Free Republic

Despite last-minute pleas from historians, Union Pacific has demolished the 1874 train shop in West Oakland that was among the last relics of the transcontinental railroad. The three-story building, visible from BART and Interstate 880, met the wrecking ball Oct. 1 at 5 a.m., according to Union Pacific spokeswoman Raquel Espinoza. By Sunday, the site - where thousands of locomotives and train cars had undergone repairs for 128 years - was nothing but a vacant lot littered with a few bricks, witnesses said. Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/10/08/BAS41FPBKA.DTL&tsp=1#ixzz11qklvvQY

Over the howls of historians, Union Pacific plans to demolish an 1874 cavernous brick warehouse in West Oakland that is one of the last remnants of the transcontinental railroad. Designed for train repair, the towering structure was erected on the heels of the transcontinental railroad's arrival in Oakland, in the days when West Oakland was a national industrial center. "It tells the story of when railroads were the pioneer industry in California, and this was the center of it," said architect Randy Ruiz, one of 30 visitors Union Pacific allowed to tour the building recently. "It represents that can-do American...