San Francisco 1906 film footage, NEAT!

[jasper]

Quote from another forum:

I thought many of you would enjoy the historic 7 min film of a street car

traveling in 1906 California. The youtube link is below.

 

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 amount of automobiles is staggering for 1906. Absolutely amazing! The

clock tower at the end of Market Street at the Embarcadero wharf is still

there. (I'm also wondering ... how many "street cleaning" people were

employed to pick up after the horses? Talk about going green!)

Great historical film worth watching.

 

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

 

 

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 quake and shipped by train to NY for

processing. Amazing but true!

Edited April 14, 2010 by jasper

[cygnusx1]

Very cool indeed!  How did it take so long to invent the double yellow line????

[woldson]

Hard to believe that is just a 100plus years.

 

Now watching it over high speed data lines on computers....

 

Really not long ago,,,not at all.

 

 

Funny how somethings don't change much, all those goofs trying to get on camera!!

[Dan Juday]

Pretty amazing. Low speed chaos on Market Street. As a young service tech I worked in many of the old buildings along Market and Mission. I wonder how many in that film I may have worked in.

 

Another tidbit: At the tender age of 22 my grandfather was applying for a job with a stock broker in San Francisco when the quake hit. The building he was in was heavily damaged but did not collapse and he was not injured. He didn't wait to see if he got the job. Instead he high-tailed it to Chicago and took a job on the exchange processing inter-exchange orders over telegraph. "The next biggest shaker I experienced was in October of '29". That "quake" was somewhat less centralized though.

[cygnusx1]

That camera was probaly HUGE and they couldn't help but notice in on the front of that Trolley.  That was like space technology to them.  I don't think I saw any planes in the sky either!