Railways of San Francisco

by Ulla Kaprielian

Before automobiles, San Francisco with its unique terrain was dominated by railways. Horse-drawn railcars appeared in San Francisco around 1862. One of the earliest lines connected the posh neighborhood of South Park with North Beach. In time there were eight rail companies.

By 1886 fashionable ladies could be seen coming downtown to go shopping, meet friends, or even attend a performance in one of the many theaters. Horse cars lingered for more than 20 years after the introduction of electric streetcars, with the last horse car retired on June 3, 1913. Steam dummies (engines) were used for a time on some lines, including the Park & Ocean Railroad that connected with the Haight Street cable car line at Stanyan Street.

On August 1, 1873, the Clay Street Hill Railroad inaugurated cable car service with inventor Andrew Hallidie, Mayor Andrew Bryant, and Mrs. Hallidie in attendance. The steep slope of Nob Hill assured that enough customers would use the cable car (at a 5 cent fare) to provide stockholders a 5% monthly return on their investment. The Stockton Street horse car line was converted to cable cars in 1877 strictly for economic reasons. A cable car could transport twice as many passengers twice as fast. The California Street line, between Kearny and Larkin Streets, was financed by Governor Leland Stanford in 1878. The city’s most extensive cable car system was operated by the Market Street Cable Railway, with five lines radiating from Market Street. Today, since there is no factory producing parts, Muni craftworkers are constantly rebuilding and fabricating cars following 125-year-old techniques to keep the popular San Francisco icon running.

The first electric streetcar line, the San Francisco & San Mateo Railway established in 1891, ran all the way to the Holy Cross Cemetery in Colma; another branch went to Golden Gate Park. Just five years later, in 1896, people could visit the Cliff House and Sutro Baths via the Sutro Railroad, founded by then Mayor Adolph Sutro. All you needed was a transfer from the Sutter Street Railroad’s cable car line. (Since service began in 1866, Sutter Street lines have been horse cars, steam trains, cable cars, streetcars, motor buses, and trolley buses.) When I realized that one of my recent City Guide walkers is a rail enthusiast and member of the Market Street Railway, I asked him about the difference between a trolley car and a streetcar. According to him trolley cars, like the F-Line cars, have a wheel-like connection to the overhead electric lines, while the newer streetcar connections look more like a big triangle. After the April 18, 1906 earthquake and fire, the first streetcar line to resume service was the Fillmore line on April 27. The cable car roadbed on Market Street withstood the earthquake so well that within weeks streetcars were using the cable car tracks to roll down Market Street. Because of the severe housing shortage, some out-of-service cable and streetcars were used as cottages.

Market Street Railway, Sutter Street Railroad, and the San Francisco & San Mateo Railway had merged in 1902 to become the United Railroads of San Francisco (URR). After bond foreclosures, URR reorganized in 1921, again becoming Market Street Railway (MSR). During the same period, the Muni was born when, on December 28, 1912, San Francisco became the first U.S. city to put mass transit under public ownership. It meant four streetcar lines along Market Street, two for the Muni and two for the MSR. The bankrupt MSR was sold to the city in 1944. The new Bay Bridge, opened in 1936, was an engineering marvel, with its lower deck designed to handle three railways at two different voltages: the Interurban Electric Railway, the Key System, and the Sacramento Northern. However, by 1958 the lower deck was converted to car traffic traveling east, and the upper deck to handle westbound traffic. By 1950 all of the former Market Street Railway and several Municipal Railway streetcar lines were changed to buses, and by 1951 the streetcars were gone from the Ferry Building. However, thanks to the Market Street Railway, a 1,200-member non-profit volunteer group that supports Muni in the operation of the hugely successful F-Line, we can revisit the past. Their new San Francisco Railway Museum, located in the Hotel Vitale building at 77 Steuart Street, opened on September 2, 2006.

For further information, see Paul C. Trimble’s Railways of San Francisco (Arcadia Publishing Co.) and Interurban Railways of the Bay Area.

An extended version of this article appeared in The Guidepost, vol. 21, no. 3 (Fall 2006).

Historic photos courtesy of SF History Center, SF Public Library.

Sutro Railroad in 1897, passing Sutro Baths

Undated photo of Sutter Street Railroad

The caption on this 1947 photo of Market at Third Street read: Slow moving, slow loading, dilapidated old streetcars keep traffic on the city's main artery moving at a snail's pace. And they, in turn, are delayed by autos driven by thousands of people who would rather drive their own machines than put up with the discomfort and inconvenience of the decrepit transit system.

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