San Francisco faced many geographical challenges when it was incorporated as a city in 1850. It is surrounded on three sides by water, with a narrow peninsula that connects San Francisco to San Jose. Citizens were limited in terms of traveling beyond the City. The seven major hills with street grades as steep as 31 percent made traveling within the City itself difficult.

The first public transportation system was established in 1849 with a privately owned stagecoach that traveled between San Francisco and San Jose (it would be replaced in 1864 by the San Francisco/San Jose Railroad). In 1851 public transit within the City began with the privately operated Yellow Line: horse-drawn omnibuses that traveled between Portsmouth Square and Mission Dolores^[1]. Horse-pulled rail cars replaced the omnibuses in 1860. In 1863 the ferry terminal opened, allowing passengers to travel to the East Bay for the first time. This became particularly important to San Franciscans in 1869 when the Transcontinental Railroad was completed, ending in Oakland. In 1873 the City’s first cable car line opened on Clay Street^[2]. By 1890 there were 23 cable car lines and cable cars became the primary method for getting around.

In 1902 United Railroads (URR) bought out its competition, creating a monopoly on City public transportation. Citizens were so outraged by the subsequent price hikes and company corruption that in 1909 voters approved a bond for a municipally operated transit system. 

The Municipal Railway (known simply as Muni) became the first publicly operated transit system in the country. It opened its first line, the A Geary Line, in 1912. As additional lines opened, including lines that went through the Stockton Street, Twin Peaks and Sunset Tunnels, passengers were able to get to the outer branches of the City. Muni and URR were in direct competition for years, with two sets of tracks for each railway running down Market Street^[3] (the City was finally able to buy URR in 1944). 

In 1939 the Transbay Terminal^[4] opened, using the lower deck of the San Francisco/Oakland Bay Bridge^[5]for an electric streetcar system connecting San Francisco to Oakland.

Between 1948-1949 most of the City’s cable cars and streetcar lines were replaced with buses or electric trollies. The only streetcar lines to remain were those that traveled through tunnels or went up steep inclines. My mother Anne remembers these streetcars with their “cow catchers”: a triangular grate that pushed objects and people out of the way. In 1957 the five-line cable car line was cut back to the three, and today they are used more by tourists than commuters. In 1972 BART^[6] opened and connected San Francisco to the East Bay and eventually down the peninsula to the San Francisco International Airport. 

In 2007 Muni’s entire fleet converted to biodiesel. Today there are 54 bus lines, 17 trolley bus lines, 7 light rails, 3 cable car lines and 2 heritage streetcar lines. Buses and trollies have number designations. Rail lines have letter designations. The cable car lines are referred to as the Powell/Mason, Powell/Hyde and California lines. All Muni operations use a dual-mode smart card payment system (Clipper). There is also a mobile app called Muni Mobile^[7].

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^[1] Mission Dolores: https://thesanfranciscophoenix.com/?p=4168

^[2] Cable Cars: story coming September 6th

^[3] Market Street: story coming July 26th

^[4] Transit Center: https://thesanfranciscophoenix.com/?p=3701

^[5] Bay Bridge: https://thesanfranciscophoenix.com/?p=3306

^[6] Bay Area Rapid Transit: https://thesanfranciscophoenix.com/?p=3533

^[7] For more information, visit the San Francisco Municipal Transit Agency (SFTMA) at www.sfmta.com

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