San Francisco’s historic cable car transportation system was developed in 1873 by Andrew Smith Hallidie after a horse-drawn car accident. The system has evolved over the years and now has two lines, California Street and Powell Street, which run through popular areas of the city. The cable cars were saved from removal in the 1940s by the Citizens’ Committee to Save the Cable Cars, led by Friedel Klussmann.
A San Francisco cable car is one of the vehicles that make up the historic cable car transportation system in the city of San Francisco, California, United States. The system is the last regularly operated manual cable car system in the world. It was developed by Andrew Smith Hallidie to traverse the hills of the city after witnessing a horrific accident where horses trying to pull a car uphill were dragged backwards to their deaths. San Francisco’s first cable car system, powered by a steam engine, had its maiden run in 1873. The first of San Francisco’s cable cars was named the Clay Street Hill Railroad after the street on which it operated.
Over the next several years, other companies started their own cable car systems until there were eight cable companies in the city. Over the years, aerial tramways and cable systems have evolved in design. Eventually, 53 miles of track stretched across the city.
By the late 1880s, the electric tram system had been invented. The streetcars were faster, safer and cheaper to build and seemed to mark the beginning of the end for the San Francisco cable car. In the 1940s, when buses had become a popular form of transportation, then San Francisco Mayor Roger Lapham proclaimed that the city should remove the cable lines. In response to that statement, resident Friedel Klussmann started a movement, called the Citizens’ Committee to Save the Cable Cars, with the aim of saving the cable cars for their historic and touristic value. She became known as the “lady of the cable car,” and in 1997 — 50 years after the car-saving movement began — a breakthrough on the Powell Line was named in her honour.
Beginning in 2010, residents and visitors have been able to ride two historic San Francisco cable car lines. Those lines are the California Street line and the Powell Street line. Each line works a little differently.
The California Street cars, of which there are 12, were built in the 1890s. The cars have two open ends and a joystick at each end, so turntables do not need to turn at the ends of the lines. Instead, the car switches to an opposite track and the operator switches to the controls at the other end. The line runs east to west and passes through the Financial District, Chinatown and Nob Hill.
The Powell Street system, the older of the two lines, has an open end and uses turntables to spin its cars. This system has 28 cars. The Powell Street Line has two routes, both of which originate at the intersection of Powell Street and Market Street and take different routes through San Francisco’s popular Fisherman’s Wharf area.
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