John Swatsley (American, B. 1937) "American Streetcars" Signed lower right. Original Oil painting on Illustration Board.

Provenance: Collection of James A. Helzer (1946-2008), Founder of Unicover Corporation.

This artwork originally appeared on the Fleetwood First Day of Issue Maximum Card for the U.S. 20c First American Streetcar stamp issued October 8, 1983.

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 continuous 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 Francisco, cable cars became quite common and spread to many other towns across America.

Image Size: 8.75 x 12.25 in.
Overall Size: 15.75 x 18.25 in.
Unframed. (B08488)

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15.75 x 18.25 in