Here we come to a new and peculiar street railway…There is no steam on board. You ask how is this train propelled? Between the track and under ground is a cable running upon rollers for the length of the road…
Edward D. Holton,
Of course they are talking about cable cars. Andrew Smith Hallidie patented an improved "Endless Wire Ropeway" to make cable cars possible. Before cable cars horses were the main way to get around. It was horses who also pulled individuals over San Francisco' steep roads. Cable cars would work where slots would be placed in the roads where they would travel. The slots would work with a grip mechanism and push the cars along.
The first cable railway ran from the intersection of Clay and Kearney Streets along twenty eight hundred feet of track to the crest of a hill 307 feet above the starting point. The cable car defined San Francisco and opened the door to having more cities choose to use cable cars over horse drawn cars as well.