Interactive map shows where SF’s streetcars used to go
Where did San Francisco’s streetcar lines go before our time? Designer Chris Arvin used information from the SFMTA photo archive, OpenSFHistory, and two other historic books to create an interactive map of our city’s public transit history. You can choose a decade—1940s or 1960s and hover over the map to see old streetcar routes. Arvin created the map using MapBox.
When you hover over the map, you might see some unfamiliar streetcar route names (some of them featured on Randolph Ruiz’s 1932 street car map).
Arvin shared some thoughts with Hoodline about what motivated him to create the map:
Since I’ve moved to San Francisco and fallen in love with the city, I’ve caught glimpses of the history of our public transit in many places—SFMTA’s posters at transit stops, sites like Old SF (and Hoodline!) and even seeing the partial remnants of tracks in the road in Potrero. There’s something I love about seeing old photos of street corners I immediately recognize, but in such a different context.
Gotta love people who love San Francisco! You can read the rest of the interview on Hoodline and play with the map here.
