Alpine Inn, Portola Valley, CA |
"Beginning of the Internet Age" marker, Alpine Inn, CA |
Alpine Inn, Portola Valley, CA |
And then there is the start of the internet. The event most commonly considered as the first internet message is when UCLA professor Leonard Kleinrock and student Charley Kline sent a two-letter message from UCLA to the Stanford Research Institute (the two letters being "l" and "o," since the system crashed while trying to send "login." But a key to the "internet" is the ability to link dissimilar networks. Thus when SRI researchers parked the SRI Packet Radio Van next to a picnic table behind the Alpine Inn on August 27, 1976 and transferred a message from the table via the van's equipment to SRI and then on to Boston via ARPANET, it is natural that Computer Science Division Vice-President Don Nielson called it “the first internet transmission" and that many people mark it as "the beginning of the internet age."
Today the bar hosts a broad variety of patrons from Hells Angels to Stanford physics professors. The Mercury News notes "It's one of the few places where landscapers and technology CEOs, Little Leaguers and retirees, Stanford students and bikers -- of both kinds -- brush up against one another." I chatted with customer John, who fondly remembered when there lines out the door in the 70s and 80s, and girls from Stanford in bikinis. The food is old school bar grub -- cheeseburgers and basic sandwiches -- and there are 17 beers on tap. Virtually every wood surface has many decades of names carved into it, and outside is a large, shady beer garden. "Are you going to buy the place?" John asked me out of the blue. Well, I'm not in a position in life where I'm ready to buy a bar. But if I was, I can't think of any that would be more fun to own.
Est. 1959 (1852 under different name) - Building constructed: 1852
Previous bars in this location: Casa de Tableta (1852-1868), Fernando's, Philpott's (1870-1875), Stanton's Saloon (1875-?), Chapete's Place, The Wunder (1904-?), Rossotti's (1940-1959)
Web site: alpineinnbeergarden.com - facebook
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