San Francisco Railway Museum - San Francisco transit timeline

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1902
Market Street Railway Company acquired by Brown Brothers of New York, consolidated with San Francisco & San Mateo Electric Railroad and Sutter Street Railroad to form United Railroads of San Francisco (URR)

1903
Bond issue to buy Geary Street cable line and convert to city–owned electric streetcar fails for second year in a row

1905
Land's End steam train converted to electric streetcars serving Cliff House and Sutro Baths

1906
Earthquake and fire devastate San Francisco

Aided by bribes, United Railroads wins permission to convert Market Street cable car lines to electric streetcars, which aid significantly in reconstruction

1907
Bitter strike by United Railroads car men; key issue is eight-hour day

1909
San Francisco voters approve bonds to acquire Geary cable car line, convert it to electric streetcar with overhead wires, and extend the line to the Ferry Building via Market Street

1912
Municipal Railway of San Francisco (Muni) opens December 28 on Geary Street; Mayor James Rolph operates first streetcar (preserved car No. 1), promises "great municipal system"

1913
Geary Street Muni lines extended to Ferry and Ocean Beach; landmark study recommends aggressive expansion of Muni system

Muni takes over Presidio & Ferries Railroad on Union

Last horsecar runs in San Francisco

1914
Spurred by 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition, Muni expands; builds Stockton Tunnel to serve expo grounds

US Army extends State Belt waterfront freight trackage through tunnel under Fort Mason to Presidio; line helps build Exposition

1915
Panama-Pacific world's fair attracts millions; Muni and United Railroads streetcars handle bulk of visitors, clearly establishing San Francisco as a 'streetcar city'

Jitneys provide stiff competition for the first time

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Birth of Muni: New infrastructure for the new century 1912-1928

The combination of bribery and a bitter 1907 strike made United Railroads unpopular in San Francisco. Meanwhile in 1909, after twice rejecting the idea, San Francisco voters approved city purchase of the Geary Street cable line and converting it to electric streetcars. On December 28, 1912, the first publicly–owned big city transit line in America opened.

An astonishing 50,000 San Franciscans showed up at Geary & Market to hear Mayor James Rolph call the Geary line “the people’s road…the nucleus of a mighty system of streetcar lines which will someday encompass the entire city.” He then personally piloted the first streetcar (preserved car No. 1) of the Municipal Railway.

City Chief Engineer Michael M. O’Shaughnessy largely fulfilled Rolph’s promises. Working from noted transit consultant Bion Arnold’s plan, the ‘Chief’ built quickly to serve the throngs expected for the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition, which San Franciscans saw as a celebration of the city’s rebirth. Just over two years after its opening day, Muni had added five permanent lines, including the original F-line, using a new tunnel on Stockton between Union Square and Chinatown to reach the exposition in today’s Marina District.

Muni then switched focus, opening the J-Church line into the Mission District in 1917 and penetrating the western half of the city the following year via the Twin Peaks Tunnel, funded by property owners to develop new neighborhoods. United Railroads badly wanted access to the tunnel, but Mayor Rolph prevailed, reserving the tunnel exclusively for Muni. The K, L, and M lines fanned out from West Portal, spurring new homebuilding; then in 1928, Muni opened the N- Judah line through the new Sunset Tunnel, west to Ocean Beach. These Muni lines spurred the development of what was then the ‘empty quarter’ of San Francisco.

Though O’Shaughnessy’s biggest engineering achievement was the city’s monumental water and power system, his Muni legacy remains the most visible to San Franciscans.

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