Sunday, July 19, 2009

San Francisco: Cable cars

Blogging from San Fransisco.

The City by the Bay is famous for a lot of things, one of them is cable cars. They're neat to look at, and the technology that makes them run, slow down, and stop, is fascinating.

To prepare for our ride, we visited the Cable Car Museum in the Nob Hill district, where admission is free.

Gears and of course cables (I'm sure I'm misphrasing this) power the cars. Some of them are pictured on the lower left side of this post.

After a half hour wait, we hopped on a cable car on Powell Street across the street from the museum--we were told the cars run every ten minutes--mechanical difficulties slowed this one down.

Getting on the car was chaotic, the driver wasn't sure if there was space for us. There was, but amidst the confusion, he forgot to charge us the to get on the car. A ride is $5.00, but it's good for the entire day

The ride: We hated it. The cars are slow, the ride is jerky, the seats were all taken, so we couldn't see much, and friction of the cables gives off an odd smell, similar to the odor of an electrical fire.

But the cable cars are great to look at.



Related posts:

San Francisco's blues mural

San Francisco arrival

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