Six Minute Ferry operated an automobile ferry service across Carquinez Strait

Carquinez Strait

The Carquinez Strait is a narrow tidal strait in northern California. It is part of the tidal estuary of the Sacramento and the San Joaquin rivers as they drain into the San Francisco Bay...

 on the main highway between Sacramento

Sacramento

Sacramento is the capital of the state of California, in the United States of America.Sacramento may also refer to:- United States :*Sacramento County, California*Sacramento, Kentucky*Sacramento – San Joaquin River Delta...

 and Oakland, California

Oakland, California

Oakland is a major West Coast port city on San Francisco Bay in the U.S. state of California. It is the eighth-largest city in the state with a 2010 population of 390,724...

. Each crossing near the present Interstate 80

Interstate 80

Interstate 80 is the second-longest Interstate Highway in the United States, following Interstate 90. It is a transcontinental artery running from downtown San Francisco, California to Teaneck, New Jersey in the New York City Metropolitan Area...

 bridge took approximately 6 minutes. As automobile travel became increasingly popular, the company ordered some new steel ferries in 1921. The ferry company went out of business while the ferries were under construction after a March 1922 landslide destroyed the Six Minute Ferry north shore terminal on Morrow Cove in March 1922. Southern Pacific Transportation Company purchased the ferries ordered by Six Minute Ferry and placed them in service between San Francisco and Oakland. The three ferries remained in service on various San Francisco Bay

San Francisco Bay

San Francisco Bay is a shallow, productive estuary through which water draining from approximately forty percent of California, flowing in the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers from the Sierra Nevada mountains, enters the Pacific Ocean...

 routes until completion of the San Francisco – Oakland Bay Bridge in 1936 and the Golden Gate Bridge

Golden Gate Bridge

The Golden Gate Bridge is a suspension bridge spanning the Golden Gate, the opening of the San Francisco Bay into the Pacific Ocean. As part of both U.S. Route 101 and California State Route 1, the structure links the city of San Francisco, on the northern tip of the San Francisco Peninsula, to...

 in 1937.

San Mateo

San Mateo (documentation number 222386) was launched on 9 May 1922 and delivered to Southern Pacific on 21 July. After 18 years on San Francisco Bay, Puget Sound Navigation Company purchased San Mateo in 1940. She became part of the Washington State Ferry System in 1951 and was the last steam ferry on Puget sound when retired in 1969.

Shasta

Shasta (documentation number 222598) was launched on 5 October 1922 and delivered to Southern Pacific on 18 November. After 18 years on San Francisco Bay, Puget Sound Navigation Company purchased Shasta in 1940. She became part of the Washington State Ferry System in 1951 and, following retirement in 1959, was towed to Portland, Oregon

Portland, Oregon

Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...

 for use as a restaurant.

Yosemite

Yosemite (documentation number 222722) was launched on 19 October 1922 and delivered to Southern Pacific on 25 January 1923. After 16 years on San Francisco Bay, the Argentina-Uruguayan Navigation Touring Company purchased Yosemite for $70,000 in 1939, and paid Bethlehem Shipbuilding $35,000 to modify the ferry to reach the Rio de la Plata

Río de la Plata

The Río de la Plata —sometimes rendered River Plate in British English and the Commonwealth, and occasionally rendered [La] Plata River in other English-speaking countries—is the river and estuary formed by the confluence of the Uruguay River and the Paraná River on the border between Argentina and...

 under its own power. The ferry was renamed Argentina and equipped with structural reinforcement, new keels, additional fuel and water tanks, a radio, and quarters for a 21-man crew. Captain Eduardo M. Saez of the Uruguayan Navy sailed from San Francisco on 16 April 1940 on a 9,000 mile (15,000 km) voyage to Montevideo

Montevideo

Montevideo is the largest city, the capital, and the chief port of Uruguay. The settlement was established in 1726 by Bruno Mauricio de Zabala, as a strategic move amidst a Spanish-Portuguese dispute over the platine region, and as a counter to the Portuguese colony at Colonia del Sacramento...

 via the Panama Canal

Panama Canal

The Panama Canal is a ship canal in Panama that joins the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean and is a key conduit for international maritime trade. Built from 1904 to 1914, the canal has seen annual traffic rise from about 1,000 ships early on to 14,702 vessels measuring a total of 309.6...

. The trip taking 50 days was thought to be the longest for any ferry operating under its own power. After serving a few years on a 30-mile (50 km) route across the Rio de la Plata, Argentina was converted to a barge which sank in 1948.