0706, 0978 UNITED STATES (California) - San Francisco cable car system

Posted on 28.06.2013, completed on 21.01.2014
It is said that there is no better way to experience the hills and views of San Francisco than aboard one of the city’s famous open-air cable cars, the world's last manually operated such system, and the only mobile National Monument in the United States. Of the 23 lines established between 1873 and 1890, have remained three and all three cross Nob Hill, which lies just north of downtown: the Powell-Hyde Line (the most scenic - it is in the postcard), the Powell-Mason Line, and the California Street Line.

As I said before, cable cars were introduced in San Francisco in 1873 by Andrew Smith Hallidie and the Clay Street Railroad company, and until the time of the great fire of 1906, they criss-crossed the entire city. After that, many of the cable car lines where re-opened using cheaper and more energy efficient electric streetcars, but however the cable cars were still much better at navigating the steep slopes of the downtown hills (in 1912 there were only eight lines). In the 1940's, the cable cars were almost destroyed again, making way for automobiles, but the Citizens Committee to Save the Cable Cars managed to defeat the corrupt politicians, who backed the auto industry. Since 1984, Muni (San Francisco Municipal Railway) has continued to upgrade the system.

This system is served today by two type of cable cars: single-ended (as those in the postcards) and double-ended. The first ones, which serve the Powell-Hyde and Powell-Mason lines, have an open-sided front section, with outward-facing seats flanking the gripman. The rear half of the car is enclosed, with seats facing inward and entrances at each end and the car has a small platform at the rear. These cars must be rotated to reverse direction at each end of the line, an operation performed on turntables. Most of these cars (28 in total) were built or rebuilt in the 1990s at Muni's Woods Carpentry Division.

According to Market Street Railway, a nonprofit preservation partner of the Muni, the cable car no. 9 (in the first postcard) "was built as open car No. 542 by Mahoney Bros., 1887. Converted to standard car 1923 and renumbered 509, rebuilt 1952, retired after accident in 1995. Currently in storage; could possibly be restored as open car." In the background of this postcard can be seen the Alcatraz Island, which housed probably the world's most famous prison. In the second postcard is the cable no. 11, operational, rebuilt in 1979-1980.

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