You’re looking at BART promotional photos and a press release that announces the acceptance of some of the earliest BART car designs. These photos were posted to Flickr by Eric Fischer and date back to December 1964.
You’ll notice a few really interesting things. For example, BART was first called “BARTD,” or Bay Area Rapid Transit District. It’s also of note that BARTD had a different logo back then, that you can see in the top right corner of the press release.
There are also different divider panels inside these model cars near the doors that are decorated with a pattern made up of San Francisco landmarks. It’s subtle, but you can make out a bridge, a train cable car, and possibly the Ferry Building.
This final photograph is probably of the first real-size mock-up built after the smaller models were approved. If you’re wondering about the grass, this photo was taken outside of the office of the design firm that made it in Michigan.
You can read more about BART’s history here. The part I found most interesting was that San Mateo county opted out of plans in 1961 because they thought it was too expensive and because the Southern-Pacific commuter trains were already serving them. Marin County also withdrew from BART plans in 1962 because it couldn’t pay its fair share of the cost based on its tax base and because of concerns over whether it was possible to carry trains across the Golden Gate Bridge.
All photos courtesy of Eric Fischer
