{"nrhp_refnum":"66000233","name":"San Francisco Cable Cars","other_names":[],"category":"structure","location":{"address":"1390 Washington St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"San Francisco","county":"San Francisco","state":"CA","lat":37.796063064000066,"lon":-122.41841471355141,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1966-10-15","is_nhl":true,"nhl_designated_date":"1964-01-29","areas_of_significance":["Transportation"],"significance_levels":["national"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A cable car street railway system in San Francisco, California, consisting of the cars, about 10 miles of track and cable on eight streets, turntables, and the car barn and power house at Washington and Mason Streets.","why_significant":"It is the only cable car system still operating in a United States city. The cable system suits San Francisco's steep hills, which kept it in use after electric street railways replaced cable cars elsewhere. It is also a widely recognized symbol of the city.","narrative":"San Francisco's cable cars form the last working cable street railway in an American city. The landmark covers the cars themselves, roughly 10 miles of track and underground cable on eight streets in the Nob Hill, Chinatown and North Beach areas, the turntables at line ends, and the brick car barn and power house at Washington and Mason Streets. That building holds the winding machinery that keeps the cables moving, and also stores the 39-car fleet. The system traces to Andrew S. Hallidee, an Englishman who built aerial mine cables in the western states. The first underground cable track was laid in August 1873, and eight companies eventually built 112 miles of track. Electric streetcars displaced cable cars in most cities by the early 1890s, but the steep grades of San Francisco prolonged their use. Residents have repeatedly objected to proposals to remove them, and the system remains a symbol of the city.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":"Designer: Andrew Hallidee","architectural_style":null,"criteria":[],"status_note":"System in operation with 39 cars in the fleet; the car barn and power house also houses a cable car museum.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:55:31.521258-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_CA/66000233_NHL.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/66000233/bb9e0b1a45-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/66000233/bb9e0b1a45-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"Pi.1415926535","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cable_car_19_on_Hyde_Street,_July_2023.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Pi.1415926535</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 4.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cable_car_19_on_Hyde_Street,_July_2023.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/123858072","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco_cable_car_system","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q374956"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/california/san-francisco/san-francisco-cable-cars-66000233/"}