, and a Pullman storeroom.^[11] The roofs were tiled and arcades and door canopies sheltered passengers from the weather on two sides. The interiors were finished in oak. The waiting room had a marble floor, measured 64 by 110 feet (20 by 34 m), with a 45-foot (14 m) ceiling, and was lit on three sides by amber-glassed windows.^[9]

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