Unlike the mechanical cable cars, streetcars are propelled by onboard electric motors and require a trolley pole to draw power from an overhead wire.įar faster than any earlier form of urban transportation, the streetcar quickly eclipsed cable cars and horsecars as America’s choice for transit in the first half of the 20th century. Streetcars also run on steel rails, but with no slot between the tracks, and no underground cable. The real San Francisco cable cars run only on steel rails, and only on the California Street, Powell-Mason, and Powell-Hyde lines. Cable cars can be most easily identified by their open end sections with running boards where riders can stand outside of the car, as seen in the picture above.Īnd don’t be fooled by the number of replica cable cars that can be seen driving around the city on rubber tires (even though some of them were converted from retired authentic cable cars). Cable cars use no overhead wire, and have no trolley poles. The Powell Street cable lines and the F-line form an ‘iron triangle’ of historic transit service between Downtown San Francisco and Fisherman’s Wharf.Ĭable cars are often misidentified as ‘trolleys’, but that term refers specifically to the trolley pole used by streetcars to get power from an overhead wire (hence streetcars are often called trolleys, correctly). Many cities once had cable cars, but today, San Francisco’s Powell-Mason, Powell-Hyde, and California Street lines are the only ones left in the world. Originally, the powerhouse used steam power to run the cables beneath the streets, but as electricity became more commonplace, steam engines gave way to electric motors (hydroelectric power) which wind the huge wheels that spin the cable to this very day.Ĭable cars were invented in 1873 by Andrew Hallidie to climb the hills of San Francisco. In order to move forward, the underground cable is grabbed by a grip on the cable car that works like a pair of pliers.
The cable runs from a central powerhouse, from huge winding wheels, as the cable cars themselves are completely mechanical and have no means of independent locomotion (no motors).
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