A Trip Down Market Street [San Francisco], 1906

[jtbell]

The TV program "60 Minutes" tonight featured a story about the film A Trip Down Market Street Before the Fire which was shot from the front of a cable car traveling down Market Street in San Francisco. It was originally thought to have been filmed in September 1905, but recent research revealed that it was actually made in April 1906, the week before the great earthquake and fire which destroyed most of the buildings that are seen in the film, and probably killed some of the people in it. The studio that produced the film was also destroyed, but the film escaped because it was shipped to New York by train the night before the earthquake struck.

The film has been digitally restored, and the clips that were shown on "60 Minutes" look a lot better than the older versions that you can download from the link. You can even read the license plate numbers on the cars that circle around the cable car, one clue which led to the correct date of filming (by way of the cars' registration dates).

 

[D H]

Busy, busy place, and utter chaos! It appears the rules of the road back then were drive on the right side of the road, unless by chance you want to drive on the left side of the road.

 

[jtbell]

The apparently huge number (for 1906) of automobiles weaving around is actually just two or three. They were hired by the film producer to drive in circles around the cable car to liven up the scene a bit.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Very cool!

I thought for sure the guy on the bike was going to get his tire stuck in the rut of the track.

 

[hypatia]

That was very cool, thanks for sharing it. I'm glad I did not live there.