Cable Car, Powell & Hyde Sts. Photo

A close up picture taken of a San Francisco Cable Car which makes its way up Powell and Hyde St. San Francisco's cable cars are unique in that they are the only street railway in which the cars do not operate under their own power. Instead, the cars are propelled mechanically, by "gripping" a continuously moving steel cable which runs in a conduit underneath a slot between the rails. The cable is kept in motion by an engine in a centrally-located powerhouse. The cable car system was developed in San Francisco because of a guy named Andrew Hallidie whom in 1869 witnessed a horse-car accident and wanted to develop a cable railway to stop such accidents. In 1873 HGallidie tested the first cable car system near the top of Nob HIll at Clay and Jones Streets. Ever since this date the Cable Car system kept growing and became one of the symbols of San Francisco.