West Portal Monthly, October 1993.)
In the Mission days of San Francisco, the main link between San Francisco and San Jose was the rough San Jose Road. The trip between towns was long and arduous, but in 1860 the first train service between the booming settlements was fairly regular. The line was built by the San Francisco and San Jose Railroad, which was bought by the Southern Pacific in 1868.
The line terminated at Market near Valencia. The route was down Valencia through the Bernal Cut to the Ocean View, down what is now Junipero Serra Boulevard (Highway 280) to San Jose.
At Ocean View was a fine station; streets were soon laid out like the spokes of a wheel around the station and a community quickly built up around what is now the intersection of Alemany, Sagamore, Plymouth and Sickles.