More Ferries & Cliff House Pictures

by Joe Thompson

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This page has some additional photos of the Ferries & Cliff House Railway lines. The surviving lines are probably the most photographed cable car system in the world.

Car 5 Car 5 on Powell between Market and Ellis. Powell/Mason dash sign. July 2001. Photo by Joe Thompson. November, 2001 Picture of the Month.

Car 10 Car 10 rolls up Powell Street in October, 2006. Photo by Joe Thompson. November, 2006 Picture of the Month.
Car 15 Car 15 on Powell between Market and Ellis. Powell/Hyde dash sign. September 2001. Photo by Joe Thompson.
Car 16 Car 16 on Powell at Sutter. It has Muni's old Blue and Gold paint scheme. September 2001. Photo by Joe Thompson.
Powell and Sutter Powell and Sutter. Union Square is being remodeled in the background. July 2001. Photo by Joe Thompson.
Car 27 Car 27 waits to exit the car barn at Washington and Mason. Note the autos parked in the background. July 2001. Photo by Joe Thompson.

Emporium roof Sacramento/Clay car 16 on the roof of the Emporium department store in 1949. Photo by Ray Long. Thanks to Ray for permission to use it.
Sacramento/Clay 21 Motorized Sacramento/Clay car 21 carries people through a flood in San Rafael. Text from the 08-Dec-1952 Call-Bulletin: "TO THE RESCUE--One of San Francisco's famed cable cars -- this one long retired from service -- went back on duty early yesterday in San Rafael, of all places. Equipped with rubber tires and a truck engine, it was pressed into service as a taxi to remove marooned residents of the flooded Bret Harte subdivision. The car is owned by Gus and Harold Geister of the Marin Truck & Storage Co." (Source: San Francisco Public Library, San Francisco Historical Photograph Collection, AAC-8115).
Sacramento/Clay 22 Sacramento/Clay car 22 at Sacramento and Mason. Text from the 27-Jul-1937 Call-Bulletin: "'Speedy travel' finds a skeptic. A Call-Bulletin reporter is shown boarding a cable car being operated at 'top speed' at intersection of Mason and Sacramento streets. Riders of these speed-flash cars are still looking for the 'facilities' of fast transportation to be unbridled for them." (Source: San Francisco Public Library, San Francisco Historical Photograph Collection, AAC-7992).

Bay and Taylor A Powell Street Railway car at the Bay and Taylor terminal of the Powell/Mason line about 1890. There are no windows in the front of the car. Note the front-facing seat occupied by the lady and the child. The Bombay roof's "eyelid" is in front of the bell on the roof. October, 1999 Picture of the Month.

Thelonious Monk Thumbnail Thelonious Sphere Monk (1917-1982), great American composer and piano player, posing on Powell/Hyde cable car 526 (now 26) on the cover of his album Thelonious Monk Alone in San Francisco. He liked San Francisco.

Washington & Van Ness Looking East on Washington from Van Ness, along the Washington/Jackson line in April, 1928 (Source: [volume 31:group 4:124a], Jesse Brown Cook Scrapbooks Documenting San Francisco History and Law Enforcement, ca. 1895-1936, BANC PIC 1996.003--fALB, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley). Detail of a larger photograph.

Bernstein's Bernstein's Fish Grotto on lower Powell Street. I never ate there, but I remember walking by with my mother and being fascinated by the exterior. I understand the interior was not as subdued.

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Copyright 1999-2001 by Joe Thompson. All rights reserved.

Last updated 01-Nov-2001