Hacker Cinema
A Trip Down Market Street Before the Fire
1906 · Film · documentary · 12 min
Directed by Harry Miles
A Trip Down Market Street is a 13-minute actuality film recorded by placing a movie camera on the front of a cable car as it travels down San Francisco’s Market Street. A virtual time capsule from over 100 years ago, the film shows many details of daily life in a major American city, including the transportation, fashions and architecture of the era. The film begins at 8th Street and continues eastward to the cable car turntable, at The Embarcadero, in front of the San Francisco Ferry Building. It was produced by the four Miles brothers: Harry, Herbert, Earle and Joe. Harry J. Miles cranked the Bell & Howell camera during the filming.
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5 comments on Hacker News
First, where is the data?
Second, yeah, it's bananas to test large, fast, heavy robots on public streets. The only reason we let it happen is because the robots look like cars.
Third, it's bananas to have large, fast, heavy vehicles everywhere mixed in with all the other traffic. The only reason we let it happen is a mass-marketing campaign (see "The Real Reason Jaywalking Is A Crime" (Adam Ruins Everything) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxopfjXkArM )
Here is a film "a Trip down Market Street" recorded in San Francisco on April 14, 1906, just before the Great Earthquake. The source of the problem is clear: cars accelerate much faster than horses. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VO_1AdYRGW8
"This film was recorded by placing a movie camera on the front of a cable car as it proceeded down San Francisco’s Market Street. As a time capsule, the film showcases the details of daily life in a major American city, including the fashions, transportations and architecture of the era. The film was originally thought to have been made in 1905, but historian David Kiehn, who examined contemporary newspapers, weather reports and car license plates recorded in the film, suggested that “A Trip Down Market Street” was likely filmed just a few days before the devastating earthquake on April 18, 1906. Named to the National Film Registry in 2010."
And the range. At the time, long-distance travel was becoming possible for the average vehicle owner. And they didn't want to stop for half a day every hundred miles. Just like today.
Tangentally, I came across this film from Market Street in 1906. There's lots of different modes of transportation in use - horse-drawn carts, electric cars, gasoline cars, cable cars, electric trolleys, and pedestrians (who were amazingly casual about dodging between everything else that was moving - the accidental death toll was probably huge)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEvB_ZIWtAg
The film A Trip Down Market Street:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8YRbMMqj0qw
Just a reminder for anyone who values the Internet Archive as much as I do: it's easy to set up an automatic monthly donation.
If IA were a SaaS, they could easily charge more than my modest contribution and I would gladly pay it.
If you only know IA from the Wayback Machine, take a look at the other things they offer and you will find something of interest. I was delighted recently to find that they had digitized my BYTE Magazine articles from the '80s!
Of more general interest, IA has the entire Prelinger Archives, including all the wonderful Jam Handy films and A Trip Down Market Street Before the Fire:
https://archive.org/details/TripDownMarketStreetrBeforeTheFire
If you previously saw the original version with the ending that is out of frame sync, this one is cleaned up so you can watch it from beginning to end. Look for the gentleman with the windblown beard when they stop at the Ferry Building.