All Aboard for the Celebration

Thousands of cable car fans cheered Monday as a parade of the tipsy trolleys, decorated like floats with balloons, daffodils and streamers, proudly lurched along Powell Street in celebration of the line’s 100th birthday.

Costumed characters portraying cable car inventor Andrew S. Hallidie and other historical figures rode the 14 cars in the parade under arches of balloons strung across Powell.

West German tourist Manfred Himpil climbed aboard a cable car for the first time and lavished them with praise.

“They’re wonderful, really wonderful, just marvelous,” he said. “When the streets end in the heavens, then comes another view.”

Mayor Art Agnos stood among other city officials on the reviewing stand and proclaimed the day “Freidel Klussmann Day” in honor of the late neighborhood activist who helped save the cable cars from bus advocates in the 1940s and later years.

“They’re out of doors and they’re open-air seating, and I love the history behind them,” said San Franciscan Gail Hansell, 26, watching the parade atop a hill with a dramatic view of downtown San Francisco and the bay on a warm, windy morning.

“They’re romantic as well because they are old and they are a tradition. They are a beautiful way to see the city,” Hansell said.

Police Chief Frank Jordan estimated the crowd at the parade at nearly 3,000.

The Powell Street line, which began service in 1888, carries about 41,000 passengers a day on 3 1/2-mile panoramic rides over hills with views of Alcatraz, Fisherman’s Wharf, Chinatown, Union Square and Market Street.

Lively Bell-Ringing

Powell Street is also the line where operator Carl Payne has delighted visitors for 26 years with his cable car bell-ringing, livening the foggy evenings with his cheery melodies.

“It’s great to be part of this celebration. It’s really special,” Payne said. “I’m hoping to be here at the 200-year mark.”

The Powell Street line, which like all cable cars is owned by the San Francisco Municipal Railway, was built by the Ferries & Cliff House Railroad Co. and became part of the city’s United Railways system in 1902.

Most of the tracks were destroyed in the great earthquake and fire on April 18, 1906, but because electric streetcars could not climb Powell Street, United Railways restored enough of the track to use the 27 Powell cars unharmed in the fire.

A Navy jazz band led Monday’s procession, while gripman Payne, the nine-time champion bell ringer, clanged Dixieland melodies in the lead car.

In their heyday, cable cars operated along eight lines linked by 112 miles of cable. The only survivors today are the two Powell Street lines, which cut over to Mason and Hyde streets, and their sister California Street line, whose 100th anniversary 15 years ago set off a two-week party.

The rattle-trap trolleys rumble along at 9 1/2 m.p.h. and lack the comfortable seats and space of modern buses. But they were saved from bus advocates in the 1940s after a campaign by Klussmann, and a court once declared a 1956 attempt to modernize the cars illegal. In 1964, they were named the United States’ first moving National Historical Landmark.

Rice-A-Roni, maker of “the San Francisco treat,” is boiling over cable car ads for Lipton rice dishes. See Business, Page 1.