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Presidio & Ferries customers transferred from Washington/Jackson horse cars to cable trains that ran out Columbus to Union. Note the broad gauge tracks. |
line: Union Street
opened: 23-Oct-1880. Montgomery Street (now Columbus Avenue) from Washington to Union, Union to Steiner.
extended: 1892. Union from Steiner to Baker, Baker to Lombard, Lombard to the Presidio. Private right of way in the Presidio to the main post.
powerhouse: Union and Leavenworth
grip: Hallidie bottom grip, screw-operated
grip: converted to Stut grip, lever-operated (?) in 1892. The shanks of the Hallidie grip were not strong enough to go around the pull curves in the extension.
gauge: 5'0"
cars: double-ended dummy & trailer trains.
turntables: cross overs.
crossings:
| Intersection | Company | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Union/Mason | FCH | superior |
| Union/Hyde | CSC | superior |
notes: This was the only cable car line other than the Clay Street Hill line to use the Hallidie bottom grip. It was the first cable car line to go around a corner, with a let-go curve at Columbus & Union. All previous lines had operated straight from terminous to terminous.
The company operated a horse-car line on Washington & Jackson which connected the eastern end of the cable line to the Ferry Building. Before the 1892 extension, the company ran a steam dummy line on Steiner, Greenwich, Baker, and private right of way to the Presidio. After the extension, the steam line ran on Baker from Greenwich to the Harbor View Resort (now the Marina district). Read about the company's steam operations in "When Steam Ran on The Streets of San Francisco, Part I," by Walter Rice and Emiliano Echeverria.
The Hallidie grip's shanks were not strong enough to stand the pull curve in the extension, so it was replaced by a new grip.
Cable car operations were wiped out by the earthquake and fire in 1906. The entire system was converted to an electric line. The company was taken over by the city in 1913. The line became the E Union Street line of the San Francisco Municipal Railway. It is now the 41 Union trolley bus line.
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Presidio & Ferries tracks along Union Street, severely twisted by the 1906 Earthquake (Source: [group 50:15410], Zelda Mackay Collection of Stereographic Views, BANC PIC 1905.14906-.16118 -- STER, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley). |
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Presidio and Ferries Railway profile (Source: Library of Congress Historic American Buildings Survey/Historic American Engineering Record (LC-HABS/HAER) HAER,CAL,38-SANFRA,137-2) |
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Union/Leavenworth powerhouse in 1899. Union is to the right. (Source: Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps, San Francisco, 1899-1900, Vol 4, Sheet 394). |
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Jefferson/Lyon roundhouse in 1899. Jefferson is at the top of the map and Lyon is to the right. (Source: Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps, San Francisco, 1899-1900, Vol 4, Sheet 389). |
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Presidio & Ferries steam dummy operating on the Harbor View extension before 1906 (Source: [group 5:50b], Roy D. Graves Pictorial Collection, ca. 1850-ca. 1968, BANC PIC 1905.17500--ALB, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley). |
Hello Central, Give Me the Presidio & FerriesHere is the Presidio & Ferries Railway's listing in the February, 1903 Pacific States Telephone and Telegraph Company San Francisco phone directory: East 802. Presidio & Ferries R. R. Co., Ofc. Union & Sharps Pl. Dedicated volunteers at San Francisco Genealogy typed in every page of the book. |
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