San Francisco Cable Cars

Andrew Hallidie built the first line in 1873, reportedly after seeing horses dragged down a wet hill by a heavy load. The mechanism has not changed: a cable runs continuously in a slot beneath the street at about fifteen kilometres an hour, and the operator - the gripman - works a lever that clamps a grip through the slot onto the moving cable to go, and releases it to stop, with separate brakes. It requires real physical effort and the gripmen are trained on it for months. Three lines survive of what was once a much larger network, and this is the only manually operated cable system left anywhere. The cars are turned by hand on turntables at each terminus.

What you actually see

• A gripman working the cable by lever - clamping onto a moving line.
• A cable running at fifteen kilometres an hour - continuously, under the street.
• Turntables at the termini - cars pushed round by hand.
• The last manual cable system anywhere - three lines of an old network.

When to go

Year round; early morning avoids the worst queues. An hour.

Honest expectations

Queues at the Powell Street turntable run over an hour in season - board at a stop further along instead. Cars fill and pass by. The California line is far less crowded than the Powell lines. It is a working transit service, not a ride.

Nearby

Fisherman's Wharf is at the Hyde and Mason termini; Union Square at the Powell end.