Attached Link: Streets of San Francisco 1906

Never seen so many people trying to commit suicide! :lol: I was expecting someone to get runover.

Easy to outrun those era vehicles Chris but I get what y mean.. ...

I love how many people are aware there is a camera and step out on the tracks. Even in 1906 everyone in California wanted to be a movie star!

There were little traffic laws... and there was a smaller population...

Wow! That was FreAkIeDeAkie!! Car's crisscrossing back and forth without a care in the world or a turn signal! Kinda like Houston today only slower....

That is really neat!  Never seen anything like it before from that era!

mebbe it had something to do with the earthquake then?...;)

It was just before the quake, like days apparently, pakled

market street, i'm sure! so different though..so love the way how they keep crossing like as if they know they won't gt hit! and the guy who ran infront of it for a bit..haha

amazing..

thanks and cheers for this.. 

One of my favorite archival films from that era. You really see how people lived back then. If you thought that street scene looked chaotic, here's a look at San Francisco just after the quake and fires!

http://vimeo.com/15406401

This is the text that came with the post from my pal:

IS REALLY UNBELIEVABLE!  NO TRAFFIC LIGHTS, NO RULES.  
 
This is a fascinating movie. A camera was mounted on the front of a street car in San Francisco 104 years ago (1906).  Perhaps the oldest "home movie" that you will ever see!   I  watched it a couple of times.  Look at the hats the ladies were wearing and the long dresses.   Some of the cars had the steering wheels on the right side.  I wonder when they standardized on the left?  Sure were still a lot of horse drawn vehicles in use.    Mass transit looked like the way to get around.  Looks like everybody had the right of way.
 
Watch the beginning carefully. At the 33 second mark and immediately after an oncoming trolley clears the screen, a well dressed policeman walks across the street from left to right.  Notice his right hand  that he's carrying a truncheon (26 inch police baton) and although he appears walking his beat, he looks ready to use it.  Imagine the police of today walking down the street carrying a 26 inch club in their hand..???
   
This film was "lost" for many years.  It was the first 35mm film ever.  It was taken by camera mounted on the front of a cable car.  The number of automobiles is staggering for 1906. 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!
   
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.  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, even when the cars were registered (he even knows who owned them and when the plates were issued!).  It was filmed only four days before the Great California Earthquake of April  18th 1906 and shipped by train to NY for processing. 

@ Bobby... Yes, I noticed these things you point out...  I also noticed how men wore suits.. drabby suits..  dark jacket and a pair of dark trousers... oh yea.. and a hat..  My father was a hat person.. ("hat people.." --what I called them).. No one wears them anymore.. as part of the dress code..

These dark drabby suits were worn regardless what job the individual was doing... Lol.. from digging a holes to contruction to driving busses...  Women on the other hand had more styles to wear.. You can see that on the film..

The traffic gives the impression of movement in an ant farm.. no official rules just curtacy instincts..  Great film.. I was impress with how much we as a nation have come a long.. 

4 days later according to the notes.. ...

the fires were terrible..sadly..only the 'f' line..the castro line..runs thru market steet now....and it's not the proper street car. the proepr ones are running just from powell..it's still fascinating to see the driver jump down.. physically turn the car around onit's turn table thinggy at the and then ring the bell and let everyone hop on.  

50parsecs..gosh.. ..it's so unreal...