San Francisco highlight
Historic cable cars, steep hills
San Francisco's cable cars, invented roughly 150 years ago and designated a National Historic Landmark in 1964, operate three lines today managed by the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency.
San Francisco's cable car system was invented in the 1870s to solve the problem of moving people up and down the city's steep hills. A moving cable beneath the street, powered by stationary engines, pulls the car forward when the operator engages the grip; releasing the grip and applying a brake stops it. The first line began service on Clay Street in 1873, and by the 1890s the system was at its peak with more than 600 miles of track. Today three lines remain in regular operation: the California line (running along California Street), the Powell-Hyde line, and the Powell-Mason line, each with its own character and serving different neighborhoods and tourist routes.
The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) operates all three cable car lines as part of Muni, the city's public transportation system. The cars themselves are restored and maintained to their original specifications, and operators—called gripmen and brakemen—still run them using the original mechanical systems with only updated safety equipment. The cable cars collectively carry millions of riders each year, both locals commuting through familiar neighborhoods and tourists experiencing one of San Francisco's most distinctive urban technologies.
The cable cars endure because they work: they move people across terrain that would otherwise require walking or a much more powerful vehicle, and they do it using 150-year-old principles of physics and engineering. Insurance planning works similarly—it endures because it solves a lasting problem, using straightforward math to ensure that the people who depend on you have continuity if you are not here.