Embarcadero (Oakland)

Jack London District
Neighborhood of Oakland
The Oakland Ferry Terminal at the north end of Jack London Square
Jack London District Location within Oakland
Coordinates: 37°47′41″N 122°16′38″W / 37.794742°N 122.27715°W / 37.794742; -122.27715
Country	United States
State	California
County	Alameda
City	Oakland

The Jack London District, also called the Loft District, is a neighborhood of Oakland, California that occupies the region south of the Nimitz Freeway (Interstate 880) along The Embarcadero, between Adeline and Lake Merritt Channel. It includes and surrounds the Jack London Square shopping and tourist area, as well as the Warehouse District north of the Oakland Amtrak Station. The area has a long history of industrial and warehouse land use. Since the late 1990s, the area has seen residential redevelopment.

The district developed early in Oakland's history as a warehouse and industrial district due to its proximity to major transportation: Broadway, Oakland's main street; the Transcontinental Railroad main line along Seventh Street (leading to the immense Oakland Long Wharf); two passenger depots of the Central Pacific Railroad (later, Southern Pacific), located at Seventh and Broadway and First and Broadway; the Key System streetcar line along Broadway; the Oakland Estuary (early referred to as the "Creek"; a bridge, later replaced by underwater tubes to adjacent Alameda; and lastly, a public highway utilizing city streets, connecting to points east and south, replaced in the 1950s by today's Nimitz Freeway, (Interstate 880).

Nearby rail and Oakland's geographic centrality led to early industrial and warehouse development, which quickly spread northwest and southeast, largely along the rail corridors. Rail lines once ran directly alongside warehouse buildings along second, third, and fourth streets, so that freight could be loaded directly from box cars to and from the warehouses. Track is still visible in some areas along the public right of way, many of which lack sidewalks and are currently used to park and store private cars.