San Bruno B.A.R.T.

  SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO--Hundreds of residents gathered for the first public viewing of BART's sparkling new South City station Saturday, at an event that was both an art opening and a celebration of the Peninsula's connection with the rest of the Bay Area served by BART.

  After the speeches were given and the ribbon-cutting completed, residents descended below ground to the station's platform, where 16 unique photographic murals depict quintessential South San Francisco scenes from the past and present.

  The historical images are compelling, but the artwork doesn't end there. The murals, which are overlaid by multifaceted glass tiles, morph as the viewer -- or commuter, as will soon be the case -- walks past them.

  For instance, as one strolls by an image of Grand Avenue, the city's commercial center, the viewer sees the streetscape as it appeared in four distinct periods: 1904, 1926, 1957 and 2002.

  Other murals, whose images were drawn principally from the photographic archives of the South San Francisco Public Library, show a steel factory, a streetcar line, the launching of a ship, family stores, a meat-packing plant, firefighters, a nursery greenhouse, Sign Hill, the biotech industry, and more.

  "We pored over hundreds and hundreds of photographs," said Rufus Butler Seder, a Boston artist who created the murals with Jeff Northam, of Pescadero.

  The work was a hit with viewers Saturday.

  "This is the best art in BART," said Aleta Anders, a BART agent who will train workers at the Peninsula's four new stations, which include Millbrae, San Bruno and San Francisco International Airport.

  The new stations will open simultaneously, but BART officials won't say when the trains might start running to them. In fact, they don't even have a target date they're willing to share with the public.

  "We're still testing," said BART general manager Tom Margo. "We have to be absolutely sure things are working 100 percent."

  The South City station is sleek and airy, and one resident found it especially pleasing. Mildred Ferrari was born on Dec. 12, 1904 in a farmhouse that stood precisely on the spot the new BART station occupies.

  "I think they've done a pretty good job, compared with my little shack," said Ferrari, who recalls that her neighbors, all Italians who hailed from Genoa, shared a communal outhouse and kept cows in the pasture.

  "I'm very proud," said Ferrari, who now lives at the corner of Palm and Magnolia streets, "It's beautiful. The whole town should be proud of it."

You can reach staff writer Bret Putnam at 348-4330 or by e-mail at bputnam@angnewspapers.com .