San Francisco is celebrating its cable cars throughout this 150th anniversary year, and had a special celebration on the actual 150th anniversary date of Andrew Hallidie’s first cable car trip.

Tony Bennett has moved on to perform the Great American Songbook in the sky. It’s now time for San Francisco to immediately give him our highest honor: a cable car dedicated to him. Read why, and learn little-known facts about the song and singer who ensured enduring fame for those little cable cars that climb “halfway to the stars”.

Forty years ago, the sound of cable car bells was replaced by the backup beeping of heavy equipment as the entire cable car system was rebuilt, driven by a mayor determined to make it happen quickly. And it did, just 19 months for everything.

Most folks see cable cars as quaint antiques now, but 150 years ago they were the “next big thing” - a giant leap forward in urban transportation technology. It’s quite a story: steam engines, horses, Stanford, Edison — all this and Andrew Hallidie too.

The California Street cable car line has terminated at Market Street since 1891. Since 1973, the now-iconic Hyatt Regency Hotel has been its neighbor there. But before that, it was quite a different scene. We go wayyy back.

Did you know that famed film director and writer Melvin Van Peebles was once a cable car gripman in San Francisco?

In 1954, San Francisco’s famous cable car system was cut in half. Politics and dirty tricks combined to fool voters and approve changes to a system that just seven years before, they had voted to save. Read the story here.

Since 1888, a small wooden structure has stood on the southeast corner of Powell and California Streets. It’s an essential sentinel protecting the world’s only cable car crossroads.

San Francisco almost lost its Powell Street cable cars in 1947. A determined woman overcame the male-dominated establishment to stop them. Read the story here.