About 8:30 a.m., last Monday a driver jumped the curb with his pickup truck at Santa Clara Avenue and High Street.

He slammed into and damaged the cast-iron fence that defines the boundary to Lincoln Park.

This collision marks the second time in seven months that an automobile has collided with the structure. Last July a drunk driver was attempting to turn from Santa Clara Avenue onto High Street. He took the turn too widely and crashed into the fence. The cause of the more recent mishap remains under investigation.

The fence has survived for more than 140 years. Alameda Museum Curator George Gunn informs us that in 1879 Robert R. Thompson — for whom Thompson Avenue is named — commissioned Oakland blacksmiths and bell hangers Leo Frauendorfer and William Morck to design, build and erect the fence. Thompson built the home, pictured above.

The palatial mansion burned in a spectacular fire that started just after 2 p.m. on Aug. 18, 1884, Alameda historian Woody Minor relates that the property lay vacant until the city stepped in, purchased the land and created Lincoln Park in 1909.