San Francisco Dashcam: Awesome Footage of a Trip Down Market Street in 1906

San Francisco’s main thoroughfare, Market Street, is a hive of activity in this 1906 “dashcam” style archive footage movie. The trip was filmed from the front of a cable car, and shows horse drawn and motorized traffic weaving between the cable cars and horse drawn trams, often narrowly missing pedestrians by just inches.

This film was shot on April 14, 1906, just four days before the San Francisco earthquake and fire, to which the negative was nearly lost. It was produced by moving picture photographers the Miles brothers: Harry, Herbert, Earle and Joe.

Harry J. Miles hand-cranked the Bell & Howell camera which was placed on the front of a cablecar during filming on Market Street from 8th, in front of the Miles Studios, to the Ferry building. A few days later the Miles brothers were en route to New York when they heard news of the earthquake. They sent the negative to NY, and returned to San Francisco to discover that their studios were destroyed.

The origin of the film was an enigma for many decades, and it was long thought to have been shot in September of 1905, after being dated as such by the Library of Congress based on the state of construction of several buildings. However, in 2009 and 2010, film historian David Kiehn, co-founder of Niles Film Museum in Niles, California, dated the film to the spring of 1906 from automobile registrations and weather records. Kiehn eventually found promotional materials from the film’s original release and dated the film to April 14th, 1906, and finally gave credit to the filmmakers, the Miles Brothers.

45 Color Photographs That Show the Flamboyance of San Francisco in the Summer of 1971

San Francisco in the 1970s was a global hub of culture. It was known worldwide for hippies and radicals. The city was heavily affected by drugs, prostitution and crime. Outcasts and the socially marginalized were attracted by a greater tolerance and acceptability of multi-cultures in the city. It grew as one of world’s biggest centers for the LGBT community and LGBT rights.

The Daily Mail described flamboyant ’70s San Francisco as being characterized by “hippy street life when buskers, bongo players and impressive bouffants thronged the city by the bay.”

Here, below is a collection of 45 interesting color photographs of daily life in San Francisco were taken by photographer Nick DeWolf in August of 1971.

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The Summer of Love: Pictures of Hippies in Haight Ashbury, San Francisco in 1967

The Summer of Love was a social phenomenon that occurred during the summer of 1967, when as many as 100,000 people converged in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood of San Francisco.

Like its sister enclave of Greenwich Village, the city became even more of a melting pot of politics, music, drugs, creativity, and the total lack of sexual and social inhibition than it already was.

As the hippie counterculture movement came farther and farther forward into public awareness, the activities centered therein became a defining moment of the 1960s, causing numerous 'ordinary citizens' to begin questioning everything and anything about them and their environment as a result.

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Stunning Black and White Photographs of San Francisco From Between the 1940s and 1960s Taken by Fred Lyon

With a landmark around every corner and a picture perfect view atop every hill, San Francisco might be the world s most picturesque city. And yet, the Golden City is so much more than postcard vistas. Photographer Fred Lyon has been photographing San Francisco for 70 years and his obsession with the city teeming with creative types and innovators began at a young age.

In San Francisco, Portrait of a City 1940--1960, Fred Lyon captures the iconic landscapes and one-of-a-kind personalities that transformed the city by the bay into a legend. Here are some of stunning black and white photographs from San Francisco in the 1940s up until 1960 offer a glimpse of the California city as it was washed over by rush of optimism and opportunity after the destitution after World war II began to subside.

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Interesting Black and White Photos Capture Daily Life in San Francisco, 1943

Here's a collection of interesting black and white photographs of daily life in San Francisco during wartime. All photographs were taken by LIFE photographer Meith Hagel in 1943.

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Amazing Vintage Photos of the Cliff House in San Francisco From the Late 19th and Early 20th Centuries

Four different variations of the Cliff House have stood on the cliffs overlooking Seal Rocks, at the Northwest corner of San Francisco. Two earlier versions were rather modestly small in size, especially when compared with the elaborate eight-story Victorian building which stood on that spot from 1896 to 1907 as the third Cliff House. And when that ornate version of the building burned down, the fourth version to be built was designed more like the first two: simple, and made to blend in with the ocean and cliffs surrounding it. That fourth version is still standing today.

