Description: San Francisco is famous for its steep, straight streets but probably even more so for the cable cars that climb up and down them. The cable cars are both a tourist attraction and a good way of navigating the city without exhausting yourself with steep climbs. If you are in the city, you should definitely have a go on one of the cars if you get chance.
There are three routes operating through the city. The first goes along California Street, but is one that is less often used by tourists because it doesn’t service the attraction per say, with it running between the financial district and Van Ness. Much more often used by tourists and also much more convenient to tourists are the two lines that run between Fisherman’s Wharf at the sea front and Union Square, which is the main shopping area in the city. The lines all operate from 6am until midnight daily so are a great way of getting between the two areas that are popular with visitors due to there being lots of hotels in both areas. The cable cars aren’t cheap though. If you have a Muni Passport, which is a transport pass that allows you use of all of the buses, streetcars and cable cars in the Municipal System for a set duration and price, then you can use it for free, otherwise it is a fairly hefty six dollars for a single journey regardless of where you get on or off the car. As with many public transport systems in the United States, you must buy your ticket before you board the car and you can do this at the various ticket points along the route.
The two routes I have mentioned are particularly busy if you join them at either end of the route and you will find that you have to queue for a while, particularly at Union Square. The cars are also quite small, so they don’t let that many people ride on each one. Having said that, if you are one of the last to join, you will have to ride on one of the footplates at the edge of the car – arguably the best and most fun way to do it, but you’ll have to remember to breathe in when you pass other traffic on the way!
According to Wikipedia, the San Francisco cable car system is the last permanently operational manually operated one in the world and it is this manual operation that makes it such a fascinating and quaint way to get around. When you board the cars you can see all of the mechanisms in the middle of them and you can’t help but have a lot of respect for the drivers who have to use more than a bit of elbow grease to get them going and then stopping again. The cars can only stop on the flat bits of the roads at the busy cross sections which makes it quite amusing when they stop all traffic in order to let people on and off. The cars themselves are very traditional and are exactly as you would imagine them to look; made with polished wood and lots of dark colours and you’ll not be able to resist taking a picture of them.
Even though it is a fairly pricey way to get around, you should definitely have a go on one of San Francisco’s most famous tourist attractions because they are a lot of fun and are actually quite convenient.
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