[SAL]

HOPE YOU ALL ENJOY THIS AS MUCH AS i DID!!

Put yourhead phones on there is a great track to listen too as well!


104 YEAR OLD FILM CLIP "you are there" for a cable car ride in San Francisco "


This film was "lost" for many years. It was the first 35mm film everthat has come to light. It was taken by camera mounted on the front of a cable car.
The number of automobiles is staggering for 1906. Absolutely amazing! The clock tower at the end of Market Street at the Embarcadero wharf is still there. ... How many "street cleaning" people were employed to pick up after the horses? Talk about going green!

Great historical film! Just follow the link below


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NINOxRxze9k



This film, originally thought to be from 1905 until David Kiehn with the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum figured out exactly when it was shot. From New York trade papers announcing the film showing to the wet streets from recent heavy rainfall & shadows indicating time of year & actual weather and conditions on historical record, even when the cars were registered (he even knows who owned them and when the plates were issued!).
It was filmed only four days before the Great California Earthquake of April 18th 1906 and shipped by train to NY for processing. Amazing, but true!
No wonder there had to be laws created to regulate driving habits. This is insane. Good thing they couldn't go very fast. BUT....the speed of a cable car is exactly predictable...it cannot accelerate from 'service speed'....only slow down and/or stop (if the gripman releases the car's grip on the sub-street cable). So while the general street behaviour may seem reckless, the pedestrians, dray drivers, motorists, &c are dealing with a known, predictable (non-)variable.

This is a fascinating movie.. Look at the hats the ladies were wearing and the long dresses. Some of the cars had the steering wheels on the right side (English built?), I wonder when they standardized on the left? Sure was still a lot of horse drawn vehicles in use. Mass transit looked like the way to get around. Looks like everybody had the right of way.

Perhaps the oldest “home movie” that you will ever see! Enjoy the shenannigans of the locals as they spot the camera at the front of the car we are in, and the general indifference of all people and vehicle crossing our path.

[Belinda]

That is amazing!

I watched another video that was filmed just after the earthquake and someone commented "everyone lost something but no one lost their hat"

Jokes aside, it was sad to see so many people displaced and queueing up for help so many lives must have been lost. Interestingly, the displaced people were issued with temporary housing, I bet that wouldn't happen these days.

[TaoGnosis]

Brilliant, Sal!

And How's THIS for Contrast?

A trip down San Francisco Market Street 2005.

The More Things Change,... !!

Thanks for sharing. It really takes me back to my fond memories of the horse-drawn carriage days of my early teens .

Blessings,

Marc

[SAL]

WOW! I loaded them up together Marc on two pages and ran them togetrher and compared them. The street sure seems alot more narrow now. Cant say I could find any of the buildings the same but you cant really tell till its near the end how much in sync they are. The clock tower looks alot thinner now...must of had to rebuild, but why do it so similar? Sure is a lot less hectic now too!

Your joking about your horse and carriage days right!?


Yes Belinda that was a history and geography lesson for me all together to about the San Andreaous fault.

[TaoGnosis]

Hi Sal,

Originally Posted by SAL

Your joking about your horse and carriage days right!?

Yeah, I was just teasing to make myself sound younger. The halcyon days of my youth were Wednesday Nights, cruising Van Nuys Boulevard (used-to-be "World Famous") with my mastodon-and-carriage (actually, My mother's pristine '53 Buick) in 1976.

Blessings, (and thanks again for the heads-up on this fascinating piece of history)

Marc

[TaoGnosis]

Originally Posted by Belinda

That is amazing!

I watched another video that was filmed just after the earthquake and someone commented "everyone lost something but no one lost their hat"

Jokes aside, it was sad to see so many people displaced and queueing up for help so many lives must have been lost. Interestingly, the displaced people were issued with temporary housing, I bet that wouldn't happen these days.

Hi Belinda,

Long time, no chat, .

If we look at the "Super-Dome debacle" after, Hurricane Katrina, people may be thanking their Lucky Stars not to be "stuck-in" temporary, post-tragedy-housing.

Since that S.F. Earthquake (and Numerous others in intervening years) California has developed -- and implemented -- the greatest anti-earthquake architectural technologies, which help our 50+ Story Buildings just "ride the wave."

What saddens me is that we Yanks spend So Much on the War Machine, rather than helping the world Retrofit to prepare for natural disasters (which in the real world would cost Far-Fewer-$-Trillions) and then, having to "sympathize" for Haiti, when we might have prevented Much of the heartbreak and devastation.

Thanks for pointing this out.

Blessings,

Marc

[ElleDiva]

I am trying to decide if there are just more laws now (I'm sure there are more) or if we just mind better, or a combination but things sure seem more ordered and serene in the newer clip and with more people too. Quite a contrast! Thanks for posting both.

[alaskansunbeam]

All I can say is Thank God for traffic laws!! What chaos it was before!

[SAL]

Originally Posted by TaoGnosis

Hi Sal,

Yeah, I was just teasing to make myself sound younger. The halcyon days of my youth were Wednesday Nights, cruising Van Nuys Boulevard (used-to-be "World Famous") with my mastodon-and-carriage (actually, My mother's pristine '53 Buick) in 1976.

Blessings, (and thanks again for the heads-up on this fascinating piece of history)

Marc

WOW! I googled it and sounds like lots of fun Marc! We had one hamburger joint where all the cars turned up back in the 70's. That was it, not much to do in Australia. We did have a few discos though.

[NourishedEm]

Both vids are great!

Marc, are those Electric buses I see? It looks like buses running off the overhead electric cables. What a fab idea to cut down on emissions if I'm seeing right!