San Francisco Ballet School established its first ballet training program in 1958; beginning in 1959, the Foundation offered grants covering tuition and expenses for advanced ballet students selected to attend either New York City Ballet’s School of American Ballet or San Francisco Ballet School. In 1963, the Foundation then awarded a substantial ten-year grant to the SF Ballet School, establishing it, along with the School of American Ballet, as vocational schools of national stature. The grants awarded by the Foundation allowed the two schools to conduct nationwide auditions, with the SF Ballet School focusing on the Western states. When the grant ended, the School
Ferries of San Francisco Bay Jack London Square is today, fronting on what is today called the Oakland Estuary, an inlet of San Francisco Bay. The estuary, which in the 1800s included what is today's Lake Merritt, was the "creek". In 1851, Captain Thomas Gray, grandfather of the famous dancer Isadora Duncan, began the first regular ferry service to San Francisco from the East Bay. The first railroad ferries on San Francisco Bay were established by the San Francisco and Oakland Railroad and the San Francisco and Alameda Railroad (SF&A) which were taken over by the Central Pacific Railroad (CPRR) in 1870 to become an