The fair's plan provided "a water entrance for visitors from across the Bay, at the Ferry slip beyond the other end of the Machinery Palace" (Todd). The slip lay near Fort Mason's transport wharves, set on a northeast–southwest axis so ferries and car floats could come in easily. Its three-track apron let freight cars roll off the floats of every railroad serving the bay. Cars could be taken from the Oakland yards and hauled right into the exhibit palaces without unloading, until the Fort Mason tunnel joined the exposition's tracks to the city's Belt Railway.
From here the exposition's own standard-gauge railway ran west along the Esplanade to the race track, and back by the Avenue of the Nations and the Avenue of Palms to a switch yard east of the Machinery Palace, with room for 200 cars and 50,000 sq ft of warehouses. Passenger service also ran to the grounds from the East Bay. The Fact Book describes a combined electric train and ferry service from Oakland, Alameda and Berkeley. The Exposition Ferry Building stood beside the slip at the east end of the Marina.
No photograph of the Exposition Ferry Slip and Ferry Building has turned up yet in the public-domain archives this site draws on. If you know of one, or hold one, send it over and it will be credited here. Meanwhile the photographs page holds 410 pictures of the fair, more than the film uses.
Where it stood
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The Exposition Ferry Slip and Ferry Building stood at about 37.80551 N, 122.43259 W on today's map. The whole fairground over the city →
