# How San Franciscans Saved the Cable Cars From Extinction

> San Francisco’s cable cars began in 1873, when Andrew Hallidie adapted mining-cable technology to move passengers over hills that defeated horses. Electric streetcars and the 1906 earthquake shrank the network, and in 1947 Mayor Roger Lapham moved to replace the worn, expensive Powell Street lines with buses. Friedel Klussmann and the women-led Citizens’ Committee to Save the Cable Cars answered with research, petitions, publicity, celebrity support and a charter amendment. Proposition 10 won 77% of the vote, preserving the Powell lines and turning a vulnerable technology into a protected civic landmark.

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Last updated: 2026-09-23