104 year old video of San Francisco

Same streetcar journey, 2005.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vqcz_tllnwM

I'm really glad someone did the 100 year anniversary version.

2105 will be all nanorobots or something.

Same year, across the Bay in Berkeley.

The street is Euclid Ave. which borders the central U.C. Berkeley campus to the north.

Do be sure and note (a) the same generally languid approach to street travel; (b) the role of the fine gentlewoman in breaking up a dispute before it descends to far into fisticuffs. I think that the guy walking on the tracks might be black and so I suspect there is also a racial element to these snapshots of history, but I'm not sure. I'm also not so sure that the confrontation we see in the video wasn't staged - it looks like it could have been but it's hard to tell.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BK9CekGF3Ho

Did it strike anyone else that in all likelihood, every single person in the video is dead now, even the kids? I didn't even know they had video in 1906...

The blog says the street seems wider in the 1908 film. I think that's a combination of a lack of street trees and curbs, and shorter buildings in the background.

I wonder why the car doesn't stop for passengers. You can see several waiting. One even waves at the driver. My thought is that either the car was stopping and the video was edited, or it was a special run for the benefit of the camera.

A few more observations:

* While there are many fewer pedestrians in the 2005 video, there are more bicycles. And the bicycles actually have adults on them (not sure about the guy in the cape though).

* The streetcar seems to move much faster in 2005, covering considerably more ground in less time.

* While 2005 looks much more orderly, automobiles are still erratically darting out in front of the streetcar. Some things don't change I guess..

That can't be San Francisco, the cameraman never once gets assaulted by overly-aggressive homeless people.

Wow and it is a music video for Air...double bonus! There is an incredibly cool map store in San Francisco, and as you would expect, the proprietor is very friendly. It is called Schein and Schein (http://www.scheinandschein.com/ the website doesn't do it justice) and they have some beautiful old maps and photobooks, with a large portion of the collection devoted to SF and California history.

None of the buildings in this video -- save the Ferry Building whose tower you can see directly ahead -- are standing today.

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/regional/nca/1906/18april/index.p...

Try imagining that you are in a (contemporary) large city in the subcontinent and you will feel right at home:

- No sidewalks or discernible rules of the road

- Cycles, cars, trams and horse buggies all mixing it up

- People standing around in the middle of the street to pick a ride, or strolling casually straight across heavy traffic

- Cars making u-turns right through traffic, or parking everywhere, making the street half as wide as it would have been

Once I thought about this I couldn't shake the feeling that I was watching Lahore 2010.

nice! 104 year old google streetview. :)

It's strange to imagine a time when "oh, look, a motorcar!" might be uttered with the same sense of technological novelty as "oh, look, an iPad!" today.

To play normally the video needs to be sped up about 40-50%.

The blogger notes that Market Street seemed wider than it does today. I disagree; it really looks about the same. Keep in mind that the sidewalk is much larger now than it appears to be in 1906.