You car nuts might enjoy this link that my sister-in-law sent me. Traffic in
1906 -- San Francisco's Market Street. Link is at the bottom. You probably
have to cut-n-paste.
Despite the description below, this was shot from a cable car, not a
streetcar. The difference, cable cars are pulled from a below-street-level
cable -- see the slot between the tracks. Also the oncoming cars are cable
cars -- open front, enclosed back, just like the Powell Street cars of today.
Streetcars are longer, completely enclosed, powered by an overhead electrical
wire -- a couple of them cross in front of the cable car. That's the spire of
the Ferry Building (it's still there today) straight ahead, so the cable car
is traveling easterly.
(I lived in San Francisco from first grade through high school. No, I didn't
live there in 1906!!)
--Rocky Entriken
This is great, well worth watching. San Francisco Market St 1906.
This is fascinating to watch.
7-minute San Francisco street car ride 1906 - No lights, no traffic
direction, all at the pace of a horse or bicycle.
Thought the young people might not believe what life was like 100
years ago! Even some cars with right hand drive!
This fascinating bit of film was shot from the San Francisco Market
Street car estimated taken just a few days before the 1906 earthquake.
Amazing to see the casual way the early cars just wove in an out of
traffic and the pedestrians seemingly taking their lives in their hands as
they walked in front of anything on wheels.
Notice the heavy goods wagons running on tracks on the right as they
get close to the Ferry Building . The wagons appear to have extra large steel
wheels with a standard track width. And what about the fat cop with his
truncheon ready to deal with any civil disturbances. Wonder what he did during
the earthquake.
Some comment from a local historian: - This gets identified as 1905
to 1909, but recent research by some transit experts concludes that it was
done possibly on Monday, April 16, 1906 or Tuesday, April 17! Yep a day or two
before the earthquake that would greatly alter this landscape.
The other interesting thing is to watch the traffic and the chances
people took when crossing the street. Street accidents were endemic throughout
the US as the country changed with the advent of the horseless carriage. The
cable cars that are visible were running at a predictable 9.2 MPH. Horses
moved slowly on city streets too. But the automobile could reach speeds of 20
MPH!
Early autos had the steering wheel on the right then we standardized
it to the left. The rules of the road were evolving. Major train crossing had
crossing lights, but rural crossing were only marked with a sign and you were
responsible for your own safety in crossing the tracks and looking for the
train coming. Even signal lights in cities didn't evolve until the 1920s. The
cop directing traffic was about the only traffic control in use until then. As
life sped up, we devised ways to protect the public, but it evolved slowly and
unfortunately a lot of people died on city streets.
http://www.flixxy.com/san-francisco-1905-historical-footage.htm
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