National Park Service wants your comments on the F-line extension to Fort Mason

IF YOU have ever visited the Aquatic Park Historic District in San Francisco, chances are you have walked over a defunct rail line that dead-ends at a tunnel underneath the Fort Mason hillside. On almost any given day you will see joggers, cyclists and walkers wiggling their way from the shoreline path to Van Ness Avenue and then up the sudden lung-testing incline that leads to the Marina Green. Underneath their feet, trains once hauled materials for building the 1915 Panama Pacific International Exposition through a 1,500 foot tunnel, abandoned since 1979.

The National Park Service is assessing the possibility of resurrecting the rail line and tunnel as a means for connecting the historic F-Line Streetcar service from the Embarcardero to Fort Mason Center, a few steps from Crissy Field and the Golden Gate National Parks. Currently the line turns around near Fisherman’s Wharf, a popular tourist destination near the southside of Aquatic Park.

Now is the time to weigh in on the proposed project. The comment period for the Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the Extension of the F-Line Streetcar Service to Fort Mason Center runs through May 17, 2011. You can comment online.

The National Park Service will discuss the plans in a public open house on April 20, 2011 from 7:00-9:00 p.m. in the Golden Gate Room, Building A of Fort Mason Center.