The whistle of the first Ocean Shore Railroad passenger train from San Francisco to Granada echoed of nearby hills 21 June 1908. On board were 500 San Franciscans, great, good-time-loving people, who were treated to free picnic lunches and sales pitches for building lots. The main Granada station was just a few hundred feet oceanward.
Granada, designed by Daniel H. Burnham, famed architect of the 1905 San Francisco plan, boasted curved streets lined with concrete sidewalks and new eucalyptus trees. When the last train whistle blew 16 August 1920 only a few homes had been built here on Burnham's magnificent boulevards.
The Ocean Shore R.R. never made it non-stop to Santa Cruz, its intended destination. The tracks stopped at Tunitas Creek, south of Half Moon Bay. Passengers road Stanley Steamers to Swanton and then another Ocean Shore train to Santa Cruz.
Ocean Shore's motto was "Reaches the Beaches," but the railroad was continually plagued by landslides along its ocean-bluffs route. It finally succumbed to the automobile. During the 12 years that it operated the Ocean Shore R.R. created a definite mark along the rugged San Mateo County Coast.
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