San Francisco has a number of iconic landmarks – the Golden Gate Bridge, Coit Tower, the Ferry Building – but only one is also a transportation system. The famous San Francisco cable cars have been around since before the 1906 Earthquake and Fire, taking natives and visitors alike from the spine of The City, Market Street to the edge of the Bay, or what was once the western edge of San Francisco itself. Although what you see today is only a fraction of the system that once served much of the hilly city, riding the cable car is, for many, a San Francisco must.
When I was a boy (and you could ride the bus or trolley for 10 cents, the cable car was just a more fun way of getting around. It also just cost 10 cents, and was used by ordinary people as public transportation. If you wanted to get to Nob Hill, Chinatown, North Beach, or Fisherman’s Wharf, and didn’t want to drive (or didn’t have a car), you took the cable car. Well, the price has gone up a bit (to $5), and there are a lot more tourists than San Franciscans now, but if you visit SF, whether as a student at EC San Francisco
, or just to see the sights, if I were you, I’d spend the money and ride this bit of Living History.