On the 1928 route in Contra Costa County to the Carquinez Bridge. (It’s bridges actually. There are two of them.)
It’s easy to describe the route: San Pablo Avenue all the way to Crockett and the crossing at the Carquinez Strait.
First, a classic theater in El Cerrito and then Richmond. The Cerrito (1937) in El Cerrito closed in the 50s and was used for furniture storage for a time. Now restored it reopened in 2006 and is run by a non-proft. Read about it here.
Richmond remains challenged (a word I seem to use a lot in these posts) – especially the old downtown. It grew dramatically during World War II with the shipbuilding and other war-related industry there. After the war there were some industrial jobs – there was even a Ford plant (which was the largest assembly plan ever built on the West Coast – closed 1955). An Albert Kahn, it is now part of the Rosie the Riveter/World War II Home Front National Historic Park. (I did a shoot there in November 2016 and will create a gallery in due course.) So many jobs in Richmond have evaporated. A familiar story. Pixar got its start in Richmond, but that type of business doesn’t generate the same kind of job nor does it create the same volume of jobs as a Ford plant or the Kaiser shipyards. (It left Richmond, too.)
Remember the movie “Coach Carter”? It takes place in Richmond. Much of the movie “Tucker: The Man and His Dream” was filmed at the Ford building.
