[ music ] >> tonight rolling through the history of san francisco. we will take a ride into the past as we travel down market street and discover the rich history of cable cars. but not just enough to ride in them. we will tell you about where and when people actually lived in cable cars. and it's a san francisco landmark. but find out why some people wanted to dynamite the ferry building more than a century ago. all straight ahead on "second look." hello everyone, i'm frank somerville. tonight we are going to take "second look" at days gone by in san francisco.

and we start with this film. it's called a trip down market street. for decades, it was thought to have been shot in 1905. that is until a local historian examined weather, car license registrations and newspaper accounts to conclude that it was actually shot in 1906, only a few days before the great san francisco earthquake and fire. last month, the library of congress announced a trip down market street will be one of 25 films added this year to the national film registry for their cultural or historical significance. that film was shot from the front of a cable car and back in 2000, ktvu's george watson gave us this look back at the rich history of san francisco's historic and iconic form of public transit. >> reporter: if it wasn't so dangerous, this ordinary trip down market would mean extraordinarily lacked a keystone cops silent movie fun. four strong wagons crawl slowly down one side of the street. horse and buggy start in front

of the swifter upstart automobiles. bike riders flit in and out of traffic. pedestrians seem oblivious to the inherent dangers to this 1930s transportation in the emerging technology of the 20s. everything is here. people dashing in front of and behind electric street cars. dodging horses, wagons, cars and bicycles. you sow see one century moverring into another and in the midst of this adventure you can also find the cable car. >> in 1973 was started in san francisco the cable car. he used it to haul other cars out of mines. the next step was taken to street cars. it didn't work. in 1905 there were 26 cable car companies in san francisco. and nothing am handles the city's hills better than a

cable car. but at 12 minutes passed five the morning of april 18, 1906, the cable car almost slipped into oblivion. some 60 hours after the great earthquake struck in the blaze of the destructive fire dimmed and the glow of the ashes cooled, only three of the city's cable car lines remained intact. remnants of the once proud cable car fleet from scattered about ocean side beach and used for housing for the homeless quake survivors. but it didn't end there. the cable cars that did survive remain in spirit virtually unchanged today. the principles behind the cable car operation haven't changed in 125 years. have changed from steam to electricity. but the basic principal is still it is pulled through the city streets at 109 miles per hour. the cable cars drive along and they are pulled along. things haven't changed but believe me, the table car system is not an he eccentric

thing. still in the 194s, the cable cars were on their way out. electric street cars and buses were in. but a sense of history and a nose for good business gave the cable cars new life w a tremendous push from the community the city politicians came finally to realize that the cable car was part of the city's history. an efficient form of transportation and a bonefied tourist attraction. >> people think of this as a ride out of disneyland. but at the same time they are bumping elbows with a grandmother or an older asian lady who is going downtown to do their shopping. and it's a community transportation system. it always has been. >> reporter: san francisco not only had the first, now it has the only cable car system in the world. there is a compelling modern reason. >> it provides a good transportation service in san francisco. we are carrying on the order of 26,000 riders a day just on the

cable car system, which is more than cal tran for example carries into san francisco. >> reporter: most of today's fleet is about 100-year-old. in 1982 the system was shut down for two years so it could be completely rebuilt. new tracks were laid. the old powerhouse of washington and mason streets was rebuilt. the only part still standing from the 1887 original is the long dormant smokestack. the cable cars themselves were rebuilt and the municipal railway even began building new ones. >> a few changes have been made on this in the last 100 years. so we build them. we use the same building techniques on -- and they will last 100 years if properly maintained. >> reporter: to build a single car it costs $275,000. there have been eight built since 1986. this one is the ninth. a blacksmith will bend the metals for the wheel assembly. the brakes are made of metal clad wood.

