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BART : the dramatic history of the Bay Area Rapid Transit system / Michael C. Healy ; foreword by John King.
Lippincott Library HE4491.S45 H43 2016
Available
- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- Healy, Michael C., author.
- Language:
- English
- Subjects (All):
- San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District (Calif.)--History.
- San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District (Calif.).
- Local transit--California--San Francisco Bay Area--History.
- Local transit.
- History.
- California--San Francisco Bay Area.
- Physical Description:
- xvi, 365 pages : illustrations, maps ; 23 cm
- Place of Publication:
- Berkeley, California : Heyday, [2016]
- Summary:
- When BART opened in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1972, it became the catalyst for a renaissance in modern rail transit. The concept as sold to Bay Area voters was gargantuan: by adopting aerospace technologies and state-of-the-art innovations, the new computer-operated transportation system would bridge counties and curb urban sprawl amid a booming automobile culture. Pundits and taxpayers alike wondered if this space-age plan could actually work. In this 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." Written with honey wil and sharp attention to detail, Healy recreates the politically and emotionally fraught venture to bring a new kind of public transit to the West Coast. What emerges is not just an appreciation of the tremendous scope of the project but also a sense of the individuals who mode (and make] BART happen. From the tale of Bill Stokes and Jack Everson waiting up until 3 A.M. to hear the results of that first critical election, to weathering the scandals, strikes, and growing pains of the next half century, this look behind the scenes of the iconic, seemingly monolithic system reveals the people behind it at their most human. Book jacket.
- Contents:
- Foreword / by John King
- Introduction
- San Francisco, November 6, 1962
- The birth of the San Francisco bay area
- Seeking a way
- The bartd board begins its work
- The composite report
- What the voters voted on
- Beginning on a turbulent road
- The 1960s : various issues plague the work
- Rebellion in Berkeley
- The ripple effect from Berkeley
- Two of the most challenging structures : the tunnel and the tube
- San Francisco subway construction presents new challenges
- The contract for transit cars goes to an aerospace company
- The bart board vs. stokes
- The long knives
- A critical decade ahead as atc challenges persist
- The specter of bankruptcy
- The 1970s : precarious times continue
- 1977 and 1978 see several improvements and added service
- Close headways get the okay
- The 1980s : a decade of progress and scandal
- Loma Prieta becomes BART's finest hour
- A rocky road to expansion during the 1990s
- The 1990s are a bridge to the future
- With the millennium come new challenges
- Acknowledgments
- Index
- About the author.
- Notes:
- Includes index.
- ISBN:
- 9781597143707
- 1597143707
- OCLC:
- 948549791
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