(via Once Upon a Town)

San Francisco Panorama, ca. 1880-1890

Historical Photos of the Last Day of Alcatraz - March 21, 1963

On the morning of March 21, 1963, Alacatraz, the most secure prison and symbol of American justice across the nation closed down for good. The last prisoner off the island, Frank Weatherman, a gun smuggler and jailbreaker, offered an epitaph to the island's 29 years as the toughest federal penitentiary in the country. "Alcatraz was never no good for nobody," he said.

Life Magazine assigned photographer Leigh Wiener to cover closing day at Alcatraz on March 21, 1963. Most of what he shot went unpublished until his son Devik rediscovered the images 45 years later. In 2012, the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy published Wiener's photos in a book, Alcatraz: The Last Day.

Warden Blackwell Meets the Press - On March 21, 1963 the last twenty-seven convicts are escorted off Alcatraz Island. News crews were invited to Alcatraz to document the event. Photographer Leigh Wiener was on the island to document the closing for Life Magazine.

West Road Guard Tower - Boats were required to stay at least 200 yards from shore. From the West Road Guard Tower, armed officers would monitor the island’s perimeter. Notice the chipped concrete of the edges of the walkway.

Guard’s Housing - Penitentiary guards and their families lived on Alcatraz Island. With the closing of the prison, staff and families prepared to leave their homes. On the balconies, notice the barrels used to pack the families’ belongings.

Convicts on Broadway - Handcuffed, shackled and chained, convicts are marched out of United States Penitentiary Alcatraz.

Convicts on Broadway - Handcuffed, shackled and chained, convicts are marched out of United States Penitentiary Alcatraz.

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Amazing Black and White Photos of Life in San Francisco’s Chinatown in the 1950s

These are what the life of Chinatown in San Francisco in the 1950s looked like.

Jon Brenneis/Time & Life Pictures / Getty Image / Getty Images. Two children goof around on their way to school.

Orlando / Stringer / Getty Images. A woman samples a small portion of rice.

Orlando / Stringer / Getty Images. The intersection of East and West.

Orlando / Stringer / Getty Images. Chorus girls at Forbidden City show off their stuff.

Orlando / Stringer / Getty Images. Two chorus girls at the Forbidden City nightclub prepare for their act.

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Photo Taken in San Francisco at Same Time and Place as a Frame From the Film 'Vertigo' in 1957

The story began over at the vintage photography blog Shorpy, where a member named Ron Yungul submitted a vintage photograph that was captured by his late father on the hills of San Francisco, California in August, 1957.

By amazing coincidence, the photograph was taken at the same place at around the same time when Alfred Hitchcock’s iconic film Vertigo was shot here in 1957. The photograph shows almost exact the same scene from the movie with the same cars lined up along the curb.

Street scene of San Francisco in August, 1957. (via Shorpy)

Screenshot from the movie. (via Petapixel)

Photos of Japanese Evacuation in San Francisco, California, 1942

Photographs show Japanese civilians evacuating areas of California and Arizona for relocation to assembly centers in California, Oregon, and Washington. Includes families preparing for evacuation; travelling to centers; registering at Wartime Civil Administration control stations. Images also depict daily activities of families at the centers; views of center facilities; federal officials and military personnel working for the relocation program.

Japanese Americans using postal service at Puyallup Assembly Center for letters and packages.

Construction crews are still on the job at Puyallup Assembly Center, though from the wash lines the evacuees are there too.

Rafters from barrack buildings make convenient extensions for a clothesline at Puyallup Assembly Center.

Transfer of the evacuees from the Assembly Centers to War Relocation Centers was conducted by the Army / Signal Corps U.S. Army.

Evacuees boarding a special train at Santa Anita (California) Assembly Center enroute to a War Relocation Center / Signal Corps U.S. Army.

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Two Wheelin' Fun: Pictures of Summertime Street Cruising in San Francisco in the 1970s

San Francisco in the 1970s was a global hub of culture. It was known worldwide for hippies and radicals. The Daily Mail described flamboyant 1970s San Francisco as being characterized by “hippy street life when buskers, bongo players and impressive bouffants thronged the city by the bay.”

These fascinating photographs, taken by LIFE photographer Bill Eppridge, captured people cycling on streets in San Francisco in the summer of 1970s.

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