Rail, Hoof & Steam A History of the July Fourth Parade Route

By JOE DITLER

Every so often, a photograph will surface, an image from the past and it’s so amazing you simply cannot stop looking at it. Each time, you discover something new that you missed in the detail.

In this case, it’s an image from the old Ferry Landing, circa 1888, which was around the time as the inaugural Coronado July Fourth Parade. This would become the starting point for all future parades in Coronado. Participants would slowly make their way along 13, then-mostlyundeveloped city blocks lined with cheering spectators of all ages. It was taken at the corner of Orange Avenue and 1st Street, where Centennial Park sits today, honoring the legend of the Coronado ferryboats.

Look closely. This is Coronado transportation history all in one photo; the old ferryboat building, steam locomotive and passenger cars moving people from one end of town to the other.

The ferryboat Silver Gate (1888-1890) looms rear left – laid up and no longer in use. The first ferryboat named Coronado (1886-1922) has steam up and is preparing to depart just to Silver Gate’s right.

And the little Benecia (1888-1903) rests to the far right. She is the ferry brought in to replace the worthless Silver Gate, and the only ferryboat with a name not based on a San Diego landmark.

This is the old Silver Gate, a 180-foot experiment of her time. She was the first screw-propelled ferryboat on the West Coast, but, due to her enormous bulk, was unwieldy. She lasted only two years before being towed to Glorietta Bay, adjacent to Tent City, where City Hall is today. She had a second life as a floating platform used for meetings, church gatherings, child care, evening card games, and dances. Later, she became the San Diego Yacht Club’s first headquarters, moored at the foot of Grape Street in San Diego. Her ferryboat days were over and the only movement seen by her as she sat adjacent to Tent City, was due to the rise and fall of the tides.

Photo courtesy San Diego Historical Society.

Silver Gate was an ambitious but bad investment. She was the first non-paddlewheel ferryboat on the West Coast. The oversized and underpowered vessel was uncontrollable, and frequently crashed into other vessels and even her own dock. She would soon be moved to Tent City and be used as a floating platform for a variety of dockside social events.

But that’s not all. Look again. There are horse-drawn carriages awaiting passengers destined for the Hotel del Coronado (that’s how Kate Morgan, who later gained fame as the “ghost” of the Hotel del Coronado, reached the Del that lonely, rainy night).

Then, as if this image wasn’t romantic enough, a prim little gaff sloop, with cutter bow, sits anchored off to the side, tugging gently at her ground tackle to the tune of an ebb tide.

Headed south to the Hotel Del, the train couldn’t get up enough steam with a full load of people to clear the rise on Orange Avenue between Third and Fourth Streets.

There was a hump there, a hill, that eventually had to be leveled so steam locomotives overloaded with ferryboat passengers could make the grade headed south to the Hotel Del.

Often loaded to the max, the southbound trains had but a few blocks to build enough speed to transit “The Hump.” Trains going the other direction, from the Hotel Del, had a long semi-flat strip of rails allowing them to build up enough speed to carry them over the hump.

Today, you can still see the earthen cliffs on either side of Orange Avenue with condos and homes sitting high above the main street. This was to become our parade runway, running the length of Orange Avenue.

No one wanted to purchase a larger train engine so the city leveled the ground. As a results all the homes and hotels on that block seem to be built on small cliffs today. Ever notice that?

Joe Ditler is a long-time writer, author and historian known as the “Coronado Storyteller.” He is a former editor of CORONADO Magazine, past executive director of the Coronado Historical Association/Museum and prior director of the San Diego Maritime Museum. His capturing of history, memories and anecdotes will be appearing semi-regularly in future editions of CORONADO Magazine.