San Diego Transits Over The Years

Watercolor Sketches

Old San Diego Electric Railway
New San Diego Trolley
Former San Diego Transit Bus

Davelyman Out!

By The Light Of The Silvery Lamp

Chrome, Stainless Steel, Silver Plated, or Something, San Diego's Boulevard Lamps were Definitely a Bright Silvery Color.

Boulevard Lamp/Trolley Linepole painted Tru-Color Paint TCP-077 Silver

Well Hey! With a little improvising, I'm starting to get some decent photos of the layout now!

But yes- San Diego streetlamps were in fact silver:

Bright silver street lamps seem to be unique to San Diego. I'm not sure why this is. My guess is that Diego has a natural landlocked harbor that connects to the Pacific Ocean through a strait between Point Loma and Coronado known as the Silver Gate. It is believed that the name comes from Spanish times when silver from mines northeast of San Diego County was shipping out in Spanish ships. The first known recorded use of "Silver Gate" is from a poem written by a frontiersman poet Joaquin Miller (1837-1913). The term Silver Gate was further reinforced by San Francisco's strait being named the Golden Gate. But this gave the impression that San Diego was second to San Francisco, so "Silver Gate" was never officially adopted by the city and the term has since faded into history. But not before some streets, schools, (Balboa Park was almost named Silver Gate Park) organizations, institutions, ships and clubs adopted the term, and apparently, dotting some boulevards with some silver ornamentation in the way of street lamps. Yes sir! Silver ornamentation!

Dandy