Along the Way - A Progress Report From BART (ca. late 1960s - early 1970s)

[Music] over the hills and all along the way we're building a dream for tomorrow we're building a dream for tomorrow where trains that cross the hills and land go through the town by night and day and sunshine touches every hand in parks where children play over the hills and all along the way we're building a dream for tomorrow we're building a dream for tomorrow we're building a dream for tomorrow we're bu Building a Dream for tomorrow along the way in Three Counties Bart is building a high-speed rail rapid transit system planned for your convenience designed for your comfort and deliberately aimed at giving you a safer faster more economical ride than your automobile fully aware as Lewis Mumford says that a city exists not for the constant passage of Motorcars but for the care and culture of men and along the way Bart is going a step further than trains and tracks Bart is protecting and enhancing the natural beauty of the Bay Area if for no other reason by giving you the time to enjoy it you will spend less time than money and temper than you do today sitting in the midst of a molasses traffic jam and more time enjoying yourself surrounded by the bay area's natural beauty a natural beauty that Bart is not only protecting from the steady erosion of the Motorcar but adding to as well Landscaping along the aerial lines is not just Pleasant to look at it's a delightful pocket playground stretching for 3 miles through Albany and El Cerito the The Familiar Rolling Hills of alam and contracosta counties will still be yours to enjoy Bard has drilled through instead of climbing over those wooded Hills connecting the two counties and carefully followed the narrow natural Corridor on the contracosta side by putting the new high-speed trains in the median of a widened and relocated freeway cities will maintain their character too unscarred by heavy concrete swvs of freeway ways that carry the extravagance of one car one passenger mostly at a standstill instead bart trains carrying thousands of comfortably seated passengers will Glide quietly through the bay tube under the ferry building and into the Market Street Subway a Subway that's perhaps one of the toughest construction projects in the entire system buried sailing ships and a water table lying only 20 ft below Street surface make San Francisco tunneling something less than a picnic as huge excavations continue at Powell Montgomery and Civic Center for Bart three- level Market Street stations and farther along between eth and market and 15th and Mission streets miners work under compressed air needed to keep seepage from flooding the tunnel specially selected and highly trained men sandhogs spend several hours each each day sealed in compressed air locks adjusting to the increased air pressure and at the end of the shift readjusting to life at the street surface so when you climb across Market Street or ride a bus that's been detoured remember that your surface difficulties are temporary while below ground here and in the other two urb core cities Oakland and Berkeley 975 sandhogs are tunneling 21 mies of Subway and when it's completed you and the Bay Area will not only feel better you'll both look better in the pow Street Station you'll look something like this along the way you may stop at a magazine stand buy commute tickets from the automatic vending machine enjoy the clean spacious architect designed station and then you'll board a train carpeted air conditioned settle into an extra wide foam rubber seat and when you're traveling on the surface or on the aerial structures you'll enjoy the scenery from a full Vista window Paul Street is one of the subway stations MacArthur a major Transfer Center is located in the median of the new Grove shaer freeway here too you'll enjoy the spaciousness and beauty that marks all Bart structures each station has been individually designed by prominent Bay Area architectural firms and each like the delor station on the elero area line has been planned as a distinctive addition to each community's particular character and environment the bay itself lends a particular character to the entire area reaching the shores of all the counties and giving to each a Marine vist but San Francisco Bay has always been a formidable obstacle to Interurban Transit one that Bay Area Rapid Transit is Conquering with the world's longest underwater tube 58 prefabricated sections are nudged and towed to exact spots on the transve route and regularly lowered with Precision exactness to their places on the bottom of the Bay e but if you drive across the bay bridge or work on Market Street or live in contracosta County wherever you practice your sidewalk superintending you won't see the whole picture an official tour comes closest to revealing just how remarkably far along the way your BART system has progressed build aray local newsman reported his reactions enormous progress in building Bart has has already been made and anyone wishing to see it has only to tour the route the lines will take the building of a freeway looks simple by comparison and when it is all over the Bay Area will have not a freeway which disrupts and separates the community but a transit system which knits it together and despite the Cassandras it should prove to be a remarkably handsome piece of work Bart design consultant Dean John burchard of UC said with justifiable Pride recently that with the possible exception of Stockholm Bart will prove to be the most beautiful system in the world he could very well be right experts throughout the United States agree with Dean Berard and they've been expressing it with a succession of awards awards that range from the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development for a total system design Excellence to Nationwide recognition from engineering and construction associations for basic Bart structures and perhaps the most coveted an award from a local community for the district's Landscaping of its right of way through a suburban area Beyond awards for excellence of design and Technology recognition of Bart's extraordinary contribution to worldwide progress in mass transit came from the international Union of public transport they are impressed by the effort not only to provide an efficient and reliable instrument of Transportation of a very high standard but to build a facility of which the structures and design will enhance the city contributing to the general Harmony and beauty of the area and in this you are obviously successful these are the qualities which will I think make your system a model for other cities for many years to come and in years to come today's school children will be adult users of the system so they helped break ground for San Francisco's Market Street Subway star performer in a Civic celebration complete with brass band flags and dignitaries your San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit System well along the way to delivery of initial service is also along the way protecting and enhancing the beauty of the area where you live work and play building the dream for tomorrow experts say there's only one way to prevent our cities and their surrounding suburbs from being strangled by traffic poisoned by exhaust fumes and forced to devote more of their living and working space to parking lots and that is to provide inexpensive public transportation service that Is frequent fast and reliable enough to induce citizens to leave their cars at home when they go to places of work or pleasure Mass rapid transit for the San Francisco Bay Area as heavy construction accelerates is fast becoming more than a dream as it moves ahead Beyond tracks trains and stations to fulfill Lewis mumford's hope of cities devoted to the care and culture of men [Music] over the hills and all along the way we're building a dream for tomorrow we're building a dream for tomorrow where trains that cross the hills and land go through the town by Night and Day Sunshine touches every hand in parks where children play over the hills and all along the way we're building a dream for tomorrow we're building a dream for tomorrow [Music] for