Photos: San Francisco’s iconic cable cars turn 150
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August 03, 2023
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A man dressed in historical clothing tips his hat to ladies aboard a cable car in San Francisco on Aug. 2, 2023 during a celebration of the transportation method’s invention 150 years ago. (Olivia Wynkoop / Bay City News)
By Olivia Wynkoop | Bay City News
San Francisco’s iconic cable cars celebrated a century-and-a-half in style after city leaders, public transit fans and historical reenactors kicked off a birthday celebration downtown on Wednesday.
The cable car, known today as a classic symbol of San Francisco, first operated on city streets 150 years ago on Aug. 2, 1873.
Wednesday, a vibrant crowd vied for a good photograph at the Powell and Market streets turnaround as city officials and historically accurate costume-wearers posed in front of a cable car adorned with dahlias.
“This is a moment for us to take pride in our past — a past that was all about innovation for the future,” said Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco during the ceremony.
Historical reenactors hopped on board a cable car at San Francisco’s Powell and Market streets turnaround on Aug. 2, 2023 during a celebration of the transportation method’s invention 150 years ago. (Olivia Wynkoop / Bay City News)
San Francisco’s Mayor London Breed joined city officials and community members in celebrating the 150th cable car anniversary on Aug. 2, 2023. (Olivia Wynkoop / Bay City News)
A man dressed in historical clothing tips his hat to ladies aboard a cable car in San Francisco on Aug. 2, 2023 during a celebration of the transportation method’s invention 150 years ago. (Olivia Wynkoop / Bay City News)
Onlookers of a cable car celebration in San Francisco’s downtown on Aug. 2, 2023 take videos and photos of city leaders singing Tony Bennett’s “I Left My Heart in San Francisco” (Olivia Wynkoop / Bay City News)
Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, said in a ceremony on Aug. 2, 2023 that she considered the celebration of the cable car to be an opportunity to celebrate San Francisco’s innovative past. (Olivia Wynkoop / Bay City News)
Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, said in a ceremony on Aug. 2, 2023 that she considered the celebration of the cable car to be an opportunity to celebrate San Francisco’s innovative past. (Olivia Wynkoop / Bay City News)
San Francisco Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin during a press conference to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the city’s cable car on Aug. 2, 2023. (Olivia Wynkoop / Bay City News)
San Francisco Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin during a press conference to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the city’s cable car on Aug. 2, 2023. (Olivia Wynkoop / Bay City News)
California Assembly Member Phil Ting in attendance of the 150th anniversary of the cable car in San Francisco on Aug. 2, 2023.
California Assembly Member Phil Ting in attendance of the 150th anniversary of the cable car in San Francisco on Aug. 2, 2023.
The inside of a cable car adorned in flowers on Aug. 2, 2023 at San Francisco’s Powell and Market streets turnaround. (Olivia Wynkoop / Bay City News)
Two historical reenactors join a group of others in riding a cable car in San Francisco on Aug. 2, 2023. (Olivia Wynkoop / Bay City News)
Historical reenactors pose for photos on a cable car at San Francisco’s Powell and Market streets turnaround on Aug. 2, 2023 during a celebration of the transportation method’s invention 150 years ago. (Olivia Wynkoop / Bay City News)
Passengers aboard a cable car stop to take pictures of a statue of Tony Bennett in front of the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco, Calif., on Friday, July 21, 2023. Bennett passed away today at the age of 96. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group)
May 2, 1984: San Francisco Mayor Dianne Feinstein and singer Tony Bennett, who sang “I Left My Heart in San Francisco,” hangs on to the outside of a cable car in San Francisco before taking a test ride. (AP Photo/Jeff Reinking)
Left: Tony Bennett singing at a Royal Command Performance in England in 1965. Center: Bennett posing with showgirls at the London Palladium in 1970. Right: Bennett hanging onto a cable car with then-San Francisco Mayor Dianne Feinstein in 1984. (Photos via AP)
Byron Cobb, right, receives the winner's trophy from Edward D. Reiskin, SFMTA director of transportation, at the conclusion of the 52nd annual San Francisco Municipal Railway's Cable Car Bell-Ringing contest, Thursday, July 9, 2015, at Union Square in San Francisco, Calif. It was Cobb's seventh time winning the bell-ringing title. (D. Ross Cameron/Bay Area News Group archive)
A Cable Car rumbles past the former Sir Francis Drake Hotel, now called the Beacon Grand hotel, in San Francisco's Union Square on Tuesday, March 15, 2022. (Karl Mondon/Bay Area News Group)
Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group
SAN FRANCISCO, CA - AUG. 2: Passengers ride a San Francisco cable on the Powell-Hyde line in San Francisco, Calif., on Monday, Aug. 2, 2021. After a 16-month shutdown because of the pandemic the iconic cable cars are back in service. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group)
SAN FRANCISCO, CA - AUG. 2: Passengers ride a San Francisco cable on the Powell-Mason line in San Francisco, Calif., on Monday, Aug. 2, 2021. After a 16-month shutdown because of the pandemic the iconic cable cars are back in service. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group)
SAN FRANCISCO, CA - AUG. 2: A San Francisco cable car on the Powell-Hyde line is turned around near Ghirardelli Square in San Francisco, Calif., on Monday, Aug. 2, 2021. After a 16-month shutdown because of the pandemic the iconic cable cars are back in service. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group)
SAN FRANCISCO, CA - AUG. 2: San Francisco cable car gripman Francis Givens rings the bell while on the Powell-Hyde line in San Francisco, Calif., on Monday, Aug. 2, 2021. After a 16-month shutdown because of the pandemic the iconic cable cars are back in service. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group)
BERKELEY, CA. - July 12: A cable car on the Powell-Hyde line descends Powell Street in San Francisco, Monday, July 12, 2021, the first day of operator training and recertification for the historical landmarks that have been silenced since March 2020. (Karl Mondon/Bay Area News Group)
BERKELEY, CA. - July 12: A cable car on the Powell-Hyde line crests a hill in San Francisco, Monday, July 12, 2021, the first day of operator training and recertification for the historical landmarks that have been silenced since March 2020. (Karl Mondon/Bay Area News Group)
BERKELEY, CA. - July 12: A cable car on the Powell-Hyde line crests a hill in San Francisco, Monday, July 12, 2021, the first day of operator training and recertification for the historical landmarks that have been silenced since March 2020. (Karl Mondon/Bay Area News Group)
CLANG, CLANG, CLANG: The Cable Car Barn and Museum in San Francisco gives families a chance to watch the giant motors that power the city's legendary cable cars at work. The museum also offers a glimpse into the cars' storied past.
