San Francisco cable car system


The San Francisco cable car system is the world's last manually operated cable car system and an icon of the city of San Francisco. The system forms part of the intermodal urban transport network operated by the San Francisco Municipal Railway, which also includes the separate E Embarcadero and F Market & Wharves heritage streetcar lines, and the Muni Metro modern light rail system. Of the 23 cable car lines established between 1873 and 1890, only three remain : two routes from downtown near Union Square to Fisherman's Wharf, and a third route along California Street.
While the cable cars are used to a certain extent by commuters, the vast majority of the millions of passengers who use the system every year are tourists, and as a result, the wait to get on can often reach two hours or more. They are among the most significant tourist attractions in the city, along with Alcatraz Island, the Golden Gate Bridge, and Fisherman's Wharf.
San Francisco's cable cars are listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is one of only two street railways to be named a National Historic Landmark, along with the St. Charles Streetcar Line in New Orleans.

History

Beginnings

In 1869, Andrew Smith Hallidie had the idea for a cable car system in San Francisco, reportedly after witnessing an accident in which a streetcar drawn by horses over wet cobblestones slid backwards, killing the horses. Hallidie solicited financial support in 1871 and 1872, and his primary backers were Henry L. Davis, Joseph Britton, and James Moffit.
The first successful cable-operated street running train was the Clay Street Hill Railroad, which had its inaugural run on August 2, 1873. The promoter of the line was Hallidie, and the engineer was William Eppelsheimer; both Hallidie and Eppelsheimer obtained several patents for their work on the Clay Street line. The line involved the use of grip cars, which carried the grip that engaged with the cable, towing trailer cars; the design was the first to use grips. The term "grip" became synonymous with the operator.
The line started regular service on September 1, 1873, and its success led it to become the template for other cable car transit systems. It was a financial success, and Hallidie's patents were enforced on other cable car promoters, making him wealthy.
Accounts differ as to the precise degree of Hallidie's involvement in the inception of the line, and to the exact date on which it first ran. According to the franchise granted by the city, operations were required to begin by August 1, 1873. A retrospective published in 1895 stated that a single car was run over the line at 4 am on the morning of August 1 with few witnesses to ensure the franchise would not expire. Eppelsheimer would later bring a suit against Hallidie and the Clay Street Hill RR in June 1877 over patents, but dismissed it voluntarily the following March.

