Cable Cars
The California Street line runs East-West from the Financial
District, through Chinatown, over Nob Hill and stops at Van Ness Avenue. Since
all the cars on this line have the same routes, the signs are painted directly
on the car.
cable car route system
The driving force behind the San Francisco cable car system came from a man who witnessed a horrible accident on a typically damp summer day in 1869. Andrew Smith Hallidie saw the toll slippery grades could extract when a horse- drawn streetcar slid backwards under its heavy load. The steep slope with wet cobblestones and a heavily weighted vehicle combined to drag five horses to their deaths. Although such a sight would stun anyone, Hallidie and his partners had the know-how to do something about the problem.
rounding the bend
Hallidie had been born in England and
moved to the U.S. in 1852. His father filed the first patent in Great Britain
for the manufacture of wire- rope. As a young man, Hallidie found uses for this
technology in California's Gold Country. He used the wire-rope when designing
and building a suspension bridge across Sacramento's American River. He also
found another use for the wire-rope when pulling heavy ore cars out of the
underground mines on tracks. The technology was in place for pulling cable cars.
The next step bringing Hallidie closer to his fate was moving his wire- rope
manufacturing to San Francisco. All that was now needed was seeing the accident
for the idea to become full blown-a cable car railway system to deal with San
Francisco's fearsome hills.
end of this line
The Powell-Hyde line begins at the Powell Market turntable and runs over Nob and Russian hills before ending at Aquatic Park near Ghiradelli Square.
the turn around
starting in a cable car up the hill
passing some of those small yellow vehicles rented by visitors
past the famous Swensen's Ice Cream parlor
cable pulling the car up the steep street
a view of Grace Episcopal Cathedral
on Nob Hill
down the steep incline
Transamerica building in the background
Eastern skyline of San Francisco
the trolley cars of San Francisco
on Market Street
waiting at the intersection
