up next on a second look, america's first publicly owned transit system turns 100 years old and we look back at the rich history of the san francisco municipal rail way,

from its historic trolley cars to its rail lines. today we say happy birthday to the municipal lines. munni has carried people on trolley's, rail lines taking them to work, school, or just a tour of the bay. 1,000 people turned out to gary street to look at the first ever privately owned transit system. one of the first will be the reintroduction of streetcar number one. the very first one munni ever bought. munni sent the car to pennsylvania for a renovation. now it's back in the city and will soon be put back into service on the f line. that's the line that is filled

with those historic trolley cars running through fisherman's wharf. it will join this one to make it look like harvey milk. as for the f line it became a permanent attraction in 1989. rita williams was there. there was something new, rather old and new in san francisco today. >> we road this, car number 130 it was really great. >> it was back to the future. san francisco inaugurated its first new streetcar line in 67 years. but the f line runs only old cars. one transit buck came from new york just for a ride. >> san francisco knows how to move their feet and do things.

that's the only thing i can say. >> the city hopes the old cars will draw tourists just like the cable cars do. she says it wasn't very popular then with city planners and engineers. >> everything was going under ground. we didn't want anything aboveground on market street. there were a few people who persisted. >> the persistence paid off it took some 10 years. it had been repainted in the

colors of cities where they once ran. >> ladies and gentlemen this is the beginning of car 1056. >> today all rides are free, starting tomorrow $1. with all the troubles of nummi the drivers who volunteered [captioner transition ]

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. in recent years there have been reports of crimes on muni buss from shootings to robberies to assaults. in years past, the target has actually sometimes been the bus itself. in 1995, for example, san francisco police say they arrested a man with a long criminal record after he took control of a muni bus near the transbay terminal and took it on a wild ride through the financial district. along the way, according to police, he hit 13 other vehicles, leaving behind a trail of bent metal and broken glass. police finally caught him at geary and grant streets after midnight. ten years earlier, police arrested a 14-year-old boy accused of stealing a mauni bus and in this case an officer ended up shoot and wounding the three of. here is the report from 1985. >> reporter: 14-year-old san francisco boy was shot by police this morning after allegedly stealing a mauni bus and trying to force pursuing officers offer the freeway of the only has not been identifieded is in serious, but stable condition

at san francisco general hospital. the bus was reported stolen by 5:00 equal. a short time later it was spotted by two officers in a squad car. they carbohydrate it for several miles and say after trying to run him off the freeway the driver returned to the muni yards and ran into the darkaned area. homicide investigators say officer steven glickman chased him and fired when the youth made may gesture like he was pull a gun from his jacket. he did not know that the youth was 14 and that the shooting was justified under the circumstances of a check of records dis close the boy was arrested six tiles in past two years for the theft of buss or other muni property. muni security officials say it's an old problem, buses can't be locked and no keys needed to start them. >> i don't think there is a mass transit bus in the united states that can be locked with an ignition key. they are started by pushing a button that is located on the dash. >> it's not quite that simple, but people have figured out how

to start and drive them. the 14-year-old who took this one joyriding yesterday, knew how. >> he has stolen muni buses in the past on several occasions. he was well-known in the muni yard bit workers there. apparently part of his probation was to do community work at the muni yard. >> to me that is like taking an embezzler and putting him or her in the puc finance bureau or working in a bank. i do not know who put the individual there, what court or what agency, but we did not know about it. >> if the boy lives here near and likes buses and wanted to work on them. he was one of several juveniles assigned bit court to wash them on saturdays. muni workers say at one point the boy got a pair of coverruals to look like a mechanic and even a badge. >> he worked with the juvenile program and was always requesting

questions and that is what he said he wanted to down a was trying to help him out. >> he wanted to work on them and it's but find something that you want to do, but he is doing wrong by driving them, but he is a good kid though. >> reporter: muni plans to make it's buss more secure by increasing patrols and adding surveillance cameras, but it's impractical to lock them up. >> you just can't have one exit for all of these mass vehicles going out into the street at one time during the rush hour. they have tried putting up fences prior to the time i was here. and it did not work. >> reporter: the stolen bus was spotted by police officers. they said during the chase, the boy tried to run them off the road. the boy returned the bus back to the yard and ran. police say when officers closed in, the officer who shot him thought the boy was reaching for a weapon. investigators say the youth will be charged with bus theft

and aggravated assault. eight years later police would arrest that same young man, darvin fuller. his probe basis from the bus theft included jobs washing with chairperson cars and say he stole the car and drove to sacramento, even stopping a few drivers to write them fake tickets. when we come back on "a second look," the history of of how san francisco's cable cars came to be and a bit later a famous san francisco landmark that was almost blown up for than a year- ago.

