A history of North Coast transportation
Back in the late 1800s and early 1900s, how do we get from the northern tip of Sonoma County in Cloverdale to the southern point in Petaluma? Methods of transportation have changed drastically since stagecoaches, steamboats, and trolleys dominated the North Coast. Railroads like the Northwestern Pacific or steamboats like the Petaluma moved people and goods along the California coast since the mid-1800s.
In the 1930s, automobiles began to dominate the landscape, and travel by rail waned. Going to visit your aunt in Oakland became easier, for better or for worse, as roads were paved and highways brought us closer together.
In the late 1940s, the Santa Rosa Army Air Field (known today as the Charles M. Schulz–Sonoma County Airport) was converted to a civil airport, and commercial airlines brought us to places further away faster. We have come a long way since Fred Wiseman's flying machine made its historic first airmail flight across the Sonoma County skies back in 1911.
View historic photos of transportation from the 1880s to the 1950s in our gallery above.
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