9/50.- San Francisco, Cable car

Here is a cable car. A cable car works like a detachable ski lift chair. Except the cable that pulls it up hills is hidden beneath a middle track under the cable car. When the cable car makes a stop, it detaches from the cable. The reason cable cars were used in San Francisco (and there were many more lines than exist today) was because the hills were too steep to use horse-drawn street cars or even electric street cars. Another interesting fact about San Francisco's cable cars: They are the only moving national monument in the US.

It's time for a ride downtown. From Bay and Taylor at Fisherman's Wharf, we will now take a Powell-Mason cable car through North Beach, over the Nob Hill crossing the city to Powell station on Market Street. A quick stop by the Visitors Information Center (downstairs) will be useful. Maps in pockets we can now walk on Powell St. for our next destination: Union Square - the shopping center.

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