The vintage streetcars of the MUNI F Line that runs from the Castro District to Fisherman’s Wharf began running again this May, and it’s great to hear them rattling past again. (Thumbnail images)
Vintage streetcars are once again rolling past the Ferry Building, a couple of them almost as old as the ones in the 1900 picture.
Number 1079 rumbles past the Ferry Building where buses used to turn around during the 1950s:
Muni driver, Cheri, was kind enough to let me use her friendly smile for an update of a 1942 picture from the Muni History site.
Number 1814 turns onto Market Street from Steuart in a reverse angle shot of a 1942 picture from opensfhistory.org, taken at the same location:
Long ago, there used to be another F Line that ran along Stockton Street, seen here exiting the south end of the Stockton Tunnel during the 1940s in a photo from streetcar.org.
Market Street at Fifth during the early 1970s in a vintage photo from SF Gate:
A ginormous bus on display on Market Street at the cable car turnaround on Powell Street during the early 1970s photo from SF Gate. You can see a cable car on the turnaround in both photos.
Baseball is back in San Francisco, the Giants are in first place, and it’s great to see the cable cars appreciating it. They’ll be running again soon, as well.
San Francisco Film Locations Then & Now 
Sometime after the Loma Prieta Earthquake, perhaps several years later, Los Gatos outlawed buses. Seriously. People who rode buses could only get as far as Campbell, where the needed to transfer to a Los Gatos Shuttle for the rest of the trip into town. It was because we did not want ‘those kinds of people’ coming to our town. It was SO embarrassing. Well, house cleaners who schlepped their gear on buses and shuttles increased their rates to compensate for travel time. Their clients did not want to pay a few extra dollars for the maintenance of the multi-million dollar homes (which were expensive at the time), and petitioned for the return of the buses. Ironically, Los Gatos only became a town because it was a hub of transportation. The original name of the town was ‘la Rinconada de los Gatos’, or ‘Cat’s Corner’. It was literally named after a highway interchange. Peerless and Greyhound buses have not stopped there for decades.
Terrific history, Tony! Thank you!