Historic street cars in San Francisco on the F line

The most famous forms of public transport in San Francisco are its cable cars: historic, manually-operated trolleys that run on a underground cable-driven system, offering scenic rides through the city’s steep streets.

But the city has another, maybe a bit less famous type of transport on classic trollies: its historic street cars. Here’s an example of one passing right by Dolores Park:

These historic streetcars have been operating in San Francisco since 1962, but I only discovered them when I moved to the city in 2015 as they were passing by our apartment on Embarcadero. Nowadays these cars mostly (only?) run on the F line, which goes from Castro to the Fisherman’s Wharf - and we decided to ride it from end-to-end.

Getting on in the Castro is always a colorful afair, but this classic green car is holding its own.

The historical streetcars are trams that were moved to San Francisco from all over the US and the rest of the world. You can read up on the history of most (all?) all of the individual cars here. For example, the shiny green #1040 that we took is a San Francisco original that was constructed in 1952.

Our #1040 quickly took us onto Market Street in the direction of the Ferry Building. The historical streetcars are quite small by today’s standards and the seats are not as comfy as modern trams either. But… so pretty!

The slow approach to the Ferry Building over market street is spectacular; the pic above really doesn’t do it justice.

Just before the Ferry Building, the tram turns left onto Embarcadero. This is about halfway its 24 stops, so let’s look at the route in its entirety:


The total ride from Castro to Fishermans Wharf takes 40 to 45 minutes

Do you see that little inverted C it is making right where we are (the blue dot)? That’s when the cars pass by their own museum: the San Francisco Railway Museum. I like to think that the streetcars are thinking “I’m not that old yet, I don’t need to be in a museum!” as they pass by.

The museum is small, but entrance is free - so it’s a good, quick stop when you’re around the Ferry Building anyway.

From the moment the historic street car turns onto Embarcadero, it goes pretty much straight along the waterline until its terminus: if you want you can count down (up?) the piers, or admire the view.

As said, we took #1040 until the final stop of the line, which is supposed to be on corner of Jones street and Beach street, but we were (politely) kicked off on Embarcadero itself, around the corner.

Bye bye #1040, thanks for the ride!

To learn more about the San Francisco historic street cars and the F line:

Magic pixel View count: