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Thousand Oaks, Berkeley, California

1909 establishments in CaliforniaAlameda County, California geography stubsNeighborhoods in Berkeley, CaliforniaPopulated places established in 1909Streetcar suburbs

Thousand Oaks is a neighborhood of Berkeley in Alameda County, California. Located at the base of the Berkeley Hills, it lies at an elevation of 239 feet (73 m).The principal shopping area is Solano Avenue, along the southern edge of the neighborhood. There are also two smaller clusters of shops on the northern edge of Thousand Oaks, across the county line in Kensington on Arlington Avenue and on Colusa Avenue. The neighborhood is primarily residential, mostly consisting of single-family houses built in the early 20th century, sometimes with In-law apartments, as well as a handful of apartment buildings. When the neighboring city of Albany was incorporated in 1908, its borders were drawn to exclude the area north of Solano Avenue and east of Curtis Street that would become the Thousand Oaks area, then the site of a refugee camp that had formed after the 1906 earthquake. Its residents were employed in the construction of the surrounding subdivisions and were likely to vote against incorporation as a separate city. The neighborhood was first subdivided in 1909 and 1917 after a failed proposal to move the state capital to Berkeley, in which the area would have become a large public park near the capitol building. Originally an unincorporated area north of Berkeley, it was built as a commuter suburb at the northern terminus of three interurban rail lines. It includes the Thousand Oaks Knoll, a rocky extension of the Berkeley hills in the northeastern part of the neighborhood. Several large rock outcroppings in the eastern edge of the neighborhood were turned into public parks, or incorporated into private yards.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Thousand Oaks, Berkeley, California (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors).

Thousand Oaks, Berkeley, California
The Alameda, Berkeley

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Latitude Longitude
N 37.895555555556 ° E -122.27944444444 °
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The Alameda 691
94707 Berkeley
California, United States
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Northbrae Tunnel
Northbrae Tunnel

The Northbrae Tunnel, also referred to as the Solano Avenue Tunnel, was built as a commuter electric railroad tunnel in the northern part of Berkeley, California, and was later converted to street use. In 1910 the Southern Pacific Railroad (SP) was electrifying its steam-engine drawn ferry-train line (to San Francisco) from Oakland Pier via Shattuck Avenue to Vine Street in Berkeley and extending it north along the base of the Berkeley Hills to newly developing neighborhoods of Berkeley at Northbrae and Thousand Oaks. The route chosen was Henry Street and Sutter Street to its intersection with Hopkins. At this point a ridge carrying Marin and Los Angeles Avenues blocked the way. After investigating (1) a route around the ridge and (2) a cut through the ridge with bridges over it, it was decided to use the route of the cut but make it a tunnel instead, under Marin and Los Angeles Avenues just west of their intersection with The (Marin) Circle. The cut-and-cover method of tunnel construction was used. The tunnel curved to the west so that the railroad could continue through to the intersection of Solano Avenue and The Alameda and then to Thousand Oaks station at Solano and Colusa Avenues.The line also required a level grade across the lower canyon of Codornices Creek. To accomplish this, a temporary wooden trestle was built along Henry Street with tracks for the construction trains which was subsequently filled in with material excavated from the tunnel cut. A steel bridge was emplaced at Eunice Street. allowing auto traffic to pass under the tracks. The railroad was completed in 1911 and inspection trains were run at the end of that year, with service beginning January 1, 1912. The SP ferry-train service was changed to bridge-train service operated by its subsidiary, Interurban Electric Railway (IER) across the San Francisco Oakland Bay Bridge in December, 1939. The IER ended service July 26, 1941, but the tracks in Berkeley were made available to the Key System, which extended service to Hopkins and Sutter Streets (the stop formerly called Northbrae) beginning August 6, 1941. Service was extended through the tunnel to a new terminal at Solano Avenue and The Alameda on December 6, 1942. All bridge-train service ended on April 20, 1958.A paved roadway was installed in the tunnel by the City of Berkeley, and was opened to traffic on December 15, 1962, extending Solano Avenue through the tunnel to connect with Sutter Street.

Cragmont, Berkeley, California

The Cragmont area of Berkeley is a residential district located in the northeastern section of the city, occupying most of the hill area north of Codornices Creek. It lies at an elevation of 755 feet (230 m). The Cragmont area was mostly grassland with oak and bay laurel trees in the canyons until the beginnings of the American era. The area was named for the various rock outcroppings which occur throughout the district. It was first developed as grazing land in the late 19th century. When a one-mile (1.6 km) exclusion zone for the sale of liquor was imposed with respect to the campus of the University of California, a local farmer opened up a saloon at what is now the corner of Spruce Street and Marin Avenue. Today, there are no commercial areas in the district. In the early 20th century, a streetcar line operated by the Key System was opened up along Euclid Avenue to Hilgard Street near the University campus. It was soon extended up Euclid as far as Regal Road, one block south of Marin Avenue. The area was immediately put up for sale for residential development. Many homes in the Cragmont area command an outstanding view of San Francisco Bay and the Golden Gate. On the other hand, houses are closely spaced and there are many trees, posing a very high fire hazard during episodes of warm, dry and windy weather. There are also a number of active slides, and the Hayward Fault, a major branch of the San Andreas Fault, cuts right through the district, roughly along the alignment of (from south to north) La Loma-Euclid-Spruce streets.