Read About San Francisco Cable Cars

The Wire Rope Street Railways of San Francisco, California

By the inventor of the cable car, Andrew S. Hallidie, this article appeared in the Scientific American Supplement, September 17, 1881. Here Hallidie describes in detail how his cable car system operates and the various San Francisco companies (to date) that have successfully, both from a technological and economic perspective, adapted the cable car for their street railway company.

A Photo Album of 1970s Cable Car Supporters

San Francisco Cable Car– the gripping tale of an aged compact

Road & Track Magazine, April 1962 By Tony Hogg

In 1962, Road & Track Magazine road tested a Powell Street cable car. The author concluded "the appalling monotony of this work is occasionally relieved by the presentation of a vehicle which, because of its superlative performance and unsurpassed beauty of line, stands head and shoulders above all other machines. One such vehicle, which was offered to us recently for testing, is the San Francisco cable car."

The Fate of the Castro Cable Is Argued

City of San Francisco Utility Manager Cahill's recommendation that the City not take over the operations of the Market Street Railway's Castro Cable as reported in the San Francisco News, May 5, 1939.

The inventor of the cable car, by Edgar Myron Kahn the author of "Cable Car Days in San Francisco." Also, Hallidie's obituary from the Street Railway Journal, May 12, 1900.

Clay Street Cable Car Ends Its Run

After the 1888 purchase of the Clay Street Hill Railroad by the Ferries & Cliff House Railway, the original Clay Street line soon was reduced to running only Powell to Van Ness Avenue. On September 9, 1891 the Clay Street Shuttle was discontinued to create the new Sacramento-Clay line.

Glen Hurlburt's "Cable Car Concerto"

Listen to Glen Hurlburt's "Cable Car Concerto," written to protest Mayor Roger Lapham's 1947 desire to substitute buses for the Powell Street cable cars. Hurlburt takes us on a roundtrip ride from Market Street to the Fisherman's Wharf and back on a Powell-Mason cable car.

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