The Cable Car Museum in San Francisco offers plenty of kinetic entertainment.
AP Photo/Jeff Chiu
Cable Cars sit idle on California Street during a power outage in San Francisco, Friday, April 21, 2017. A power outage struck a wide area of San Francisco on Friday, blacking out about 90,000 utility customers, snarling traffic as intersection signals went dark and stopping the famed cable cars for a time. Pacific Gas & Electric crews were assessing the problem and there was no immediate estimate for restoration of electricity. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
SAN FRANCISCO, CA - APRIL 21: A Cable Car sits idle during a citywide power outage on April 21, 2017 in San Francisco, California. Nearly 100,000 Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) customers in San Francisco are without power due to a fire at a PG&E substation. Street lights and public transportation that is powered by electricity are also out of service. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
Pedestrians carry umbrellas as they cross in front of a cable car in San Francisco, Friday, Dec. 23, 2016. A fast-moving cold front is bringing more rain to California. Rain is falling in the north Friday morning and will spread southeast through the day and overnight. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
FILE - In this Oct. 27, 2009 file photo, a cable car passes a parking meter near San Francisco's financial district. San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera on Monday, June 23, 2014 issued a cease-and-desist demand to a mobile app called Monkey Parking, which allows people to auction off public parking spaces that they're using to other nearby drivers. (AP Photo/Ben Margot, File)
AP Photo/Eric Risberg
A cable car glides past San Francisco's landmark Fairmont Hotel, Wednesday, Sept. 27, 1995. The famous hotel atop Nob Hill will be a gathering place for the State of the World Conference, Sept. 27-Oct. 1. The conference, organized by the Gorbachev Foundation, will serve as a vehicle to bring together senior states people, current political leaders, business executives, artists, intellectuals, spiritual leaders and youth to discuss the larger vision and global principles needed to replace the vacuum created by the ending of the Cold War. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)
Baseball's World Champion San Francisco Giants, cruise aboard motorized cable cars down a Montgomery Street ticker tape parade Wednesday November 3, 2010 in San Francisco, Calif. (Karl Mondon/Staff)
Motorized cable cars carrying the San Francisco Giants make their way up Market Street during the baseball team's World Series-championship parade in San Francisco, Wednesday, Nov. 3, 2010. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)
The group of onlookers cheered as Mayor London Breed cried out in celebration of the cable car’s birthday and rang a golden brass cable car bell. She said she considered the celebration as yet another indicator of the city’s legacy of innovation.
“San Francisco is a city of firsts. Not only was a cable car invented here and others followed in other cities around the entire world, but right now the cable car only exists in the city and county of San Francisco,” Breed said.
Breed accredited women for stepping up to ensure the cable car remained as part of the city’s fabric, including Friedel Klussman, who in 1947 launched a campaign to save the city’s cable car after some leaders wanted to toss out the mode of transportation entirely for an underground cable system.
Also honored at the ceremony was Fanny Barnes, who became the first woman cable car Grip in 1998 – an operating job considered to be one of the most physically strenuous in the city’s transportation sector.
Breed and a handful of other prominent city leaders also shouted out Sen. Dianne Feinstein for saving cable cars again in the late 1970s during her time as mayor of the city, thanks to securing millions in federal funding. Feinstein was notably a no-show at the event despite an invitation.
May 2, 1984: San Francisco Mayor Dianne Feinstein and singer Tony Bennett, who sang “I Left My Heart in San Francisco,” hangs on to the outside of a cable car in San Francisco before taking a test ride. (AP Photo/Jeff Reinking)
San Francisco Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin considered the cable car a “real symbol of resiliency” after surviving two pandemics, a major fire, two great earthquakes and “mayors who wanted to rip them out.”
“God bless these cable cars!” Peskin said.
Breed additionally announced that a cable car would be dedicated to the late Tony Bennett, who died at age 96 on July 21, to forever memorialize the musician’s Grammy-winning ode to San Francisco – “I Left My Heart in San Francisco.”
The ceremony concluded with the crowd singing the ballad, which was first performed at San Francisco’s Fairmont Hotel in the 1960s.
But this is just the beginning of the celebration. Through the winter, the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency and its preservation partner, Market Street Railway, will join forces with various community organizations to host special events.
For the very first time, the public will be able to step into the Muni shop, where cable cars are both built and refurbished, join historical-themed walk and ride tours of cable car neighborhoods and experience “ghost” cable cars from disappeared lines.
SFMTA also offers $13 all-day, all-Muni passes and a $5 all-day pass for the California cable car line.
