BART's Link under the San Francisco Bay: The Transbay Tube
Please note this page is still “under construction” but feel free to browse around for fun. 2/1/26
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Sitting below the San Francisco Bay, an engineering marvel connects the Peninsula with the East Bay. At the time, it was the world's longest and deepest underwater crossing of its type.
The 3.65 mile Transbay Tube is composed of 57 binocular shaped steel and concrete sections, flanked by a vent structures in West Oakland and San Francisco. The Tube was originally designed for 30,000 seated passengers per hour in each direction, riding automated trains at speeds up to 80 mph. Designed by Parons-Brinkerhoff Quade and Douglas, the tube was designed in the face of significant environmental challenges - fast running water, 80-130 feet depth, two horizontal curves, 6 veritcal curves, and the possibility of earthquakes. |
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Each section was assembled on land in San Francisco, launched and towed into the Bay, and sunk in a trench.
The tube is very much a product of the Bay Area, and a representation of the BART project as a whole - a local effort funded, designed, and built by the People of the San Francisco Bay Area. Despite bouts of deferred maintenance, delays, and cost overruns, the Transbay Tube is BART's famous link under the San Francisco Bay. |
What a section of the tube looks like, in 1:300 scale
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