If you have any turn for history, especially if, like me, you’re interested in the Victorian/Edwardian eras, check out this eye-popping film from 1906.
Called “A Trip Down Market Street,” it’s simply thirteen minutes’ worth of footage shot from a cable car as it travels the length of San Francisco’s market street, and it is fascinating. It’s like looking through a time capsule 110 years in the past. We get to see real people, real buildings, real traffic (well, mostly real; the director had the automobiles circle the car several times to give the illusion that there were more of them than there really were), and just a scene of real life from a spring day more than a century before. The footage is incredibly crisp (I suspect the result of digital enhancement), and the version I have adds in some sound effects to help with the immersion.
To make the film even more intriguing, this footage was shot mere days before the great San Francisco Earthquake and fire that leveled the city.
Watch and enjoy this trip into the past: