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Transport in 1906

Aidan

Aidan

master brummie
GGJean shared this link with me (Thanks :) ) and as it doesn't appear to have been posted before thought I'd share it wider.

Ok - it's Market Street, San Francisco not Birmingham - but I think it gives a startling flavour of what our own city streets may have been like 100 years ago - so surprising that when I first viewed it I thought it must be a fake in that it looks too good to be true, with every type of transport seemingly represented - I leave it to you to decide and comment. It's only 7mins long and worth viewing full screen:
https://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=NINOxRxze9k

Googlemaps streetview shows the current view on Market Street with the tramlines and the clock at Embarcadero Wharf still in situ https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=37...=ZKi5eOmPV8S1_TcpcH9zOA&cbp=12,55.17,,0,-2.73

The following info was included: This film was was taken by a camera mounted on the front of a cable car in San Francisco. This 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. This was done from New York trade papers announcing the film showing, to the wet streets from recent heavy rainfall & shadows indicating time of year & actual weather and conditions on historical record. Records show when the cars were registered and Kiehn says he even knows who owned them and when the plates were issued! This was filmed only four days before the Great California Earthquake of April 18th 1906 and then shipped by train to NY for processing. Quite a story!!!

The full 14min video without music (but appears to be more compressed) is available from https://outside.in/california/tags/Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum

Different qualities of the full video can be downloaded and kept from https://www.archive.org/details/TripDown1905 (recommended for buffer-free play in any case)

Apparently, Ernie Gehr used and extended this footage to create his film "Eureka" in 1974 https://www.canyoncinema.com/rentsale.html - if anyone finds a clip to download, please share it (possible link at https://arttorrents.blogspot.com/2008/02/ernie-gehr-eureka-1974.html but I can't work out how to access ... help!! :boohoo: )
 
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Thanks for posting this Aidan as I am a bit useless. It was sent to me by Dennis who has been a member of the forum for many years but does not go on much as his wife is very ill so he sends me things of interest to put on [or ask someone else to]. I found this video fascinating to say the least. Jean.
 
Thanks to Dennis, Jean and Aidan for bringing that to the forum (a real team effort).
It is fascinating and I am sure our city streets were like that.
As you say Aidan so many forms of transport - and no road rage by the looks of things!
Thank you, I really enjoyed it.
Polly :)
 
Also meant to say - thank you for posting the google street view of the same street now - seems really strange watching the old one and then switching to the new one - travelling in footsteps of the past - kind of sad too I suppose.
Polly :)
 
It is quite hypnotic and has an ethereal quality - akin to watching archaeology come alive. It has so many areas of interest too and begs so many questions - forms of transport, highway code, clothing, architecture, what were the stats on road accident (surely high), property boundaries (comparing then and now), Businesses (eg Sanborns) - it packs a lot into a few minutes
 
Brilliant!

Aidan, Dennis and Jean. What a brilliant movie of 1906 pre-earthquake San Francisco! I watched it with bated breath. It is absolutely packed with interest for the public transport enthusiast and deserves to be more widely known. Thanks for bringing it to the forum. I'm going to watch it again (and again, and ...). :)
 
Thanks Thylacine I have watched it again again and again. Am still waiting for someone to get run over. It is brilliant and I thank Dennis for passing it on to me and Aidan for posting it. Jean.
 
Thylacine - I did think of you when I saw the horse drawn bus towards the end of the full version. Agree wish it were of Birmingham streets. Be careful though, it is definitely addictive.

My tip for this week is download to your PC, play full screen natch, and start Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells Part-1 on audio - does it for me!
 
For similar images from the U.K. in the same time frame the BFI has the Mitchell & Kenyon films available on DVD.
 
Not a video and no motors that I can spot, but another Forum member shared with me the attached picture of New Street around the turn of the last century - It does seem remarkably close to the 1906 SF video. Amazing. Did we ever develop a law against "jay-walking"?
 
I really like that picture, Aidan!

The point about "jay-walking" in those days is that the horse-drawn vehicles rarely travelled faster than five miles an hour, which is a brisk walking pace. So the streets were a lot less dangerous than they looked. Of course when motor vehicles arrived the danger increased somewhat, but even then the maximum speed was no more than twelve mph for quite a while (you see it printed on the early motor buses).
 
Have I been spending too much time on the Birmingham Steam Buses 1824-1910 Thread? Or is it cos I tried a bit of Pink Floyd with telecine this time, ahem, man? But I am sure I saw a Steam vehicle about 9mins in of the full length version. Telling myself it must just be a leaky radiator (I remember when my Marina had one of those and it looked nothing like that!). Will change the record, grab a coffee and roll tape again....
 
That is a lovely photo it seems very real......well I know it was. I am not surprised so many were injured by the massive cart wheels. I remember in Kathleen Dayus's book her son was killed by one. I also have a friend with a family letter around 1890 and the father of the family was badly injured by one and could not work. They fell on very hard times because of the accident.
 
Thanks Wendy - I think you are right and the accidents do seem to be largely with the vulnerable young and old. One of my direct rellies were knocked senseless by a tram I think during the relatively recent Blackout which caused epilepsy and I'm sure hastened his early death.

I attach a similar photo that Rupert posted on the Panorama thread again showing just how busy New St was around 1900 - the Video that kicked this thread off I think shows how busy these cities were - something that I didn't imagine until I saw it
 
Aidan said:
...My tip for this week is download to your PC, play full screen natch, and start Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells Part-1 on audio - does it for me!
Click to expand...

Still find this the best - anyone have any other suggestions?
 
ooohhhh - good case, but by Academy of Ancient Music/Christopher Hogwood I think for preference then you could round the timing off with Gluck's Dance of the Blessed Spirits and/or Furies depending on mood
 
A frightening comparison to the original film is this one, shot in the immediate aftermath of the devastating 1906 earthquake. Many collapsed and damaged buildings can be seen, and some of the ones still standing were obviously ravaged by fire.
The power released in 1906 is estimated as about 8 on the Richter Scale, equivalent to 63 followed by 15 noughts joules of energy. The 1989 earthquake was only 6.9 Richter, 1/42 as strong. Both events were movements on the San Andreas Fault, the two halves of which move 1¼ to 1½ inches in opposite directions to each other (relatively - actually both sides are moving North-West, but at different speeds).
Up to 3000 died as a result of the 1906 event, and 225,000 to 300,000 were made homeless - San Fransisco's population at the time was 410,000.

https://www.archive.org/details/tmp_50168
 
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Thanks for pointing us to that post-earthquake footage, Lloyd. The contrast between "before" and "after" is sobering indeed. It appears that a tram-mounted camera was again employed, but no other trams are seen, except for a distant view of a horse-drawn one. Amazing scenes, again calling for an appropriate soundtrack.
 
That is a great find LLoyd taking the same route as far as I can make out some months later - the devastation is immense and I imagine all the mechanical vehicles were buried.

Although it follows the tram-way, the camera swerves around some debris at one point so can't be track-based.

My suggestion for accompaniment is Samuel Barber: Agnus Dei (Adagio for strings), I like the choral version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkObnNQCMtM
 
Aidan I can play adagio on the piano if you like but guess the answer would be NO THANKS BUT THANKS?. Jean.
 
Well I'm impressed Jean - if you can record it & upload it to the youtube then I will certainly link to it :)
 
I'm not that good ask Patty?. I was only kidding about adding it maybe to Steptoe and sons?. Just one of my favourite pieces on the piano. My son did stand behind the door with his mobile camera once to let his in laws have a hark. I might just do that one day if someone puts it on for me just to give you all a good laugh. Back on topic I have watched that clip so many times I have lost count. Jean.
 
I've just watched the post-earthquake video again (with Aidan's perfect soundtrack). Clearly no tram was involved. As you said, Aidan, they were probably buried in the disaster, and the "cable slot" would have been filled with debris in any case. I'm inclined to agree with one of the commentators on the website, that the movie was taken from a motor car (no horses are visible). The effects of the hand-held camera and the poor quality processing are somehow in keeping with the "post-apocalyptic" theme.

Rexasul has posted on YouTube a "post-modernist" remix entitled Ocean Bed / It's Just a Ride, in which part of the post-earthquake video is used (to chilling effect) as a "visiontrack". Not everyone's "cup of cocoa", but younger members (and the "young in heart") might be interested.
 
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