April 18, 1906, a date forever seared into San Francisco history. The cataclysmic earthquake and fire divided eras and impressed unforgettable memories on all who experienced it.
All who experienced that horror firsthand are gone now. But by unbelievable good fortune, a compelling vision of the old San Francisco survives in the form of a motion picture, providing a priceless record of a San Francisco on the brink of disaster.
We’re talking about the famous “Trip Down Market Street”, filmed just four days before the earth shook and the sky burned, by professional filmmakers the Miles Brothers, shooting a hand-cranked motion picture camera mounted on the front of a cable car as it rolled eastward on Market between Eighth Street and the Ferry Building. It was long thought to have been shot in 1905, and the only surviving copy, in the Library of Congress, was badly degraded.
But then, magic happened. Film historian David Kiehn, head of the Niles Film Museum in Fremont discovered the true filming date, greatly increasing the historic value of the film. Archivist and film preservationist Rick Prelinger arranged for a vastly improved transfer of the film, revealing many new details. And television’s most-watched news program, 60 Minutes, did a remarkable story, produced by David Browning and reported by the late Morley Safer, that brought much new attention to the film. (Safer later said it was among his favorite stories of the more than 900 he reported for 60 Minutes.)
Market Street Railway President Rick Laubscher was interviewed for the 60 Minutes story, in part because he had written and recorded a narration for the film, explaining what the camera sees as it moves along Market Street, adding economic and social context as well as explaining the extensive cable car system then operating on our main street.
The narration explains all kinds of details of the film. Why do automobiles keep making u-turns in the middle of Market Street? Why are the cable cars painted in different colors (okay, shades of gray here). Why were there still horsecars on Market Street? And here’s a test. As you’re watching the film, try to find a person – man, woman, or kid – not wearing a hat.
You can watch our narrated version on YouTube here. You can also watch it at our free San Francisco Railway Museum.
The earthquake and fire caused catastrophic damage to the City’s extensive cable car system and immediately led to the conversion of most cable lines, including all five using Market Street, to electric streetcars, a step almost every other cable car city had already taken. Cable lines survived on streets too steep for electric streetcars; three such lines still run today.
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