An insider’s “indispensible” behind-the-scenes history of the transit system of San Francisco and surrounding counties (Houston Chronicle). In the first-ever history book about BART, longtime agency spokesman Michael C. Healy gives an insider’s account of the rapid transit system’s inception, hard-won approval, construction, and operations, warts and all. With a master storyteller’s wit and sharp attention to detail, Healy recreates the politically fraught venture to bring a new kind of public transit to the West Coast. What emerges is a sense of the individuals who made (and make) BART happen. From tales of staying up until 3:00 a.m. with BART pioneers Bill Stokes and Jack Everson to hear the election results for the rapid transit vote to stories of weathering scandals, strikes, and growing pains, this look behind the scenes of an iconic, seemingly monolithic structure reveals people at their most human—and determined to change the status quo. “The Metro. The T. The Tube. The world's most famous subway systems are known by simple monikers, and San Francisco's BART belongs in that class. Michael C. Healy delivers a tour-de-force telling of its roots, hard-fought approval, and challenging construction that will delight fans of American urban history.”—Doug Most, author of The Race Underground: Boston, New York, and the Incredible Rivalry That Built America's First Subway

Across the great bay from San Francisco, the city of Alameda evolved into an island hometown of fine Victorian and Craftsman architecture and a port containing a naval air station, shipbuilding center, and the winter home of the long-gone Alaska Packers fleet of "tall ships." But Alameda also was a busy railroad town. In 1864, a passenger railroad with a ferry connection created a commute to San Francisco. In 1869, the city became the first Bay Area terminus of the Transcontinental Railroad. Alameda became an island because a railroad allowed construction crews to dig a tidal canal, separating it from Oakland in 1902. Later generations rode steam, then electric, trains to a grand ferry pier where ornate watercraft guided them the 20 minutes to San Francisco. An auto tube, and later the San Francisco Oakland Bay Bridge, hastened the demise of ferry, then rail, operations before World War II.

Located directly across San Francisco Bay from the famous Golden Gate, the small city of Albany has a history far larger than its size would suggest. Just one-and-a-half-miles square, the Albany area has been the home of many diverse people and interests. The first inhabitants were the Huchiun Indians, followed by the Peralta family and their vast Rancho San Antonio. The Gold Rush brought new settlers and dynamite manufacturers, an incompatible pairing that could not last. Albany's population swelled after the great 1906 earthquake, when many San Franciscans moved to the East Bay. By the 1920s, new homes built by well-known developers like C. M. MacGregor attracted many more families. During World War II, Albany's population expanded yet again with the influx of shipyard workers housed at Codornices Village, now known as University Village. Albany has evolved to keep pace with modern times but also has maintained much of its small-town, familyfriendly character, a combination that makes it one of the most soughtafter locations along the East Bay shore.