CABLE RAILWAYS IN VARIOUS CITIES.. 4 (u 
ENGINEERING. 
CABLE RAILWAYS IN VARIOUS CITIES. 
We find the following account of cable railways in San Francisco, Chicago, and 
elsewhere in the New York Tribune. We append an account of the Kansas City 
Cable Railway, furnished by Mr. Robert Gillham, Chief Engineer, by which it 
appears that this line is superior in many points to any yet built. 
To the enterprise and mechanical ingenuity of San Francisco are due the 
origin and practical success of the system of running street cars by means of the 
endless wire rope or cable, placed beneath the surface of the ground. The first 
concession for a wire cable road in San Francisco was granted to Gen. Abner 
Doubleday and Capt. R. L. Ogden, of the army, the originators of the enter- 
prise. Gen. Doubleday's duties taking him from California, all the rights and 
privileges granted him were sold and transferred to A. S. Hallidie, representing 
the present Clay Street Railroad Company, to whom the credit is due of perfect- 
ing and carrying to complete success the present system of cable roads. Pos- 
sessed of indomitable energy and great mechanical ability, Mr. Hallidie, under 
discouraging and disheartening difficulties, persevered until he has brought the 
system to that point where he is clearly able to establish by actual practice and 
demonstration its superiority over the general system of horse-power surface 
roads. 
In August, 1873, the Clay Street Hill Railroad Company in San Francisco 
began business, and since then it has been found to answer all requirements, and 
to exceed the expectations of engineers and others who had examined the plans 
previous to the construction of the road. This system is adapted to all metro- 
politan railroading where the surface of the streets has to be kept free from ob* 
struction and open to ordinary traffic, where locomotive steam engines are not 
tolerated, or where the streets are so steep as to make the use of horses difficult 
or impossible. 
After the Clay Street Road had been running three years and its practicabil- 
ity had been fully tested, the Sutter Street Railroad Company, whose lines had 
been for many years unprofitably worked by horses, changed its system from a 
horse road to a cable road. This company has now over three miles of double 
tracks operated on this system. The greatest elevation is 167 feet above the 
starting point. The business of the road was not interrupted for a single hour 
during the transformation. The saving in expenses, as stated under oath in test- 
mony given in a suit affecting the company, amounted to 30 per cent, and the 
passenger traffic was increased 962,375 the first year after adopting the cable 
system. The shares of the Company were selling before the transfer at $24. 
They are now worth $60. 