the body itself is constructed mostly of oak, but the ceiling is handicrafted alaskan yellow cedar. >> the new sea cars that we get are close to $3 million each. and they mostly will last about 15 years. that's the difference between things made 100-year-old and how they make things today. >> the cable car has survived earthquakes, fire, progress, indifference and even old age. what is the secret? it could be something far less tangible than traditional nuts and bolts, ridership and revenues. it could be something as old- fashioned as the cable cars themselves. >> i have got 22 years here. and i feel that this is my watch. and i want to leave this a proud heritage for the people who follow me and also for the people of san francisco. you will find pride runs very deep in this place. >> still to come on "second look." imagine living in a cable car. take you about a being to a time when that's exactly what some people did. it might be san francisco's number two rolling landmark.

bob mckenzie will trace the restoration of the historic street cars. >> we have something here and they are fun. the public loves them. [ female announcer why settle for plain bread when you can have pillsbury grands! flaky layers biscuits? the warm, light delicate layers are like nothing else. add a layer of excitement to your next meal. ♪ and these are the ones you'll love on a friday. pillsbury crescent pizza pockets. with just a few ingredients, you have an easy to make dinner. they're crescents for the other 364. try them tonight.

. you know, every year millions of tourists ride san francisco's cable cars. but not likely many of them would want to live in one of them. yet that's what some people did in the early 1900s and a few still doing it today. ktvu's craig heaps first brought us this report in 2001. >> they are a part of san francisco's liquor, little cable cars that climb halfway to the stars. but their legend lies beyond the rails. a time when cable cars not only brought people home they were home. in the early 1900s scores of people lived in converted trolleys and street cars in the

shadow of san francisco cliff house in a remote community called car hill. it began in the 1800s when cable cars traveled all over the city. not just the few lines that remain today. but first before the turn of the century they began to phase out. >> it started when the cable cars were being replaced by horse cars. but more so by when horse cars replaced by the early electric cars. >> operators needed a place to get rid of those obsolete cable cars so adolf offered his empty land near ocean beach along the western edge of the city. >> if you come out here san francisco's ocean beach these days this is what you will see. block after block of houses jammed together. but 100 years ago when carville was here, it wasn't like that. it was more like this. miles and miles of sand dunes everywhere, miles and miles from anywhere. carville was so remote from san francisco's downtown, that most of the people who came here made the trip by train.

and this place so far outside the mainstream drew a lot of people outside the mainstream. >> it was quite an artist colony. people like jack london. and i guess abrose beers. and a lot of people used it as a resort area. and some actually lived out there full time. >> reporter: a certain romance developed about this bow home january place called carville. >> i think it was gilette burgess wrote a very nice story about that in an article called the picka proo. s about this retired cable car conductor who eventually retired. and the old car he once operated out in the dunes. >> reporter: but the reality never really lived up to the romance. >> they were very lightly constructed. they were designed to carry people, not for people to live in. i would suspect they got cold, drafty and windy. and they were continually patching and repairing, caulking windows.

>> reporter: following the 1906 earthquake, some moved here in a desperate search for housing in a devastated city. by 1908 carville's population had grown to 2500. but in 1913, mayor sunny jim rolf expressed horror at what he called the miserable living conditions and ordered carville cleared out. most of the converted cable cars were burned down to make way for development of what would eventually be called the sunset district. still very few of the carville homes have survived within houses that have grown up around them. this house on the great highway lacks like nothing special from the outside. but inside it shows the gorgeous handy work of the original cable car that composes its second story. ornate light fixtures, handicrafted wood walls, a lovely and lasting tribute to another time when the wind blown dunes dominated the horizon and carville covered the land. >> cable cars aren't the only rolling tourist attractions in

san francisco. in recent years, visitors have flocked to the city's vintage street cars. and that's the pay off for a restoration program that took years and a lot of expertise. ktvu's bob mckenzie brought us this report in 2004. >> reporter: muni's team of restoration experts proudly posed four vintage cars from the 1930s and 1920s all looking fresh and perky as they must have appeared brand new. it will be added to the ever more popular f line running up and dune market street. the vintage cars collected around the world have become a tourist attraction rivalling the cable cars. ironically some of the vintage cars were originally muni street cars that did decades of service in san francisco before they were sold off and replaced by more modern cars. >> muni ran these cars for a number of years up until the

