Clay Street Hill Railroad

Last updated
Clay Street Hill Railroad
LLOYD(1876) VIEW OF CLAY STREET SHOWING THE WIRE RAILROAD pg191.jpg
LocationClay Street, San Francisco
BuiltAugust 1, 1873
DemolishedFebruary 15, 1942
Official nameEastern terminus of the Clay Street Hill Railroad [1]
Designated1952
Reference no.500

The Clay Street Hill Railroad was the first successful cable hauled street railway. It was located on Clay Street, a notably steep street in San Francisco in California, United States, and first operated in August 1873.

Contents

History

The promoter of the line was Andrew Smith Hallidie, and the engineer was William Eppelsheimer. Accounts differ as to exactly how involved Hallidie was in the inception of the Clay Street Hill Railway. One version [2] has him taking over the promotion of the line when the original promoter, Benjamin Brooks, failed to raise the necessary capital. In another version, [3] Hallidie was the instigator, inspired by a desire to reduce the suffering incurred by the horses that hauled streetcars up Jackson Street, from Kearny to Stockton Street.

There is also doubt as to when exactly the first run of the cable car occurred. The franchise required a first run no later than August 1, 1873. However, at least one source [2] reports that the run took place a day late, on August 2, but the city chose not to void the franchise. Some accounts say that the first gripman hired by Hallidie looked down the steep hill from Jones and refused to operate the car, so Hallidie took the grip himself and ran the car down the hill and up again without any problems.

Clay St. Hill RR Co. No.8 at the San Francisco Cable Car Museum (2007) Tranvia-San Francisco-California4117.JPG
Clay St. Hill RR Co. No.8 at the San Francisco Cable Car Museum (2007)

The Clay Street line started regular service on September 1, 1873, and was a financial success. In 1888, it was absorbed into the Sacramento-Clay line of the Ferries and Cliff House Railway, and it subsequently became a small part of the San Francisco cable car system. Today none of the original line survives. However grip car 8 from the line has been preserved, and is now displayed in the San Francisco Cable Car Museum. [4]

Design

The line involved the use of grip cars, which carried the grip that engaged with the cable, towing trailer cars. The design was the first to use such grips.

Legacy

CHL #500: eastern terminus of first cable car system Andrew Smith Hallidie plaque, Portsmouth Square.JPG
CHL #500: eastern terminus of first cable car system

The railroad was designated as California Historical Landmark #500, with the landmark marker being placed in Portsmouth Square at the site of its eastern terminus near the corner of Clay Street and Kearny. [1]

In fiction

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cable car (railway)</span> Cable-hauled mass transit system

A cable car is a type of cable railway used for mass transit in which rail cars are hauled by a continuously moving cable running at a constant speed. Individual cars stop and start by releasing and gripping this cable as required. Cable cars are distinct from funiculars, where the cars are permanently attached to the cable.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cable transport</span> Class of transport modes

Cable transport is a broad class of transport modes that have cables. They transport passengers and goods, often in vehicles called cable cars. The cable may be driven or passive, and items may be moved by pulling, sliding, sailing, or by drives within the object being moved on cableways. The use of pulleys and balancing of loads moving up and down are common elements of cable transport. They are often used in mountainous areas where cable haulage can overcome large differences in elevation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">San Francisco cable car system</span> United States historic landmark

The San Francisco cable car system is the world's last manually operated cable car system and an icon of the city of San Francisco. The system forms part of the intermodal urban transport network operated by the San Francisco Municipal Railway, which also includes the separate E Embarcadero and F Market & Wharves heritage streetcar lines, and the Muni Metro modern light rail system. Of the 23 cable car lines established between 1873 and 1890, only three remain : two routes from downtown near Union Square to Fisherman's Wharf, and a third route along California Street.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">San Francisco Cable Car Museum</span> Railway museum in California, United States

The Cable Car Museum is a free museum in the Nob Hill neighborhood of San Francisco, California. Located at 1201 Mason Street, it contains historical and explanatory exhibits on the San Francisco cable car system, which can itself be regarded as a working museum.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dunedin cable tramway system</span>

The Dunedin cable tramway system was a group of cable tramway lines in the New Zealand city of Dunedin. It is significant as Dunedin was the second city in the world to adopt the cable car.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chicago City Railway</span>

The Chicago City Railway Company (CCRy) was an urban transit company that operated horse, cable, and electric streetcars on Chicago's South Side between 1859 and 1914, when it became merged into and part of the Chicago Surface Lines (CSL) metropolitan-wide system. After that time it owned electric streetcars, along with gasoline, diesel, and propane – fueled transit busses. Purchased by the government agency Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) in 1947, it was liquidated in 1950.

