 When the opening of the rail line on the new San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge was imminent in the late 1930s, the Southern Pacific successfully petitioned the Railroad Commission to close and demolish the depot at Berkeley Station, arguing that since the downtown trains would no longer connect with the mainline at the 16th Street Station (the bridge line bypassed it), such a large station was unnecessary.The depot was demolished in August 1938, its function replaced by a small ticket office in a commercial building which rose in its place.In 1972, the name "Berkeley Station" was revived as the name of the BART stop in downtown Berkeley, but was changed to "Downtown Berkeley" in the 1990s.