50s. they liquidated their net. and then when it was realized, oh, my gosh, what have we done? >> hey, we need these back because we have something here. and they are fun. the public loves them. >> a volunteer group called market street railway helps buy and then the muni workers painstakingly restore them to original condition. >> you need a world-class maintenance crew. you need a body shop that can remove the mother of all debts and make a 50-year-old car look brand new. you need a cable car, carpenter shop that can fabricate anything, sheet metal shop, a heavy overhaul shop for which no job is too tough. and you need a paint shop that is the pride of any american transit paint operation in the country as far as i'm concerned. [ applause ] >> the vintage cars with such a hit even with every day commuters they will let some of the buses pass by in order to

catch some of the old timers. >> when we come back on "second look" you may have passed it many times but how much do you know about san francisco's historic ferry building. a bit later we will introduce you to a man who survived the 1906 earthquake and lived for more than a century. >> last week you saw. >> more major local news starts on ktvu, channel 2 news in the morning.

shift your weight forward onto the left foot. take the right leg up, holding the inner arch of the foot... introducing instant action alerts, only from chase. left arm up... manage your account and help avoid overdrafts with a click of a button. just reply to the alert with how much you want to transfer. inhale, all the way up... so you always stay in balance. ...to crescent pose. chase what matters. just four more times. ♪

. >> over the past century people travelling in san francisco from the east bay have been greeted by an enduring lapsed mark the ferry people. but there were times when the world famous structure almost didn't survive. ktvu's george watson first brought us this history of san francisco's ferry building in 2001. [ music ] >> reporter: for more than 100 years the ferry building has stood here, solidly rooted on its perch at the foot of market street. all of this time a proud welcoming vick. yet throughout -- welcoming vision. but truth its life the ferry building has been useds abused and almost blown up.

this was the most prosperous commercial p.m. building on the coast. they wanted a grand open place. they approve the measure to approve san francisco's new landmark. >> they were fascinated by electricity that was coming in. they wanted a steel framed building so it would withstand any kind of tension or stress. and when this was built it has the largest foundation in the world. >> reporter: when finished in 1898 the new ferry building rested upon more than 5,000 oregon poured pile ons each one 18 inches long and 16 inches in diameter. graceful arcs beneath the waterline gave importance to the building above. it would soar to aesthetic heights far above those from a simple terminal. this was to be a welcoming station well beyond the expectations of the tens of millions that would pass through it. inside, passengers would be greeted by the grand knave. tower notwithstanding, perhaps

the ferry building's most eloquent statement. 659 feet long, by day bathed in natural light from above, and by night softly transformed into a magical hall of lights. >> white and gold at christmas. at another time blue and pink. on sometimes pink and green. and if you had a cocktail in the 20s they would change them to whatever you would want. >> before then when the ferry building was 10-year-old it was almost destroyed. it was spared from the fire when they decided to save the city's waterfront at all costs. after the shaking stopped and a welcoming rain came the army corp of engineers decided the ferry building was unsafe and should be dynamited immediate lip. calmer heads prevailed and only the stone facing actually needed to be replaced.

the beacon would survive. [ music ] >> san francisco began to rebuild itself after the quake with the ferry building as the hub of the rebirth. ferry boat service was like new blood being pumped through the heart of the ferry building into the banes of the recuperating city. in the ensuing decades, the healing grew to burgeoning strength as passengers poured in from the north and from oakland across the bay. if you were going to san francisco, the ferry boat was the last leg of your journey. people would step out of the ferry building smack into the broad based market street and be greeted by still more trend. >> that would the first thing you would see when you walk out of the building was the street cars. the muni rail and the martin railroad beth are tracks. >> and all of it was being fed by the ferry building. >> the golden age of the ferry building is generally