Expansion

The next cable car line to open was the Sutter Street Railway, which converted from horse operation in January 1877. This line introduced the side grip, and lever operation, both designed by Henry Casebolt and his assistant Asa Hovey, and patented by Casebolt. This idea came about because Casebolt did not want to pay Hallidie royalties of $50,000 a year for the use of his patent. The side grip allowed cable cars to cross at intersections.
In 1878, Leland Stanford opened his California Street Cable Railroad. This company's first line was on California Street, and is the oldest cable car line still in operation. In 1880, the Geary Street, Park & Ocean Railway began operation. The Presidio and Ferries Railway followed two years later, and was the first cable company to include curves on its routes. The curves were "let-go" curves, in which the car drops the cable and coasts around the curve on its own momentum.
In 1883, the Market Street Cable Railway opened its first line. This company was controlled by the Southern Pacific Railroad and would grow to become San Francisco's largest cable car operator. At its peak, it operated five lines, all of which converged on Market Street to a common terminus at the Ferry Building. During rush hours, cars left that terminus every 15 seconds.
In 1888, the Ferries and Cliff House Railway opened its initial two-line system. The Powell–Mason line is still operated on the same route today; their other route was the Powell–Washington–Jackson line, stretches of which are used by today's Powell–Hyde line. The Ferries & Cliff House Railway was also responsible for the building of a car barn and powerhouse at Washington and Mason, and this site is still in use today. In the same year, it also purchased the original Clay Street Hill Railway, which it incorporated into a new Sacramento–Clay line in 1892.
In 1889, the Omnibus Railroad and Cable Company became the last new cable car operator in San Francisco. The following year the California Street Cable Railroad opened two new lines, these being the last entirely new cable car lines built in the city. One of them was the O'Farrell–Jones–Hyde line, the Hyde section of which still remains in operation as part of the current Powell–Hyde line.
In all, twenty-three lines were established between 1873 and 1890.
NameLinesGaugeGripStartEndNotes
Clay Street Hill Railroad1bottomOriginal route along Clay from Kearny to Leavenworth; extended west to Van Ness in 1877. Sold to Ferries & Cliff House Railway; route incorporated into Clay-Sacramento line.
Sutter Street Railway2sideInitial route along Sutter from Market to Larkin, later extended to Central ; second line added in 1878 along Larkin from Bush to Hayes. Crosstown line eventually extended south along 9th to Brannan and north to Pacific, then west to Fillmore. Consolidated into United Railroads of San Francisco.
California Street Cable Railroad3bottom, side Initial route along California from Kearny to Fillmore; eventually extended west to Presidio and east to Market. Second line added in 1891 with small feeder line from Market, Jones & McAllister. Purchased by San Francisco in 1951.
Geary Street, Park & Ocean Railway1bottom16.02.188005.05.1912Initial line ran along Geary from Market to Presidio, where a steam engine was added for service to western terminus at 5th and Fulton. Converted to standard gauge and side grip in 1892 and cable drawn line extended to 1st; franchise expired in 1912 and the line was taken over for Muni.
Presidio & Ferries Railway1bottomRan along Columbus from Montgomery to Union, then west along Steiner; continued to Presidio via steam drawn line. Converted to electric following April 1906 earthquake; sold to San Francisco in Dec 1913 and became part of Muni.
Market Street Cable Railway5sideMain line originated from Ferry Building and ran along Market. Branch lines opened along Valencia south to 29th ; and three branches west to Golden Gate Park along McAllister, Haight, and Hayes. Market line extended to Castro, then south to 26th in 1887. Reorganized in 1893 as Market Street Railway and most lines converted to electric.
Ferries & Cliff House Railway4bottomPowell line ran from Powell and Market past Union Square to Bay & Taylor; second line ran along Washington and Jackson to Central & Sacramento, then continued using steam power to Cliff House. Reorganized in 1893 as Market Street Railway.
Omnibus Railroad & Cable Company5bottomReorganized in 1893 as Market Street Railway.

Evolution of motive power

Originally, the cables were powered by stationary steam engines. For its initial three cables, the Ferries & Cliff House Railway constructed a three-story structure to house two coal-burning steam engines. The building was complete with a smokestack to vent away the heavy black smoke created by the Welsh anthracite coal that the company burned. Expansion of service required two additional coal-fired steam engines in 1890. Coal consumption in 1893 was about 10 tons per day. The system was converted from coal to oil burning in 1901, and the lessened amount of smoke allowed the smokestack to be shortened to. This shortened smokestack still stands at Washington-Mason car barn today.
Electric energy was introduced in 1912, when a General Electric motor came online. By 1926, all steam operation of the cable ended when a second electric drive was installed, a General Electric motor. With the reduction in the number of cable car lines, the single 750-horsepower electric motor was eventually able to take over the job of running all of the lines. The limitation with that configuration was that if one cable car on one line broke down, all lines had to be stopped. Consequently, during the 1984 reconstruction, each of the four cables was separately powered by its own electric motor.

Decline

The first electric streetcars in San Francisco began operation in 1892 under the auspices of the San Francisco and San Mateo Electric Railway.
By the beginning of 1906 many of San Francisco's remaining cable cars were under the control of the United Railroads of San Francisco, although Cal Cable and the Geary Street Company remained independent. URR was pressing to convert many of its cable lines to overhead electric traction, but this was met with resistance from opponents who objected to what they saw as ugly overhead lines on the major thoroughfares of the city center.
Those objections disappeared after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. The quake and resulting fire destroyed the power houses and car barns of both the Cal Cable and the URR's Powell Street lines, together with the 117 cable cars stored within them. The subsequent race to rebuild the city allowed the URR to replace most of its cable car lines with electric streetcar lines. By 1912, only eight cable car lines remained, all with steep grades impassable to electric streetcars. In the 1920s and 1930s, these remaining lines came under pressure from the much-improved motor buses of the era, which could now climb steeper hills than the electric streetcar. By 1944, five of those cable car lines had survived: the two Powell Street lines – by then under municipal ownership, as part of Muni – and the three lines owned by the still-independent Cal Cable.