San Francisco 1906

The following link to YouTube will take you back 104 years. It is a short movie shot from the front of a street car. It is amazing. Here is the note that accompanied the link when it was sent to me: (watch it a couple of times and reflect upon then and now.)

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

Here you go.........I know you will like this one. I couldn't belive that there wasn't some kind of accident before the street car got to where it was going. At about three minutes in, one guy walks out from behind a crossing streetcar and doesn't even look to his left. Lot's more, just watch!

Amazing, can't believe the way people and vehicles dart in front of the street car. Is this how the game of "chicken" came about?

A fascinating movie taken by a camera on the front of a street car 104 years ago. I watched it a couple of times. Look at the hats the ladies were wearing and the long dresses. Some of the cars had the steering wheels on the right side. I wonder when they standardized on the left? 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 ³home movie² that you will ever see!

This film was "lost" for many years. It was the first 35mm film ever. 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!

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!