Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Keeping the Cable Cars Running
You can tell you're near the mesmerizing
San Francisco Cable Car Museum
(1201 Mason St., at Washington;
%
415/474-1887; www.cablecarmuseum.
org; free admission; Apr-Sept 10am-6pm, Oct-Mar 10am-5pm),
the ever-
running powerhouse for the whole car system by the distinctive smell that,
to me, proclaims San Francisco more than any of its famous food dishes.
It's like the combined aroma of grease and electrical discharge that fol-
lows the famous cable cars wherever they roll. Here, in this warehouse that
combines a museum experience with a real inside look at the inner machi-
nations of the system, four mighty winding machines work the under-
ground cables that propel the entire system, and if there's a cable break,
this is where engineers splice it back together using some seriously
medieval-looking implements. From decks overlooking the roaring
machines, you'll see the cables shoot in from the streets, wind around
huge wheels, and be sent back underground to carry more tourists up the
city hills. You'll find out how the whole system works, including a look at
the gripping mechanism that every car extends below the street level. I
find it remarkable to think that nearly every American city of size once had
systems just like this, but now only San Francisco maintains this antique
(1873) but highly functional technology.
Alongside the spectacle, there's a museum telling the story of how, in
1954, some parking-garage builders persuaded citizens to somehow sup-
port the destruction of most of the cable-car network, leaving us with
what you see here today. The museum also tells about Friedel Klussmann,
a society member who made saving the system her cause and for whom the
Powell-Hyde turnaround at Fisherman's Wharf is now named. There's also a
terrific gift shop for all things cable car (books, souvenirs) that sells
antique street signs ($50-$90) from all over town; since San Francisco's
streets are mostly named and not numbered, you're likely to find a sign
that rings a bell with you or your family. Also check out the Clay Street
Hill Railroad's Car No. 8—from 1875, it's the oldest cable car in the world;
can you imagine getting to work on that coal-cart-like contraption?
Whatever you do, don't miss the chance to go downstairs, under the
entrance to the building, where, in the darkness, you can peer at the
whirring 8-foot sheaves that hoist in the cables from their various jour-
neys around the city. Now and then, a real cable car will stall as it
attempts to navigate the intersection outside, where drivers have to let go
of one cable and snag another, and a worker will have to drive out in a
cart and give it a nudge. This may be my favorite museum in town, and
there's no other museum around that is as distinctive to the city, but mys-
teriously, few tourists bother to go.
