Month: March 2026

That’s just a silly lead title to this post, but we’re halfway through the 2026 Tax Season in the USA, and right now, it feels like I’m tunneling my way through a mountain of paper. Soooo, I thought I’d take a break from interpreting the ‘One, Big, Beautiful Bill’ for awhile, and look back at some of the tunnel photo comparisons I’ve posted in the past. (Thumbnail images)

  

We’ll head toward San Francisco across the Bay Bridge through the Yerba Buena Tunnel in 1971.

The south entrance and exit of the Stockton Tunnel in the 1940s: (streetcar.org)

 

Looking down from above the south portion of the Stockton Tunnel during the 1940s: (opensfhistory.org)

Just yards from where the previous picture was taken is Burritt Street Alley, where Miles Archer was shot in the Maltese Falcon novel, as this plaque near the entrance to the alley commemorates.

  

We’ll head west on Broadway toward the Broadway Tunnel, seen in a 1950s picture from the Charles Cushman Collection.

  

Dong Kingman had a little more artistic version of the eastern entrance and exit to the Broadway Tunnel in his painting from the 1960s.

  

Inspector Steve Keller, (Mike Douglas) was living on Broadway, just up from the Broadway Tunnel, in the last Episode of the ‘The Streets of San Francisco’ that he appeared in. In earlier episodes of the television show, he lived on Union Street, Telegraph Hill. Here, Keller says goodbye to Michael Stone, (Karl Maldin) after retiring from the Police Department to become a teacher.

  

Now we’re looking west toward the east portal of the Sunset Streetcar Tunnel at Duboce Park 1935.

  

If you’ve kept up with me, we’ve made it to the western edge of Golden Gate Park, where a streetcar line used to run completely along the width of the park from Lincoln Way to LaPlaya Street and Playland-at-the-Beach. A tunnel, which is still in existence, crossed under what is now John F. Kennedy Drive, near the Dutch Windmill. (opensfhistory.org)

   

My picture is looking north from under the old streetcar tunnel in Golden Gate Park toward where the Playland Roller Coaster can be seen in the 1943 photo, also taken from inside the tunnel. (opensfhistory.org)

 

 

Actually, these aren’t all designated as “Streets”, but ‘More little alleys, places, a street, and a lane’ is kind of a long title for a post. Some of these spots are relatively little known, but a few of them are historic, and one of them is featured in a 1940s noir film. (Thumbnail images)

  

365 Tehama Street in 1951 was kind of a boring place to take a picture of, unless you owned National Sales and Service Co., but the cars and the fact that the little brick building has survived add flavor to the picture today. (opensfhistory.org)

  

Card Alley, North Beach, in 1936: There may have been something exciting that happened in this alley once, but I’ll be darned if I know what it was. It makes a good picture, though. (Shorpy Archives)

  

St. Louis Alley: Medium.com writes that “this narrow passage was once one of the busiest and most vividly document corners of old Chinatown.” Before the 1906 Earthquake and Fire, it was a place of Tong Wars, prostitution, and opium dens.. Medium.com refers to it as a “passage” because you could enter it from Jackson Street, travel to the back of the alley, and cross over to Dupont Street (Grant Avenue) through a gap in two buildings. That area is closed of now. Foot travel through the alley, for whatever reason, was heavy until after 1906. Now, it’s just a quiet little spot to sit and rest for a bit, which I’ve often done. (Medium.com)

  

An undated photo of Hotaling Place in historic Jackson Square, probably from the early 1960s before the Pyramid Building was built: (San Francisco Library Digital Archives)

 

The House of Ming in 1960 in Old Chinatown Lane; probably the best name for any Chinatown alley: In the 1949 film noir ‘Impact’, Ella Raines chases Anna May Wong through a passage way between two buildings from Ross Alley into the back of old Chinatown Lane, and into a building near where the House of Ming was. The passage way is fenced off now. (opensfhistory.org)

  

A runaway car on Kimball Place at Sacramento Street, on the west side of Nob Hill in 1956; I like this comparison picture best in the set; it looks like something out of a 1950s crime show. (San Francisco Library Digital Archives)