How to RIDE the CABLE CARS in San Francisco? | A Beginners Guide

Hey there everyone, my name is Eduardo Arroyo, but you can call me Ed, and today we are here to experience the cable cars in San Francisco, California. Whenever you talk about San Francisco, you inevitably think about a few things. Some of the most popular ones include the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz Prison, and of course the cable car system in this city. If you are new to my channel, I would like to let you know that I've already completed a video on the Golden Gate Bridge as well as Alcatraz Prison. If you're interested, I'll make sure to leave a link in the description below for you to check out. Today the weather was really nice, so I thought to myself that this would be a great day to come and make a video about the cable cars. In the year that I've been living in this city, I've only ridden one of these three times. It's kind of crazy, I know, but I'm really excited to come back here and even more excited to share that experience with you guys. The main point of the video is to share some of the history about the cable car system here in San Francisco, to share with you guys a few tips and hopefully useful information in case you decide to come and visit the city. And overall, I just want to share a great day and a great experience with you guys. So, if you guys are interested, come with me! Before I share with you guys more information regarding the cable cars, such as where do I get on a cable car, what is the schedule of the cable car, and where do I get the tickets, I would first like to discuss a little bit about the history of how the cable car system even came to existence. The cable car system here in San Francisco originates back to a time when horses pulling on vehicles was still the most efficient method for public transportation. This method was very successful in cities with very flat surfaces, but as you might know, San Francisco is not known for having very flat surfaces, in fact, it's known for quite the opposite. The steep hills in this city prevented this method of public transportation from becoming safe or efficient. I'm sure back then, a lot of people asked themselves the same question, whether or not there was a better way to go about things. But it was not until a rich businessman by the name of Andrew Smith Halladay, who asked himself the same question and took it upon himself to find that better way to go about it. Through his efforts, as well with the help of other people, the cable car system came to be in 1873. Very quickly, it became one of the city's most widely used and recognizable methods of transportation. It's really hard to think about San Francisco nowadays without thinking about the cable cars. You'd think that the cable cars are untouchable and that nothing would ever happen to them. However, they've actually been at risk of being eliminated twice in the past. I won't get into the details of that, you can go ahead and research that on your own, but isn't that crazy? Imagine San Francisco without its cable car system. It definitely wouldn't be the same. As you can clearly see, that never happened and the cable cars are still functioning till this day. I find it really crazy that we're still using the same method of transportation that San Franciscans used in the 1800s. That my friends, is kind of wild. That was just a tiny bit about the history of the cable car system in San Francisco. I definitely skipped a lot. If you are interested in knowing more, definitely go ahead and research that on your own. For now, the next point of business is to talk about how and where you get on these things. So, where do you go if you want to get on a cable car? There's actually two locations where you can go ahead and do that. Of course, that is without counting the different stops down the road that each of the cable car has. What I'm talking about are originating points and there's two. The main one or the most famous one is here in the financial district where we are today. Today we are in the intersection of Powell and Market. The main reason why this location is really popular is for this reason. Let me show you. The main attraction to this particular location right here is, of course, the cable car turnaround which by its name, you can tell exactly what it does. The main purpose of the cable car turnaround is to turn the cable car around into the opposite direction and this, as you can see, is a manual process. There is a guy that is pushing it to make it go the other way. This is a really great place to come and check out. As you can see, there's a lot of people taking video and pictures to post on their social media. It's definitely a place that you can't miss out. It's so close to a lot of places here in the downtown area. There's someone selling art here. As I mentioned, there's a lot of people selling stuff. She's one of them. Are you vlogging? Yes. Art sale! Buy this! Make sure to come all the way here. Herman Picasso on Instagram. Awesome. Alright, thank you. Like I was saying, there's two lines that go through here. The Powell and Hyde and the Powell and Mason cable car lines, but there's actually a third one that doesn't go through here. The third one is a cable car that goes through California Street. I'll put up a picture. The route kind of intersects with this one. I've actually never gone on the red line, the cable car that goes through California Street. Maybe I should check it out someday, but right now, the main focus is the tickets, just general information for you guys. Right now, I'm on my way to the ticket booth, which is, I would say, the main way that people get tickets, I guess. It's right here. In order to get your ticket, make sure you have small bills available. I think from what I remember last time, it was just $7, so it's not too bad. It does take you a far distance, so I think it's a fair price. But yeah, this is one of the main points where you can get your tickets. But guys, the future is now, and I'm going to recommend you to download the Muni app and do it just online. Do a favor to yourself and download the app and buy the tickets before coming here. I finally made it to the line. I think it's going to be about 30 minutes before I get to the beginning of the line, which is over there. But anyways, I ran my phone, I ran my headphones, so I have entertainment for the next 30 minutes. There's actually someone playing the guitar over there, so it's not too boring. But yeah, I'll be here for a while. I can catch up with you guys whenever I get the chance. So I got in line in front of Sephora, now I'm across. In this point right here, I'm really close to the boarding point, which is in front of this sign right here. And I think the cable car is coming in a few minutes, so I'm really excited. I think I'm getting on the next one. And just like that, we got to the end of the Powell and Mason line. This one takes you all the way to Fisherman's Wharf. I picked this one just because I knew I wanted to come here to get some food. And there's a lot of really cool places in this area right here. I'm getting on everyone's way right now. Everyone's coming to take pictures. So I strongly recommend, if you're like a thrill seeker or something, at some point I thought a car was going to smash onto my side or something. I was like, oh snap. And I'm sure you saw from the footage that we actually got pretty close to some of the cars and some of the buildings and whatnot. Anyways guys, I don't know if there's any other better location and way to end this vlog than right here at the start slash finish of this cable car right here. It was really great to bring you guys along. It always is. I always have a lot of fun making these for you guys. If you enjoy my content, please go ahead and like the video and subscribe to my channel if you haven't already. I have a lot of really cool videos planned out for the future. So hopefully you guys stick along. I just want to remind you guys to always be kind, have an open mind. We'll see you next time.