Time Machine - A Ride Through San Francisco April 1906 a week before the great earthquak

A historical ride (camera mounted on the front of a cable car) down Market Street in San Francisco in 1906. It was one of the first 35mm films ever taken. The clock tower at the end of Market Street at the Embarcadero wharf is still there. The film was originally thought to be from 1905 until David Kiehn, with the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum, figured out exactly when it was shot. New York trade papers announced the film showing the wet streets from recent heavy rainfall. Shadows indicated the time of year and actual weather conditions on the historical record. The records even provided when the autos were registered and who owned them according to the issued plates. Supposedly, the street scenario was filmed only four days before the quake, and the film shipped by train to NY for processing.

• Category

  Travel & Events

[David Smith]

In regards to 100 year old people. I just saw an episode of the 50s TV program, "I've Got A Secret", on YouTube. The very old man on this particular episode had to be assisted to his chair and aided in hearing & understanding the questions from the panel. His Secret? As a five year old boy, he was in Ford's Theater and witnessed the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.

[David Lemon]

I remember drawing the portrait of a man, 110 years old, who was born during the Civil War and when he was a small kid, remembered sitting on the lap of Brigham Young, who let the Mormons to the Salt Lake Valley in 1848... Yeah I know about meeting people who've lived history... It brings it home how little time has passed since...

[cciemail]

I don't have time to close all your pop up windows. JEEZ. thumbs down!

[David Lemon]

All you have to do is click on the little red box next to the gear in the bottom tool bar.. it keeps all the pop ups from popping up.. lol I just found that out on another video by someone else..

[Vic Mehta]

everyone in this video is now deceased. most of the landmarks and structures in the video are no longer remaining. makes you appreciate the mortality we must all face...here one day and gone the next, but captured in film until that too is lost

[Derek Alfred Taylor]

...just checking the footage for anyone talking on a mobile phone...

[Robert Jackson]

Should I tell it again?

[sithinthemaking]

lol at the newspaper boy running in front of the tram at 5:02 XD

Some things don't change.

[cciemail]

must be a new feature. thanks for the tip!

[David Lemon]

One more thing. I was born in 1945. You figure people were alive then that were 100 years old.. so they were born in 1845. Their great grandparents were alive durring the Revolutionary War... kinda makes you realize, how young our country really is... don't it?

[David Lemon]

I'm Mormon, and this old man bore his testimony in church on Fast Sunday, that's the first sunday of the month. He told the story that when he was 4, his mother took him to Salt Lake City, to see Brigham Young. She was having trouble getting the crops in on their farm. Her husband, his dad, was on a mission and the local Elders were supposed to help and they weren't. When he told that story, I was blown away. When I was born in 1945, there were people alive that were alive in 1845.. freaky huh?

[David Lemon]

A hand full of the people you see.. and they probably weren't seen because they were babies.. are alive today.. the rest are dead. Just astounding when you think of it.. where are they all buried.. lol

I met a guy once back in the early 70s that was born in 1863.. imagine that. He was alive during the Civil war, and all the major migration of pioneers and Indian battles, in the old west. He was 110 when I met him. Told me he remembered sitting on Brigham Young's Lap when he was a toddler.