Never Ending Cable

After a lovely flight over from the UK yesterday during which we took advantage of as much free champagne as possible, we landed in San Francisco and headed for our hotel via a few of the main sites.

We were up early on Saturday morning due to jet lag and so took the opportunity to head down to fisherman's wharf for breakfast in the early morning sun before heading back into Union Square on one of the famous cable cars. We spent time having a good look around the posh shops and marvelling at the quite unique folk that fill the streets over here!

On the way back to the hotel we stopped off at the cable car museum which also houses the current winch house. The whole system is a marvel of engineering, the cables run at a constant speed of 9.5 mph in channels beneath the streets and the cars have grips which pick up/drop the cables to allow them to move.

There are 4 main lines, Hyde, California, Mason and Powell and in the blip above you can see the drive wheel for each cable (California is currently out of action for maintenance) After leaving the winch house the 4 cables run for miles beneath the city streets in a large loop before returning from whence they came.

So far I have to say SF is one of the best cities I have ever visited, it's absolutely fantastic! I keep expecting to see Steve Mcqueen pop over the hill in his mustang, but sadly I haven't seen him yet.