In August 1873, San Francisco tested a new cable railway system designed to operate on streets where horses struggled with steep grades. Andrew Smith Hallidie tested the first cable car on Clay Street on 2 August, using an endless wire rope placed in a tube below the surface of the street. The Clay Street Hill Railroad began public service on 1 September 1873. Its route climbed a hill rising 307 feet above Kearny Street, with the steepest grade recorded as 1 in 6 15/100. The cable system later spread across San Francisco, while cable cars continued serving steep hills as electric streetcars and buses expanded.
How the San Francisco cable car climbed steep hills without horses
According to the Cable Car Heritage Museum, a contemporary description by A. S. Hallidie, reproduced by the system, was designed for streets “so steep as to make the use of horses difficult or impossible”. It used an “endless wire rope placed in a tube below the surface of the ground, between the tracks of a railroad”. A stationary engine kept the rope moving, while a gripping mechanism connected the moving rope to the cars above the street.The rope was contained in iron tubes and moved over sheaves along the route. A slot in the upper side of the tube allowed the gripping attachment from the car to reach the moving rope below the street. The grip could be engaged or released by the person operating the car, allowing the vehicle to move with the cable or stop when the rope was released. The source also states that the car could be started more smoothly than by horses and stopped on the road.
How the 1873 Clay Street cable car covered a 5,197-foot steep incline
The Cable Car Museum’s reproduced description records that the Clay Street route began at the intersection of Kearny and Clay streets. The summit was 307 feet above Kearny Street, while the incline on Clay Street had double track and measured 5,197 feet in length. The source records a series of ascending and descending grades along the route, with the steepest grade listed as 1 in 6 15/100.The cable system itself used an endless steel wire rope three inches in circumference and 11,000 feet long. It was placed in iron tubes supported by sheaves, while an engine at the engine house drove the grip pulleys that moved the rope. The source states that the rope operated for 17½ hours a day at a speed of six miles per hour, with cars starting every five minutes except in the afternoon, when they started every three minutes.
San Francisco’s cable car system expanded to 53 miles by 1883
The Clay Street Hill Railroad was the only cable car company in San Francisco for four years. The Sutter Street Railroad developed its own version of Hallidie’s patented system and began cable service in 1877. Other companies followed, in including the California Street Cable Railroad in 1878, the Geary Street, Park & Ocean Railroad in 1880, the Presidio & Ferries Railroad in 1882, the Market Street Cable Railway in 1883, the Ferries & Cliff House Railway in 1888 and the Omnibus Railroad & Cable Company in 1889. The museum states that San Francisco companies eventually laid 53 miles of track extending from the Ferry Building to the Presidio, Golden Gate Park, the Castro and the Mission.Electric streetcars later became the preferred form of city transit because they required only half the investment to build and maintain, could reach more areas and were quicker. However, cable cars remained capable of travelling over San Francisco’s steep hills, and some lines were rebuilt. By 1947, the lower operating costs of buses led Mayor Lapham to call for the removal of the cable car lines. A public campaign led by Friedel Klussmann and the Citizens’ Committee to Save the Cable Cars resulted in Measure 10, which passed and ordered the city to maintain the Powell Street cable car system.
PC: Cable Car Heritage Museum
