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Embarcadero station

BART and Muni Metro station in San Francisco

Architectural plans, a scale model, maps and brass measuring instruments
Places and architectureInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 23, 2026
Entity authorityQ3866549 ↗
Source-derived summary

Embarcadero station is a combined BART and Muni Metro rapid transit subway station in the Market Street subway in downtown San Francisco. Located under Market Street between Drumm Street and Beale Street near The Embarcadero, it serves the Financial District neighborhood and surrounding areas. The three-level station has a large fare mezzanine level, with separate platform levels for Muni Metro and BART below. Embarcadero station opened in May 1976 – almost two years after service began through the Transbay Tube – as an infill station.

Embarcadero and nearby Montgomery Street stations are typically the two busiest in the BART system. The station is served by the BART Blue, Green, Red and Yellow lines, and the Muni Metro J Church, K Ingleside, L Taraval, M Ocean View, N Judah, and S Shuttle lines. A major Bay Area transit hub, Embarcadero is also served by numerous bus routes of several other agencies which stop above the station and on surrounding streets.

Station layout

Like the three other shared Muni/BART stations in the Market Street subway, Embarcadero has three underground levels. The uppermost level is a fare mezzanine, with one Muni paid area in the middle flanked by two BART paid areas. The second level has a single island platform (of which only the center portion is used) for Muni Metro, and the third level has an island platform for BART. The station is narrower than the other three – 50 feet (15 m) rather than 60 feet (18 m) – because of adjacent buildings and the high water table.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Embarcadero station” as bART and Muni Metro station in San Francisco. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Embarcadero, station and BART.

Editorial reviewA strong orientation record where physical form, institutional use and historical geography need to be read together. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1976—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Embarcadero, station and BART providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Embarcadero station”, the useful work is to connect “bART and Muni Metro station in San Francisco” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Place names and jurisdictional language are key evidence: both can reveal earlier catalogue descriptions and overlooked record series. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 23, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3866549. The first chronological checks are 1976.

Critical limits

A single description cannot reconcile every naming convention, rebuilding phase or administrative transfer associated with a place. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.

Best used for
  • Historic place names
  • Jurisdictional context
  • Routes into maps and plans
Verify next

Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Embarcadero station”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Embarcadero station primary sources, Embarcadero station archive and Embarcadero research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Embarcadero station”?
  2. What physical evidence or contemporary plan supports the description?
  3. Which earlier names or jurisdictions may reveal additional records?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Embarcadero station” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.