Two U.S. National Landmarks ThatMove!
Posted on July 4, 2016 by wordcloud9
Most National Landmarks and Monuments stand still, but these two are National Landmarks because they move — people from place to place.
The world’s first cable car line, on Clay Street in San Francisco, began service in August 1873. Cable carswere invented by Andrew S. Hallidie, a Scots-born mining engineer. Legend says he saw horses strugglingand slipping trying to pull a railcar filled with passengers up one of San Francisco’s hills and decided to adapt his mining conveyor technology to pull rail cars, by means of an endless loop of cable under the street, between the tracks.
In 1964, San Francisco’s cable carswere named the first movingNational Historic Landmark. Today, both their continued operation and minimum level of service are locked into San Francisco’s City Charter.
On September 30, 2014, New Orleans’St. Charles streetcar line was granted national historic landmark status by the Department of the Interior, becoming the second U.S. mobile landmark. The St. Charles line was singled out as theoldest continuously operating streetcar system in America, having operated on the lines tracks since 1923.
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Nona Blyth Cloud has lived and worked in the Los Angeles area for over 50 years, spending much of that time commuting on the 405 Freeway. After Hollywood failed to appreciate her genius for acting and directing, she began a second career managing non-profits, from which she has retired. Nona has now resumed writing whatever comes into her head, instead of reports and pleas for funding. She lives in a small house overrun by books with her wonderful husband.
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