San Fran Belt RR - was the tunnel in a movie?

[carajul]

In the 1971 movie "Dirty Harry" there is a scene where Clint Eastwood is running thru a tunnel which as rails on the floor. Three guys try to mug him. Is this tunnel the old Belt RR Tunnel near Aquatic Park? I'd say it's oos because of all the trash on the ground on the rails.

[atsf sp]

I'd say it's oos because of all the trash on the ground on the rails.

That could just be movie props for effect. But I saw this scene to, nice to see RR incorporation.

[RussNelson]

According to this article it could very well have been oos:
http://www.sanfranciscotrains.org/sbrr_history.html

[3rdrail]

It's by Laguna St. - Marina Blvd.(used to be Tonquin St.) at Fort Mason in the Marina District, where the State Belt Railroad terminated to the west. The State Belt served all the piers and industries along The Embacadero. The Sutter Street Railroad ran steam dummies down that way also many moon ago. It's about a two mile hike west of that roundhouse that they show in the above article at Sansome/Embarcadero. (By the way, never try to follow directions from a movie. If you know a city, it will make your head explode !) For my money, one of my favorite spots for SF trolley watching not too far away is Jefferson/Jones in one of Stogies cigar store's comfortable sidewalk chairs watching the F-Line cars make the turn with a nice Stogies house cigar in my mouth and a cold bottle of (root) beer in a paper bag in my hand.

[3rdrail]

If you're heading out to SF and enjoy transit related movie sites, I have a few of recommendations for you. First up, the movie that is supposed to be the most accurate as far as SF location continuation is is Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo. I believe that there are a few scenes of cable cars and trolleys in the movie. Another older movie (70's) is The Laughing Policeman in which a mass murder takes place on a Muni Mack bus with numerous shots inside the East Bay Terminal (Transbay Terminal) which previously hosted trolleys and interurbans from Market Street Railway, Muni, Sacramento Northern, Key System, and Southern Pacific. (Just terminal and buses in the movie- no trolleys unfortunately.) If my memory serves me correctly, there are a few good cable car shots in Dark Passage with Humphrey Bogart, as well as D.O.A.(the original), although unfortunately in D.O.A., the movie switches locale early on from SF to LA. For a really different history tour of the "darker" side of SF, give my friend Kitty Burns a call (link below) for a "Vampire Tour", which is actually mostly fact with a little fiction thrown in for atmosphere. Tell her that I sent you and you'll get a 0 % discount on your price of admission ! Among other things, you'll learn about one of the "Big Four" railroad founding millionaires who had a tunnel built underneath California Street from his mansion to create a secret passage to the residence of his mistress. And of course I would feel remiss if I didn't mention my all-time favorite movie, Bullitt. Short on transit locations (unless you're an airport buff) but just one great SF movie ! Have fun !
http://www.sfvampiretour.com/

[carajul]

I still want to confirm it is the location in "DIrty Harry" movie.

What's really amazing is to see pictures of the Embacara from the 1940s where the Belt RRs 4 track main down the middle of the street and 80 something spurs were jam packed with box cars. Nothing left today but a few rust rails in the street.

I did read that the RR was actually financially insolvent from mid-1940s onward and that all the freight traffic moved across the bay to Oakland and today the peirs in SF are nothing more than parking garages.