Photo diary: Muni’s golden days
moxpox‘s photo of the 38L-Geary is so priceless, so timeless, so _______. Caption this photo in comments, please.
Author: jeff
Solo-driving the good ship Muni Diaries
Photo by juicyrai
Hi, everyone. Just a quick note here to let you know that momma Eugenia has left me (papa Jeff) in charge of you kids for the next two weeks. Yes, you can eat all the candy and dessert and sodas you want, watch whatever on TV, and go to sleep when you feel like it. But let’s make a deal, too: let’s create the best Muni Diaries we can for Eugenia to come home to.
That means you guys gotta keep sending me your Muni stories, photos, videos, songs, and whatever else you think warrants a post on Muni Diaries. And keep the comments coming. I can steer the ship, but you guys gotta paddle. Or is it the other way around?
- Send Muni stories here.
- Submit photos to our Muni Photo Flickr group here.
- Send stories, photos, missed connections, love letters, requests, and everything else to our email account here.
Let’s do this!
* Technically, I will have some editorial/curatorial help these next two weeks. Tara has volunteered to navigate these dangerous waters. Thanks, Tara!
Original BART logo
Eric Fischer finds cool things. He then shares them on his Flickr account with anyone who has access to a computer. Today, he shared this, the 1958 logo to “RT,” the “San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District.” At the time, it comprised five counties. Those were the days …
I really wish I could leave some money in Eric’s tip jar. I mean … Burlingame BART? Check it out:
Muni Playlist: From Joe Jackson to Flight of the Conchords
Photo by WarzauWynn
So here they are, the tracks you guys are listening to. We hope you enjoy checking out what your fellow Muni riders are listening to as much as we enjoy discovering and reporting it.
- JimmyD This morning: ‘Role Models,’ written and read by John Waters. Brilliant! (we couldn’t find this on YouTube, so we substituted an interview with the always-entertaining Waters. -eds.)
- smallerdemon: I tend to [listen] to podcast[s] unless there’s some specific thing I need to drown out with guitars and drums going on. SModcast, Tell’em SteveDave, Mysterious Universe, The Philosopher’s Zone, The Bugle.
- Pappu: during my morning commute, Bollywood bhangra type songs; Bon Iver; that Lady Antebellum song, “Need You Now”– being single during Pride is not fun.
- Francesca: This morning – “Business Time” by Flight of the Conchords!
- Jazee I am listening to Joe Jackson. (Perhaps betraying our age, we took the liberty of choosing “Stepping Out” as the Joe Jackson track. -eds)
- Ben: New Blitzen Trapper Album.
Enjoy, and let us know what you are listening to on Muni: muni.diaries.sf@gmail.com
Best Muni Missed Connection EVER
Muni rider “roe” sends this amazingly detailed description of a missed connection on the 5-Fulton. We bet she looked so creamy …
Market Street rails turn 150!
Image by Market Street Railway Blog
SFGate’s Carl Nolte has a story up that details the background of why putting a streetcar on Market Street was so revolutionary in 1860:
Surveyor Jasper O’Farrell had laid out Market as a grand boulevard in the 1850s, but the infant San Francisco grew up around Portsmouth Square not far from Telegraph Hill. If San Francisco had a main street it was Montgomery, where all the best businesses were located. […]
The route of the pioneering Market Street rail line went through “wild country, the middle of nowhere,” [Emiliano] Echeverria said.
The rail line changed all that. “It set the wheels in motion, if you’ll pardon the expression,” Echeverria said.
And Market Street Railway Blog celebrates this glorious day in transit history thusly:
Eighty-four years after the Declaration of Independence was, er, declared on July 4, 1776, the first street railway on the Pacific Coast opened. It was an odd-looking railroad-type coach, powered by steam, running from Third and Market (pictured below) to 16th and Valencia. By 1867, the noisy steam engine aroused enough neighbors’ ire to be replaced by horsecars. (Guess they preferred the manure.) Cable cars took over as the predominant Market Street transit in 1883, succeeded by electric streetcars in 1906, which endure today as the F-line.
Both stories are worth a read.
Happy SF Transit Independence Day!