While in no way motor sport related I think this is a fascinating scene of Market Street in San Francisco c1905.
You may want to turn off the sound. Note most vehicles are rhd.
http://www.flixxy.com/san-francisco-1905-h...cal-footage.htm
Not much chance of identifying cars as the quality is poor and most are only seen from the rear which makes for great difficulty.
As for RHD a lot of US-made cars were built RHD until the mid-teens in the same way that French cars were - both drove on the right, although there's a very full car at about 3 min 30 in this film whose driver has a different view!
RHD with RH rule of the road allows the driver to alight safely on the pavement/sidewalk and until overtaking on twisty roads became common was no disadvantage. In Britain we never produced LHD cars for the home market but they did so in Sweden when it was LH rule of the road.
As for RHD a lot of US-made cars were built RHD until the mid-teens in the same way that French cars were - both drove on the right, although there's a very full car at about 3 min 30 in this film whose driver has a different view!
RHD with RH rule of the road allows the driver to alight safely on the pavement/sidewalk and until overtaking on twisty roads became common was no disadvantage. In Britain we never produced LHD cars for the home market but they did so in Sweden when it was LH rule of the road.
That was indeed fascinating. Life looked almost as chaotic just before the earthquake as it did just after it!
QUOTE
can you identify any vehicles?
Trolley cars , a bicycle , and several horse drawn carriages .
I see one young man on "shanks' mares" noticed the camera and managed to show up over several blocks of travel. I noted the car we were traveling on disappointed several would-be riders who signaled to no avail.
It says: taken from a streetcar, but it seems to me we're travelling by tram.
Apart from the horse drawn carriages this is about as chaotic as it is driving a car through Amsterdam on a saturday afternoon nowadays.
Apart from the horse drawn carriages this is about as chaotic as it is driving a car through Amsterdam on a saturday afternoon nowadays.
QUOTE (sonar @ Feb 13 2010, 07:29) 
It says: taken from a streetcar, but it seems to me we're travelling by tram.
Apart from the horse drawn carriages this is about as chaotic as it is driving a car through Amsterdam on a saturday afternoon nowadays.
Apart from the horse drawn carriages this is about as chaotic as it is driving a car through Amsterdam on a saturday afternoon nowadays.
"streetcar" is US English for what we in Britain call a "tram"
Beautiful old footage - seems to have been "smoothed" cf the way it might have appeared with the hand cranked(?) cameras of that time.
I'd be so bold as to label it a cable car, by the way. And I didn't see a Sizaire anywhere...
I'd be so bold as to label it a cable car, by the way. And I didn't see a Sizaire anywhere...
QUOTE (onelung @ Feb 13 2010, 12:22)
Beautiful old footage - seems to have been "smoothed" cf the way it might have appeared with the hand cranked(?) cameras of that time.
I'd be so bold as to label it a cable car, by the way. And I didn't see a Sizaire anywhere...
I'd be so bold as to label it a cable car, by the way. And I didn't see a Sizaire anywhere...
Aaah, you missed it - it whizzed pass just before the beginning
I am glad everyone enjoyed it as much as I did. In the late sixties I was taking the 'cable car' from Market Street to Fisherman's Wharf and standing on the rear plate, when a Ferrari coupe' , probably a 340MM, came close up behind us "a'whoopin and a'hollerin" as Manney would have said.
(Imagine an early fifties Ferrari behind a slow moving tram up a steep San Francisco hill...)
(Imagine an early fifties Ferrari behind a slow moving tram up a steep San Francisco hill...)
This is a "lo-fi" version of our main content. To view the full version with more information, formatting and images, please click here.