State Belt Railroad at Pier 43-An Infrastructure Story

Here I stand by the former trackage of the State Belt Railroad of California.  Here, at Pier 43, San Francisco, freight cars were once transferred by barge to and from the Santa Fe, Western Pacific and Northwestern Pacific Railroads.
Through this archway, merchandise from across America headed to ships at waiting piers.  Longshoremen along the railway loaded boxcars bound for America.
Carloads of lumber from California and the Northwest rolled across Pier 43 to build the young city of San Francisco.  Troops headed to and from the Pacific Theater and trainloads of war supplies passed under this arch during World War II.
This small arch is not practical for today's shipping needs.  Larger ships require deeper berths.  Vast intermodal cranes, trains and trucks need wide roads and large tracts of land to spread out.
This archway was a key transportation infrastructure project in its day.  Our infrastructure must continue to move forward.