The old Tidewater Southern Railway corridor slicing through the heart of Manteca for years served as a magnet for the homeless, criminal activity, and those illegally dumping garbage.

It was an open sore of barren patches of dirt intermixed with weeds where fences occasionally would serve as tumbleweed catchers. That was in 1994.

Fast forward 30 years.

Today the abandoned Tidewater right of way bought by the city in 1989 consists of:

* A 3.4-mile bike path stretching from Industrial Park Drive to Lathrop Road complete with benches and water fountains that serves as the backbone for an envisioned bike path of much of the city.

* Roughly 34 acres of greenbelt, with much of it lined with trees and shrubs.

*A skate park.

*An entrance plaza with benches and an unfinished kiosk on Yosemite Avenue.

*A portion of the expanded Library Park.

*The Manteca Transit Station that doubles as a community hall.

*The Moffat Community Center/Veterans of Foreign Wars Post Home.

And sometime before the end of 2026, the transit center parking lot will be expanded and a passenger loading platform constructed to launch ACE service from downtown to San Jose and Sacramento..

It is also on former Tidewater land the city acquired that Mayor Gary Singh is working to parlay an $800,000 federal grant into a new home for the American Legion and possibly a community gym with programming for teens.

The transformation of the abandoned railroad road right-of-way into a greenbelt corridor dotted with community amenities almost didn’t happen.

The idea to take the 3.4-mile swath that cut through the middle of Manteca and turn it into a bike path was offensive to more than a few folk.

Some argued that it would simply breed more trouble and that the “frequent” street crossings — there are seven in 3.4 miles — would lead to tragic consequences of mixing traffic with bicyclists at various cross streets.

Then there were those that argued that it should be some type of “expressway” to make it easier for people to travel across Manteca in their cars to avoid North Main Street congestion.

Elected leaders stayed the course.

Many panned the original asphalt noting how “ugly” and uninviting it was at the time.

 It didn’t help things that a dispute with the contractor delayed Manteca accepting the bike path after it was done for more than a year.

As a result tumbleweeds choked the 34 acres.

The city did not abate the weeds themselves because technically that would have meant they were accepting the project as completed. That would have left city taxpayers saddled with costly corrections to the project.

The tumbleweeds at one point virtually blocked segments of the bike path.

It got so bizarre that the fire chief at the time was threatening to issue a citation to the mayor for failing to abate weeds.

That was followed by another misstep in the form of an almost new but dysfunctional water well pump that failed.

 It required parts that were not readily available just as the weather started heating up. The result was a large swath of landscaping died.

Today, those miscues are behind the city.

 In addition, the strength of the Crossroads Grace Community Church’s effort to serve the community allowed the city to plant hundreds of trees along the Moffat leg of the Tidewater that had been barren for years except for the occasional tumbleweed.

There are those who have slammed the city for not making improvements faster but Manteca has made almost all of the improvements without impacting the general fund.

Revenue from Measure K — the countywide one cent sales tax for roads and transportation projects — covered the bulk of the tab once the city had acquired the 34 acres.

The Tidewater is more than just a bike path used by walkers, joggers, and bicyclists. It is a linear park

The Tidewater is the spine of what ultimately will be a 20.6-mile loop of Manteca.

Among sections of that loop is an extension north of Lathrop Road into Union Ranch and Del Webb to Airport Way, Wellington Avenue that reaches Woodward Park and Atherton Drive sections, as well as Spreckels Avenue to reach Target and other retail.

The city in the coming months will spend $741,000 to resurface segments of the Tidewater Bikeway that is now more than 25 years old.

Tidewater Southern

Railroad history

Bicyclists and walkers today cover the ground that once hosted a vital Manteca economic link to United States markets.

The 3.4-mile Tidewater Bikeway — named in honor of the former Tidewater Southern Railroad that operated trains into Manteca as late as 1983 — was dedicated in 2002.  

The first railroad was the Southern Pacific that provided the vital transit link to ship milk to San Francisco plus produce and sugar to the East Coast markets.

The Tidewater Southern was launched in 1912 with the idea of providing a second route to Southern California to compete with the Southern Pacific. That dream, however, was never realized as only 33 of the envisioned 150 miles were built.

The main line opened to freight service in October of 1912 from Taylor Street in Stockton to Modesto.

Overhead catenary electrification of the main line began in May of 1913 and was completed in November of that year to allow the running of three green interurban cars.

The Tidewater during its operations ran steam, electric and diesel engines.

The Modesto-to-Turlock segment was completed in July 1916, while the eight miles from Hatch, located west of Turlock to Hilmar was finished in July 1917.

The 6.6-mile branch line to Manteca went into operation by May of 1918.

The new Manteca line brought freight and passenger service the same year the city was incorporated.

The Modesto to Stockton trip was scheduled at an hour and 45 minutes. This topped the competing Southern Pacific, whose passenger trains were on four-hour availability and required 15 to 30 minutes of travel between the two cities.

The interurban service ended in 1932 but the railroad lived on.

Western Pacific obtained it as a feeder line, while Union Pacific took control in 1983 when it acquired the Western Pacific.

The Southern Pacific and Tidewater tracks ran parallel in Manteca from a point midway between Alameda Street and Center Street to Spreckels Road.

There were eight fruit packing sheds at one time along the stretch of competing railroads.

The Tidewater main line is still part of the Union Pacific system and is used extensively in the Modesto area.

The San Joaquin County portion of the line that runs from Escalon along Highway 120 and then up French Camp Road to the Ace Tomato packing shed before heading north into Stockton is still used occasionally move agricultural products.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, e-mail dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com