The number of automobiles is staggering for 1906. Absolutely amazing! The clock tower at the end of Market Street at the Embarcadero wharf is still there. .... How many "street cleaning" people were employed to pick up after the horses? Talk about going green! Great historical film! http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=NINOxRxze9k <http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=NINOxRxze9k> This film was filmed only four days before the Great California Earthquake of April 18th 1906 and shipped by train to NY for processing. Amazing, but true! No wonder there had to be laws created to regulate driving habits. This is insane. Good thing they couldn't go very fast. Looks like everybody had the right of way. Perhaps the oldest "home movie" that you will ever see!
The "clock tower" is the Ferry Building, a hopping place until the Bay Bridge was built. It was stopped at 5:04pm for years after the Loma Prieta earthquake in '89, the time of the quake. I do recommend turning off the sound when watching.
I've seen that before. I more than love it. It'd as close as we can come to time travel. You see people in their ordinary work a day lives in a time that none of us can relate to. How they dressed, how their streets, buildings & businesses looked - not some Hollywood set decorator imagines it may have looked. To me its like having my nose pressed against a window to the past.
Fantastic. Every single adult has on a hat. You simply did not go outside without your hat on. Beautiful.
The Jalopy Journal