considered to be between 1915 and 1932. they had 43 ferry boats carrying 47 million passengers a year by 1932. but things were beginning to change. and what happened? well, by the mid-30s, the ferry building had two brand new rivals. the bay bridge opened in 1936 with the golden gate bridge opening the following year. the automobile lurking in the wings now took center stage. ferry boat traffic began to fall off dramatically. by 1939, service began to disappear all together will. the life-giving ferry building was suddenly starting to atrophy. in 1957, the embarcadero freeway was born, a child of the automobile. a ribbon of concrete was strung across the ferry building's facade. there were suggestions it was time to tear down the aging beauty. the embarcadero freeway lasted for 35 years. but the ferry building would survive as it always has, altered and redefined many times, but still the beautiful,

understated entrance to the city of san francisco. >> this has been the people's building. and the people have felt great pride and joy in it because they love the city. it's a natural entrance to the city. and, hey, it lived through two earthquakes. [ music ] >> reporter: durable, beautiful and perhaps most important, the ferry building not only survives, we are always glad it does. [ music ] >> when we come back on "second look," meet a man who survived the 1906 earthquake and was still driving at 100-year-old.

. >> like most of the rest of the world, the bay area changed enormously during the 20th century. in 1996, ktvu's bob mckenzie met a man who had a chance to witness much of that change. 100-year-oldnicholas croda a survivor of the earthquake. >> reporter: living to the age of 100 isn't as unusual as it used to be. but something else to live to

100 and still be in god health, happy as a tick and still driving your own car. over the years nicholas has owned about 1,000 cars. but these dayss satisfied with his buick that he drives around oakland ever since the fire of 1906 drove his family out of san francisco. he was born before electric lights were common. there wasn't any radio or television. when automobiles were still in the experimental stages. nick stays busy mostly doing things he enjoys. he likes making bird cages, doll houses, miniature windmills in his workshop. he also lifts weights a little and digs in the garden. >> don't think how old you are. don't jeopardize your life to say, oh, i'm too old to do that. if you could do it i can do it yet. i don't quit. >> reporter: do you eat any special way? >> i eat everything. >> reporter: by the way, i did ask to see his driver's

licence. there is the date 2/22/y 96. he spent his years in north beach and with other italian boys would hang around the nor tore yours barberry coast where he wasn't supposed to be, of course, watching sailors visit the bars and the houses of ill repute. the boys would go down and watch the traffic. >> there wasn't many cars. there was a lot of horses and wagons then. but there wasn't much automobiles, you see. and once in a while we would see an automobile go by, you know, way down. market street was, well, to support the cable cars and the street cars. the rail tracks were there. >> reporter: nicholas was 10- year-old in 1906 when he says there came a series of small earthquakes. >> in april 1906 the big one came. i heard the rattling of the doors and the rumbling. i went and saw my mother and

dad say their prayers. looked out the window and people were all talking to each other in the streets you know. many of the kids went down to the commission market the brick buildings there were a lot of dead horses there, you know, dead buried in brick but still alive. so we come back and got sick, you know, just looking at them. came and went back home up again. we watched the telegraph and saw the fire way down, one on vanness there and one way up mission. >> the family's house was consumed in the fire. and nick's father lost his job. they moved to oakland, where over the next few years young nick worked for the oakland tribune as a street vendor. >> i sold the oakland tribune three for a nickel. used to make a dime for every three we sold. so i used to give it to my mother so we could eat, you no he. >> nick was a hard worker. at age 18 he bought his first car. he had a talent for music and in his 20s and 30s he played soil phone and finally drums in numerous bay area dance bands.

served in the coastguard. spent 35 years working for the smith corona typewriting company. he sold his drum set a few years ago but he still enjoys tapping out a dance rhythm. he has outlived several wives. but his marriage to 79-year-old francis has now lasted over 30 years. >> well, i understand him pretty well. he understands me. [ laughter ] >> that's a lot of the thing. >> do you worry? >> worry? >> yes. >> no. i don't worry. that's the worst thing you can do, you see. you worry your life away. worry, think about something that's good to think about. >> so how do you live to be 100? well, using in inning lass as an example, have fun, make life an adventure. don't worry. think about what's coming in the future. and apparently eat whatever you want. >> nicholas passed away two years after that interview. social security records show that he lived to be 102-year- old. and that's it for this week's "second look."

i'm frank somerville. we will see you again next week.