Seen in the photograph above are San Francisco cable car travelers, some who've come to San Francisco just to ride a cable car, drive down the crookedest street, eat Boudin Sourdough bread, wander on Fisherman's Wharf, take a tour boat to Alcatraz and see the Golden Gate Bridge.

 

As tourists waited in a line stretching as far and long as the most popular rides in Disneyland, a conductor yelled out, "It's over-rated."  Riding a cable car is something people want to do in San Francisco and lines do not deter most travelers. So please, Mr. Conductor, let the people have their fun!

 

San Francisco’s Beloved Cable Cars

Ever ride a national landmark? It’s being done everyday by both tourists and natives in San Francisco. The City’s cable cars were named a National Historic Landmark in 1964 by the US Interior Department’s National Park Service, and it couldn’t have happened to a more worthy institution.

 

These one of a kind vehicles celebrated their 100th birthday with a ten-day jubilee in August of 1973, but only nine years later, a problem arose. It seemed that after being in service for over a century, the beloved cable car system had deteriorated beyond repair. To rebuild it would cost $60 million and take at least 20 months. 

 

When it became known that the cable cars’ survival was at stake, contributions came in from every corner of the world to help save them. The City of San Francisco was able to raise $10 million from the private sector alone. The federal government aided the project with a $46.5 million contribution, and the State of California chimed in with a $3.6 million contribution.

 

In an operation similar to open heart surgery, four-and-a-half miles and 69 blocks of street were torn up section by section to make way for new cables, tracks, turntables and utility lines. The cable car barn at Washington and Mason Streets was almost entirely rebuilt. Meanwhile, the cable cars were getting a makeover of their own. Continued