Tuesday, April 20, 2010

San Francisco April 1906 - A ride down Market Street

There is a 7-minute YouTube video that shows the view from the front of a streetcar riding the tracks down Market Street in San Francisco towards the Embarcadero.

The infomration that came with the video via email says:

"Here's a neat opportunity to enjoy some time travel. The film is from a streetcar traveling down Market Street in San Francisco four days before the big earthquake/fire that destroyed the area. You can clearly see the clock tower at the end of the street at the Embarcadero wharf that's still there... The quality & detail is great, so be sure to view it full screen."

The video is here and hopefully embedded below:




My wife has several families that endured and survived the San Francisco Earthquake on 18 April 1906, so this is special to her.

I was struck by:

* the seeming nonchalance of the pedestrians, car drivers, horse/buggy drivers as the streetcar approached them. Lots of close calls!

* the men are dressed in coats and ties, the women in nice dresses and big hats.

* the streetcar didn't stop even though it's apparent many people wanted to get on the streetcar.
* the cars were all right-hand drive.

* the street looks like cobblestones, especially towards the end of the ride.

2 comments:

GrannyPam said...

I guess the casual attitude of the people may have something to do with the numbers of people whose death records say, "Hit by cars". Up here in Michigan that meant railroad cars, but I'll bet a bunch got hit by street cars in the cities.

Leah Kleylein said...

That was so cool! I think I could have kept watching for another 20 minutes! My only wish was that we looked at the sides once in a while, I would love to see what's happening on the sidewalks! Thanks for sharing, this was really awesome.