Ruins of Carfloat Slip, Port Richmond, CA, 2011
All the pixels, but none of the ocean breeze, at https://www.flickr.com/photos/mattblaze/5484488587
Captured with a small mirrorless camera and 50mm lens on a lightweight tripod.
I normally prefer lower contrast, but the ruined industrial subject worked reasonably well with a high contrast, backlit approach here. The sun was just above and directly in front of the frame.
Until 1984, the Santa Fe Railroad moved freight cars across the San Francisco Bay by barge. Railroad cars were decoupled from trains and loaded onto special "carfloat" barges, which were pulled across the bay by a small fleet of tug boats, to be re-attached to trains at the other end. The service ended when a fire destroyed the Point Richmond pier (the East Bay terminal for the operation), and that was that.
A handful of rail carfloat operations continue in the US, most notably in NY Harbor.
@mattblaze San Francisco is probably the biggest American city without rail service.
@12thRITS It has rail service (Caltrain, former Southern Pacific, with a terminal near the baseball stadium), just not intercity passenger service. Also a small amount of freight service to Mission Bay. But yeah, the geography there, at the end of a peninsula, makes it rough.
@12thRITS I believe Las Vegas is the largest metropolitan area currently lacking passenger rail service of any kind, along with Nashville and I think Columbus, OH. Unlike SF (which is a much smaller city), these cities once had quite a bit of rail service, but it dwindled in the late 20th century.
@mattblaze@federate.social @12thRITS@mstdn.social Vegas lacking a fast reliable connection to the strip and downtown areas is such a failure
@mattblaze@federate.social @12thRITS@mstdn.social yeah. I'd be curious to see what percentage of visitors go from the airport to the strip and then never leave the strip area, and how many rental cars just absorb parking in that area
I am currently here on work, and walking half a mile each way with no shade, since many big blocks lack alleys or similar
Oh and next to one part of my walk there is pristine perfectly green Kentucky bluegrass, watered nightly and on the other side of the sidewalk desert is xeroscape, siiiiigh
