Clay Street Hill Railroad

The Clay Street Hill Railroad was the first successful cable-hauled street railway, opening for service in San Francisco, California on September 1, 1873. Built by Andrew Smith Hallidie and engineered by William Eppelsheimer, it ran along Clay Street up the slopes of Nob Hill, using an underground moving cable in place of horses, and introduced the grip-and-cable system that became the model for cable railways built afterward around the world. The line proved commercially successful, carrying about 3,000 passengers a day within its first year of operation. It was absorbed into larger San Francisco transit operations in 1888 and eventually became a small part of the city's cable car system before its original infrastructure was demolished on February 15, 1942. One of its original grip cars, Grip car No. 8, survives at the San Francisco Cable Car Museum.