Key System Transit Lines (Calif.)

Organizational History

In 1902, after having consolidated East Bay streetcar lines for almost a decade, Francis Marion "Borax" Smith formed the San Francisco, Oakland & San Jose Railway. This company provided ferry service from San Francisco to a ferry pier in Berkeley, then to points in the East Bay cities of Oakland, Berkeley, and Alameda via electric trains. The Berkeley ferry terminal was at the end of a three-mile long wooden trestle extending into the San Francisco Bay. The corporate emblem was in the shape of a key formed by the terminal, trestle, and the three East Bay cities, hence the system was called the "Key Route". The first train began running on October 26, 1903. Smith continued to create additional streetcar routes chiefly dictated by his real estate holdings in the East Bay.

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