San Francisco's cable car system turns 143 years old

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- A true San Francisco treat is celebrating 143 years of service this week.

The city's cable cars made their first run near the top of Nob Hill at Clay and Jones Streets on August 2, 1873 thanks to London-born inventor Andrew Smith Hallidie.

He based the cable car system on early mining conveyance systems after seeing a horse team die while pulling a carriage up a city hill.

The iconic symbol of San Francisco has survived the great quake of 1906 and political attempts to remove them in the 1940s and 50s.

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