Since 1888, a small wooden structure has stood on the southeast corner of Powell and California Streets. It’s an essential sentinel protecting the world’s only cable car crossroads. Here’s its story.
The cable car tower
History Features
Watch out for the wet
Streetcars and water don’t mix well. Electric motors don’t work when they’re soaked. Water coming down from the heavens – rain – no worries. But water coming up from beneath – flooded streets – not good.
STRIKE!
San Francisco has long been in the forefront of workers’ rights. This history extends back into the 19th century, but it was an event just one year after the San Francisco earthquake and fire of 1906 that shook the city all over again – one of San Francisco’s bitterest strikes that shaped the future of streetcar service in San Francisco and influenced the City’s labor movement in general.
Coming to town
San Francisco has been a magnet for travelers for 170 years. The beauty of its setting on one of the world’s great natural harbors is unquestioned. Yet San Francisco’s front door once was ugly.
Memories of the Market Street Railway
By Bruce L. Battles, Market Street Railway Member
Cars of many colors
Visitors to San Francisco today frequently comment on the multi-colored fleet of streetcars on Market Street. But it’s not the first time that’s happened.
Completing a century: Muni 1983-2012
Final installment of our six part series on Muni’s birth and first century.
Modernizing Muni: 1963-1982
Fifth of six installments in our history of Muni’s birth and first century
Rails to rubber: Muni 1946-1962
Fourth of six installments in our history of Muni’s birth and first century
Muni at war: crushloads & consolidation 1941-1945
Third of six installments in our history of Muni’s birth and first century
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