A history of North Coast transportation

How do we get from point A to point B? Methods of transportation have changed drastically since stagecoaches, steamboats, and trolleys dominated the North Coast. Railroads like the Northwestern Pacific or steamboats like the Petaluma moved people and goods along the California coast since the mid-1800s.

In the 1930s automobiles began to dominate the landscape and travel by rail wained. Going to visit your Aunt in Oakland became easier, for better or for worse, as roads were paved and highways brought us closer together.

In the late 1940s, the Santa Rosa Army Air Field (the Charles M. Schulz–Sonoma County Airport as we know it today) was converted to a civil airport and commercial airlines like Southwest brought us to places further away faster. We have come a long way since Fred Wiseman’s flying machine made it’s historic first airmail flight across the Sonoma County skies back in 1911.

Have we peeked your interest? Want to see more? Click through our chronological photo gallery of means of transportation from the 1880s to the 1950s.