| Municipal Railway No. 1 is one of Americas most historic streetcars, for it was the first publicly-owned big city streetcar in the United States. Early in the 20th Century, American transit systems were privately-owned, often part of electric utilities. As a reaction to graft and corruption on the part of the citys privately-owned streetcar company, United Railroads of San Francisco (URR), and as a reflection of the Progressive Era then sweeping California, San Franciscans passed a bond to build their own public streetcar system, the Municipal Railway, first of its kind in a major American city. Mayor James Rolph, Jr. personally piloted this streetcar out Geary Street on December 28, 1912 to formally open Muni. He paid his own fare with one of the first 40 nickels minted at the San Francisco Mint. Fifty thousand San Franciscans turned out to celebrate. Munis first streetcars were built without windows in their end sections (which served as the smoking sections). But foggy San Francisco weather proved too much for this arrangement, and the end-section windows of No. 1 and Muni streetcars were glazed by around 1918. Otherwise, No. 1 looks almost identical to the day it first operated in 1912, down to its rattan seats and wooden interior paneling. Here, MUNI #1 cruises down Market Street during MUNI Heritage Weekend 2013. |