⛴️ Did train passengers finish their trip by boat?

Here in Sausalito, right by the water, is the ferry dock. A ferry is a big boat that carries people across the water, like a bus that floats. Long ago, this dock had a surprising partner. Can you guess what it was? A train! Imagine you're riding that old train, back when your great-great-grandparents were little.

You roll past forests and farms, all the way down to Sausalito. Then the tracks stop, right at the edge of the bay. But you want to go to San Francisco, across the water! Trains can't swim, and nobody wanted a soggy train. So here's how it worked. The riders hopped off the train and walked onto a ferry waiting at this dock.

The ferry carried them across the bay. The train did the land part, and the boat did the water part, like a relay race. Can you spot a boat at the dock out the window right now? Then one day the Golden Gate Bridge opened, and people could drive across instead, so the ferries stopped. But when your grandparents were young, the ferries came back. Today people still ride boats from right here to San Francisco, just like those train riders long ago.