Ferries & Cliff House Railway

California / Transit / Ferries & Cliff House Railway

History

By John F. Hall

The Ferries & Cliff House Railway was both a cable car and a steam railway in San Francisco. The cable cars ran from the Ferry House at the foot of Market street up Sacramento Street to today's Presidio Avenue. From there the three foot gauge F&CH ran west on California Street then north on 33rd Avenue to the cliffs of the Golden Gate where the route turned west and continued along the cliffs with a spectacular view until it reached the gates to Sutro Heights and the area of the Cliff House and Sutro Baths. A branch of the railway diverted at 7th Avenue to Golden Gate Park. The purpose of the F&CH was to bring tourists out to the Sutro and Ocean Beach areas as well as Golden Gate Park.

Envisioned by Adolph Sutro as competition to the Southern Pacific's standard gauge Park & Ocean Railroad, the F&CH was originally built by Adolph's cousin Gustav Sutro. The cable and steam railroad were under one corporation in order to be able to charge one low fare of five cents from the Ferry House to Sutro Heights. The City required each corporation to charge a separate fare. An anti-competition law suggested by the Southern Pacific.

The Cliff Line

When the steam F&CH was opened for service in July 1888 the line was double tracked along California Street, 33rd Avenue and along the cliff until the 200 foot long tunnel about one half mile west of 33rd Avenue. From there it was initially a single track but photographic evidence shows that it was later doubled tracked the entire distance. However the double track was short lived. The cliffs of Lands End are composed of unstable soil and rock. During the massive storms of winter 1892-3, when the Wright's tunnel on the South Pacific Coast Railroad was closed for four months due to a massive landslide, significant damage was also done to the F&CH. Heavily in debt Gustav Sutro sold the F&CH and other railroad holdings to the Pacific Development Company, a Southern Pacific subsidiary. Portions of the double track along the cliffs became single track with passing sidings. Fares were doubled to 10 cents. In February 1896 the west end of the tunnel collapsed as a train entered the east end. It was reopened a week later. Steam power continued to move the cars until April 1905 when the line was again double tracked and electrified. The tunnel was day lighted. Then, similar to the steam line, the streetcar line became single track with passing sidings. The final blow came with a massive slide just east of the tunnel location that severed the railroad completely. The cliffs never stopped their relentless sliding into the Golden Gate.

Bibliography

Rice, Walter, and Echeverría Emiliano. When Steam Ran on the Streets of San Francisco: The Story of Passenger Steam Trains on San Francisco Streets. Forty Fort PA: Harold E. Cox, 2002

Hilton, George W. The Cable Car in America: A New Treatise Upon Cable or Rope Traction as Applied to the Working of Street and Other Railways. Berkeley, California: Howell-North Books, 1971.

Reference Material Available Online

Equipment Rosters

Locomotives of the Ferries & Cliff House Railway

Documentation

Martini, John, Merrie Way & The Lands End Street Railways, Abbreviated Cultural Landscape Report, Golden Gate National Recreation Area, San Francisco, CA, January 2006

Video

Traveling Along the Cliffs as the Ferries and Cliff House Railway returns from Sutro Baths.

Filmed by Thomas Edison, Inc., 1902. Library of Congress

California / Transit / Ferries & Cliff House Railway