William Eppelsheimer was a tramway engineer known for his work on cable car systems. He was born in Alzey in Germany and studied engineering at the Polytechnikum Karlsruhe. in 1868 he left Germany by ship from Bremerhaven for the United States. Arriving in New York he changed his German first name Wilhelm to William,

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Andrew Smith Hallidie</span> American railway entrepreneur who conceived of the San Francisco cable car system

Andrew Smith Hallidie was an American entrepreneur who was the promoter of the Clay Street Hill Railroad in San Francisco. This was the world's first practical cable car system, and Hallidie is often therefore regarded as the inventor of the cable car and father of the present day San Francisco cable car system, although both claims are open to dispute. He also introduced the manufacture of wire rope to California, and at an early age was a prolific builder of bridges in the Californian interior.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Market Street Railway (transit operator)</span> California transit operator

The Market Street Railway Company was a commercial streetcar and bus operator in San Francisco. The company was named after the famous Market Street of that city, which formed the core of its transportation network. Over the years, the company was also known as the Market Street Railroad Company, the Market Street Cable Railway Company and the United Railroads of San Francisco. Once the largest transit operator in the city, the company folded in 1944 and its assets and services were acquired by the city-owned San Francisco Municipal Railway. Many of the former routes continue to exist into the 2020s, but served by buses.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sutter Street Railway</span>

The Sutter Street Railway was originally a horsecar line in San Francisco. The railway began service on May 1, 1866 as the Front Street, Mission and Ocean Railroad. Shortly after it had become known as the Sutter Street Railroad.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Geary Street, Park and Ocean Railway</span>

The Geary Street, Park and Ocean Railway was a street railway in San Francisco, California, United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hallidie Building</span> United States historic place

The Hallidie Building is an office building in the Financial District of San Francisco, California, at 130 Sutter Street, between Montgomery Street and Kearny Street. Designed by architect Willis Polk and named in honor of San Francisco cable car pioneer Andrew Smith Hallidie, it opened in 1918. Though credited as the first American building to feature glass curtain walls, it was in fact predated by Louis Curtiss's Boley Clothing Company building in Kansas City, Missouri, completed in 1909.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kearny Street</span> Street in San Francisco

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cable grip</span>

A cable grip is a device for propelling a vehicle by attaching to a wire rope running at a (relatively) constant speed. The vehicle may be suspended from the cable, as in the case of aerial lifts such as a gondola lift (télécabine), may be guided by rails, as in a cable traction railway, or may be self-guiding, as in a button lift. Typically, multiple vehicles will use the same cable; where just one or two vehicles are in use they will tend to be attached to the cable permanently such as in funiculars.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">California Street (San Francisco)</span>

California Street is a major thoroughfare in San Francisco, California. It is one of the longest streets in San Francisco, and includes a number of important landmarks. It runs in an approximately straight 5.2 mi (8.4 km) east–west line from the Financial District to Lincoln Park in the far northwest corner of the city.

The San Francisco and San Mateo Electric Railway (SF&SM) was the first electric streetcar company in San Francisco, California. The company was only in business for ten years, starting from 1892 until it was merged into the United Railroads of San Francisco (URR) in 1902.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">California car (streetcar)</span> Type of tram or street car with both open sided and enclosed sections


A California Car is a type of single-deck tramcar or streetcar that features a center, enclosed seating compartment and roofed seating areas without sides on either end. These cars were popular in California's mild Mediterranean climate offering passengers a choice of shaded outdoor seating during hot weather, or more protected seating during cool or rainy weather. They were also used in other climates to provide separate outdoor smoking and enclosed non-smoking areas. Some very early motor buses also used the combination car design.

Highgate Hill Cable Tramway Former cable tramway in London

The Highgate Hill Cable Tramway was the first cable tramway in Europe. Opened in 1884, it was built to demonstrate the benefits of the technology first pioneered in San Francisco.

References

Specific:

  1. 1 2 "Eastern terminus of the Clay Street Hill Railroad". Office of Historic Preservation, California State Parks. Retrieved 2012-10-14.
  2. 1 2 Joe Thompson (1998-2004). Who Was Important in the History of the Cable Car?. Retrieved May 27, 2005.
  3. Edgar Myron Kahn (1940). California Historical Society Quarterly - Andrew Smith Hallidie Archived 2011-05-17 at the Wayback Machine . Retrieved May 27, 2005.
  4. "About the San Francisco Cable Car Museum". Friends of the Cable Car Museum. Retrieved 2008-07-01.

General: