Forest Hill station (Muni Metro)

Forest Hill station is a Muni Metro station near the Forest Hill and Laguna Honda neighborhoods in San Francisco, California. It was originally built as part of the Twin Peaks Tunnel in 1916-1918, and is the oldest subway station west of Chicago. The station was originally named Laguna Honda; lettering with that former name is carved on the station headhouse.

Forest Hill
Forest Hill station headhouse in 2018
LocationLaguna Honda Boulevard
San Francisco, California
Coordinates37.74803°N 122.45914°W / 37.74803; -122.45914
Owned byMuni
Line(s)Twin Peaks Tunnel
Platforms2 sides
Connections Muni: 36, 43, 44, 52, K Owl, KT Bus, L Owl, M Bus
Construction
Disabled accessYes
History
OpenedFebruary 3, 1918[1]:70
Rebuilt1985
Services
Preceding station Muni Following station
West Portal
towards SF Zoo
 L Taraval Castro
towards Embarcadero
West Portal
towards San Jose and Geneva (Balboa Park)
 M Ocean View
West Portal
Terminus
 S Shuttle
West Portal
towards Balboa Park
 K Ingleside Castro
One-way operation
West Portal
One-way operation
 T Third Street Castro
towards Sunnydale
Designated2004[2]
Reference no.231
Location

Scenes from the films Dirty Harry (1971) and Milk (2008) were shot inside of this station.

Station layout and architecture
An inbound Muni Metro train at Forest Hill station

Forest Hill Station was built in a "restrained classical revival"[3] style which has remained largely unaltered to the present. There are also a few decorative features suggestive of an Art Nouveau aesthetic, for example malachite colored accents placed over the elevator doors.

The station consists of two side platforms next to the tracks far below the surface. Forest Hill Station is located deeper underground than any other Muni Metro station; so much so that, unlike other stations, most people use an elevator to reach the platform at Forest Hill. Unlike all other underground Muni Metro stations, which feature an underground concourse mezzanine on the first level down, and the platform on the second level down, Forest Hill's concourse level is in a station building on the surface.

Forest Hill and Eureka Valley stations were originally constructed with low platforms, as streetcars of that era had steps to load passengers from street level. However, the six new Market Street Subway stations, as well as West Portal station, were built with high-level platforms for speedier level boarding onto the new Boeing LRVs. With Eureka Valley permanently closed, Forest Hill was left as the only low-platform station on the Muni Metro subway. Muni soon modified the station with high-level platforms, elevators for handicapped access, and ventilation improvements. The $6 million project, which upgraded Forest Hill to equal the new stations while keeping its historic architecture, was completed in 1985.[4]

The station was temporarily closed from June 25 to August 24, 2018, during the Twin Peaks Tunnel shutdown.[5]

See also

References
  1. Perles, Anthony (1981). The People's Railway: The History of the Municipal Railway of San Francisco. Interurban Press. ISBN 0916374424.
  2. "City of San Francisco Designated Landmarks". City of San Francisco. Archived from the original on 2014-03-25. Retrieved 2012-10-21.
  3. Susan Dinkelspiel Cerny. An Architectural Guidebook to San Francisco and the Bay Area. Santa Barbara, Gibbs-Smith, 2007 p96-7
  4. "Chapter 1". Muni Metro Turnaround Project: Final Enivironmental Impact Statement. United States Department of Transportation Urban Mass Transportation Administration. August 1989. pp. 1–2 – via Internet Archive.
  5. "Twin Peaks Tunnel Improvements". San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency. June 25, 2018. Archived from the original on June 26, 2018.

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