Ferries played an active role in Benicia’s history. The first ferry was started by one of the founding fathers, Robert Semple. From the bottom of First Street, it carried livestock across the water to where Martinez now stands. Thanks to the gold rush, Benicia’s industry expanded with ocean going vessels transporting goods all around the world. The Central Pacific Railroad gave Benicia’s industries a further boost. In 1879, it commissioned the Solano, at the time, the largest ferry boat in the world. At 3,549 tons, it could carry two trains and 36 cars on its nine-minute ride across the strait to Port Costa. On a busy day, it conveyed 30 trains. A second, larger ferry, the Contra Costa, was added in 1914.

There was initially a small train depot on the west side of First Street. This original depot was moved to another town once the present landmark depot was relocated from the town of Banta in 1902. Benicia’s waterfront activity was impressive with the huge train ferries, river steamboats from Sacramento, tall sailing ships heading for England and pacific countries, schooners with tanning bark from the redwoods, flat-bottomed scow schooners from San Francisco and other vessels of commerce. In 1930, on the completion of the Benicia-Martinez Train Bridge, the railroad ferryboat service was discontinued. This mural depicts the Solano and two other commercial vessels on the choppy waters of the Carquinez Strait.