Morning journal and courier., 1883-02-06
San Franeisco's Peculiar Street Rail-
From the San Franoiseo Directory. I


 The Clay Street Hill railroad is distin- guished as being the pioneer 'fcable road" not only of this city, but of the world. The system is unique, and triumph of inventive genius and engineering skill of which San Francisco has just cause to be proud. While every city is seeking to perfect and cheapen it's means of transit from business centers to suburbs, none have been found so effective cheap, safe and pleasant as the underground cable and the stationary engine. This tra. verses hills as well as level streets, forms no more obstruction than the ordinary track, is noiseless in its operations and the cars are more completely under control than when attached to horses. By it's means the hilly regions are made as accessible as the level portion, and as they are regarded as health fer, those localities having the greatest eleva- ton are the most desirable for residences. The construction of the Clay street road was regarded as an experiment. of a very doubt full character, and the difficulties surmounted by the originator, and the labor bestowed upon the plans and exercised upon capitalists to enlist them in the enterprise, were equal to the physical work of constructing the road itself For this San Francisco is indebted to MT. Benjamin H. Brooks, son of the distin- guished lawyer, B. s. Brooks, a pioneer of 1S49. Attention was early called to devise means of direct access to the northern por- tion of the Western Addition" to which the high, precipitous ridge extending north from Bush street seemed an insurmountable barrier. A tunnel through the ridge along Broadway was proposed, and an act of the Legislature was passed authorizing it. For several years this was agitated as the only feasible means, but 1t did not appear to fill the requirements, and the great cost forbade capital investing in it. This would have still left the elevated lands without relief, and it is fortunate that the tunnel was not under taken. Mir. Brooks having conceived the happy idea of an endless wire cable, laid un- der the surface of the street and operated by stationary engine, set his inventive genius to work to perfect the details. A year or more was spent in planning, draughting and experimenting, having in this the efficient aid of Mir. Hepburn, a very skillfuI civil en- gineer, and when fully prepared, the scheme, as subsequently, carried out and now in suc- cessful operation, was presented to the Board of Supervisors and franchise asked for. Thomas H. Selby, who was then Mayor, hes itated long and investigated the matter thor oughly before approving it, and then not un- til such engineers as General Alexander of the army, B. F. Brunner, of the Rolling Mills, N. D. .Arnott, of the street railroad, and others, had assured him of the feasibili- ty of the plan and the safety of the operation as proposed In 1869 the franchise was granted. The next great difficulty was to induce capital to invest in the enterprise. So novel was the scheme, and so poor the pE0spSct OI E0mHu01atlO0, tnaL BbOCk gambling was considered preferable, and local capital refused to touch it. A subsidy of $50, 1000 was obtained from property holders along the route, but even with this help no money to do the work could be obtained. Eastern capitalists were invited to investigate it, but upon examining the locality. seeing the steep hill and the few pedestrians upon the street, declared it would never pay and conseled the enthusiasm of the inventer by admiring the skillfulness of his plans, but declining to invest. Thus struggling for some years, the plans and franchise were in 1872 transferred to MT. Halhdie for a nominal consideration. new subsidy was subscribed, the great experiment undertaken and in September, 1873, it was completed from Kearny to Leavenworth street. and put in operation Not only has it proved a mechanical success, but, contrary to the opinion of capitalists, it has been remunerative beyond all systems in use. So complete and economical has it proven that other com panies have adopted it, and in all proba-