Niles Canyon

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Niles Canyon is a canyon in the San Francisco Bay Area formed by Alameda Creek. The canyon is largely in an unincorporated area of Alameda County, while the western portion of the canyon lies within the city limits of Fremont and Union City. The stretch of State Route 84 known as Niles Canyon Road traverses the length of the canyon from the Fremont district of Niles to the unincorporated town of Sunol.

At the canyon's western mouth, Essanay Film Company had a studio located in Niles from 1912-1916, where Charlie Chaplin made The Tramp and a few other films in early 1915. The canyon itself was the setting for a number of early films.

[edit] Railroads

The Union Pacific Railroad (formerly Western Pacific Railroad) has an active mainline through the Canyon. The Altamont Commuter Express runs along this line daily. The former Southern Pacific route from Oakland to Tracy via Niles Canyon is now abandoned, except for a portion operated by the heritage railway known as the Niles Canyon Railway. This line had been the original extension of the Transcontinental Railroad from Sacramento to San Francisco Bay and was completed in 1869.