. overrer the years you might have seen a very famous film shot at beginning of the 20th century call "i trip down market street." for years it was thought to be shot in 1905 until a local historian examined while car license registers to include it was shot in 1906 just a few days before the great san francisco earthquake and fire. that film was shot from the frighten cable car and in 2000,

ktvu's george watson gave us this look back at the rich history of san francisco's historic and world-famous form of publication transit. >> reporter: if it wasn't so dangerous this norad trip down mark would be extraordinarily and hilariously keystone cops-scientmovie funny. horse drawn wagons crawl slowly down one side of the street and horse yawn buggy. bike riders in and out of traffic and pedestrians seem oblifous to olivous to the dangers in the emerging technology of the 20th century. everything is here, people dashing in front and behind electric streetcars, dodging horses, wagons, cars, bicycles of you can see one century morphing into another and in the midst of this kaleidoscope, you can find the cable car. in 1873 british-born andrew

hallidie started the first cable car line in the line on clay street in san francisco. he manufactured wire cables and used it to haul ore cars out of mines and adapted the cable to streetcars. it worked. in 1905 there were 26 cable car companies in san francisco and nothing handled the city better than a cable car. but at in 1906 the cable car almost slipped into oliveon. some hours after the great earthquake struck and in the blaze of the fire killed and glow of arcs, only three remain intact. remnants were scattered about the breach. it didn't end there. the cable cars that did survive remain in form and spirit

virtually unchanged today. the principles behind the operation of the cable car haven't changed for 125 years. they have changed from steam to electricity, but it's pulled at a speed of 9.5 miles per hour and they are pulled along. things haven't changed, but believe me, the cable car system is it not an he eccentric. with a tremendous push from the community, city politicians came finally to realize that the cable car was part of the city's history. and an efficient form of transportation and a bona fide tourist attraction. people think of this as a ride out of disneyland, but at same time, they were bumping elbows

with a grandmother or older asian lady going downtown to do shoning and it's a community transportation system and always has been. >> reporter: san francisco not only had the first and now it has the only cable car system in the world. there is a compelling modern reason behind this longevity. >> a very simple car and providing a good transportation service in san francisco. we're carrying in the order of 26,000 riders a day. just on the cable car system, which is more than cal train for example carries into san francisco. >> reporter: most of today's fleet is about 100 years old. 19829 system was shut down for two years to be completely rebuilt. new tracks were laid and the old powerhouse at washington and mason streets was rebuilt. the only part still standing from the 1887 original is the long dormant stoke stack. >> a few changes were made in the last 100 years.

so we build them with the same technique and they last a good one hundred years in properly maintained. >> reporter: it takes about 1 months to build a single car at a cost of $2735,000. there have been eight of them bit since 1986. this is the ninth. a blacksmith will bend the pallet for the wheel aexamineeply. the brakes are made of metal wood. the body family is constructed movedly of oak, but ceiling is handcrafted alaskan yellow keyedar. cedar. >> it will last about 15 years and that is the difference between how things made 100 years ago and how they are made today. >> reporter: the cable car has survived earthquakes, fires, progress, indifference and even old age. what is the secret? >> it could be something far less tangible than traditional nuts and bolts of ridership and revenue. it could be something 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 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. >> when we come back on "a second look," why someone could dynamite the ferry building 100 years ago and what kept them from doing it.

over the past centry folks traveling to stash from the east bay have been greeted by an enduring landmark and we're talking about the ferry building, but there were tiles when the world-famous building almost didn't survivor and ktvu's george watson brought us this look back at the history of san francisco's ferry building in 2001.

>> reporter: more than 1100 years the ferry building has stood her, solitary rooted on its perch at the market street. all of this time, a proud, welcoming vision. yet throughout its life the beloved ferry building has ban abused, covered up and almost blown up. the turn-of-the-century, san francisco was the most important and prosperous commercial city on the west coast. sitting in stature wanted a grand entrance of they approved the bond measure to build san francisco's new landmark. >> they were fascinated by electricity and wanted steel buildings to with stain any stress and it had the largest foundation in the world. when finished in 1888 new ferry buildings rested upon more than 5,000 oregon fir pilings. each one 00' long and 16" in diameter. graceful roman catholic

arches below the water line gave support to the structure above the. the ferry building would sore to esthetic heights far above those required by a building. this was to be well beyond the passengers who would be greeted by the tower notwithstanding perhaps the ferry building's most el quette eloquent statement. and by night, softly transformed into a magical hall of lights. >> it would be white and gold at christmas time. they would be pale blue at another time and in the spring they turned pink and green. they would change to any color you wanted. long before the roaring 20s and in fact, before the pherwhere i

building was ten years old it was almost destroyed. it was spared from the fire after the decision was made to save the city's waterfront the all cost. after the shaking stopped and the fire cooled in the welcoming rain the army corps of engineers decided it was unsafe and should by dynamited monoxidely. the beacon would survive. san francisco began to rebuild itself after the quake with the ferry building as at hub of the rebirth. ferryboats service was like new blood being pumped through the heart of the ferry building into the veins of the recuperating city. if you were going to san francisco, the ferryboat was the last leg of your journey. people would step out of ferry

building, smack into the broad faced exuberance of market street and be greeted by more trains. >> that is the first thing you saw were the streetcars and muni rail and the railway both had tracks. and all of it being fed by the ferry building. the golden age of the ferry building is generally considered between 1915 and 1932. the ferry system with 43 boats carrying 47 million passengers a year by 1932. the things were beginning to change. what happened? by the mid-30s the ferry building had two brand-new rivals. the bay bridge opened in 1936 with the golden gate bridge open the following year. the automobile lurking in the wings now took center stage. ferryboat traffic began to fall off dramatically and by 1939 service began to disappear all together. of the life-giving ferry building was suddenly starting to atrophy. in 195 the embarcadero freeway

was born a child of 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 the natural entrance to the city. and hey, it lived through two earthquakes. >> reporter: durable, beautiful and perhaps most important, the ferry building not only survives, but we're always glad it does. and that is it for this week's "a second look." i'm frank somerville. we'll see you again next week.