Oakland Long Wharf

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The Oakland Long Wharf, later known as the Oakland Pier or the SP Mole was a massive railroad wharf and ferry pier in Oakland, California. It was located at the foot of Seventh Street.

The pier began as a smaller ferry pier extending from Oakland Point westward into San Francisco Bay. In 1868, the Central Pacific Railroad acquired this pier and immediately began extending and improving it and renamed it the Oakland Long Wharf. This wharf was used by the CPRR for transporting freight cars over to San Francisco starting in 1871. Part of the wharf was filled in between 1879 and 1882, thus creating a "mole". Local commuter trains also used the pier, while the transcontinental railroad trains used another wharf in nearby Alameda until 1876 when they were shifted to the Oakland Long Wharf. Thereafter, ferries carrying both commuters and long distance travelers operated between the Long Wharf and San Francisco. After the completion of the Bay Bridge railway in 1938, commuter trains no longer ran to the Long Wharf (by then known as the SP Mole). However, regular passenger trains continued to run to the SP Mole until the early 1960s.

After the Central Pacific's operations were consolidated under the Southern Pacific, the Long Wharf was improved and the terminal buildings at the end of the pier rebuilt. Throughout its existence, progressively greater portions of the bayshore tidelands were filled in. The pier remained in service until the early 1960's. It was demolished to make way for an expansion of the burgeoning Port of Oakland's container ship facilities. Today, the only thing that remains of the SP Mole is the pier's switchman's tower which was restored as part of a small commemorative park.