When the route opened in 1869, trains reached the San Francisco Bay area from Sacramento via a 140 miles line (built by the original Western Pacific Railroad) by way of Stockton over Altamont Pass, and on through Niles Cañon first to a pier at Alameda, and shortly thereafter to the nearby two-mile long Oakland Long Wharf (later called the "SP Mole") from which San Francisco was then accessed by ferry.