Front:
USA20C
"Bobtail" horsecar, Sulphur Rock,Ark.,1926
OCT
1983
04046
Steeje
ME
Back:
While in San Francisco, an Englishman named Andrew
S. Hallidie witnessed a terrible carriage accident
caused by the city's steep hills. He was so disturbed by
the accident, that he vowed to find a way to avoid further
calamities. He soon invented a system, where continu-
ous running cables under the pavement of San Francisco
could be used to pull streetcars along rails. This cable
car could be stopped by simply detaching it from the
cable and setting the brake. On the first trial run, the
workmen who had been assigned to ride and operate
the cable car took a hard look at the slopes they had to
climb — a gradient near twenty degrees — and they all
resigned on the spot! Confident of his invention, Hallidie
hopped on and made a flawless run, starting and stopping
on the steep hills several times. Thus, San Francisco
became the first city in the world to have a cable car
system, and soon after this initial success in San Fran-
cisco, cable cars became quite common and spread to
many other towns across America.
No. 83-2
MAXIMUM
ISO-FIRST
IL
CARD INSE
©1983 Postal Maximum Card Program . Cheyenne, WY 82001-0007
Original painting by John Swatsley.
DAY OF
