 |
 |
 |
 |
THE SUTTER STREET RAILROAD – 1877
Henry Casebolt, another pioneer of urban transportation,
operated horsecar lines in the City throughout the
1860s. In1876 Casebolt turned to cable cars to replace
unprofitable horsecar lines.
Much of the Sutter Street Railroad was similar to
the Clay Street system, with little innovation in
the way of materials used or design. The one significant
difference however, and Casebolt’s main contribution
to cable railways, was a grip that grabbed the cable
from the side, instead of below, while gripmen employed
a lever to set the car in motion, rather than the
hollow screw device patented by Hallidie for his Clay
Street Railroad.
The Sutter Street Railroad, unlike the Clay Street
line, ran over fairly level ground, and its steepest
point had only a 4% grade. Converting the old horsecar
line to cable was completed in 1876 and the line officially
opened on January 27, 1877. Its cable cars ran on
Sutter from Market Street west to Larkin Street. The
cable line proved a tremendous success over its previous
horsecar system, increasing its ridership by 962,000
in the first year of operation. In late 1878, the
company opened a new crosstown line, which ran from
the powerhouse, situated at Larkin and Bush Streets,
south on Larkin to Hayes Street. The firm also extended
the main line on Sutter Street further westward to
Central [Presidio] Avenue in the Western Addition,
which at that time was sparsely populated.
Casebolt sold out his company to a local real estate
broker, Robert F. Morrow, in 1883. Morrow promptly
began another extension of the line, on Larkin south
across Market and down 9th Street to Mission. Morrow
also abandoned the 1879 powerhouse at Sutter and Presidio
Streets, in favor of consolidating all lines into
a single powerhouse at Sutter and Polk.
The Sutter Street Railroad became the Sutter Street
Railway in 1887, and the same year the company further
extended the Larkin Street line south to Brannan.
In 1888, the crosstown line pushed further from Polk
Street to Pacific Avenue and west on Pacific to Fillmore
Street. An overhaul of its whole system in 1890-91
saw an extension of the Pacific Avenue line west from
Fillmore to Divisadero, giving the company a total
of six miles of track, along with a mile of horsecar
track that connected the Sutter Street line at Market
with the Ferry Building.
The Sutter Street Railway operated until 1902, when
it merged with United Railways of San Francisco, along
with two electric streetcar companies and the Market
Street Railway. Industrialists from the East Coast
controlled this new conglomeration of transport in
San Francisco until the Great Earthquake and Fire
of 1906, when most of its cars, cables, and powerhouse
were destroyed.
|
|
 |
|
 |
 |