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May 1943. "San Francisco, California. The Bank of America." Medium format negative by Ann Rosener for the Office of War Information. View full size.
The "cable car" in the photo is an electric trolley of the Market Street Railway. It is powered from the overhead wire, not dragged along by a cable under the street. The apparatus on the car is called a fender. It was a safety device to keep errant pedestrians from being run over. The car is headed away from the photographer so the fender is in the UP position. The one on the front of the car would normally be lowered to just above street/rail level. Being hit by one would not be a pleasant experience and certainly not like just sitting down.
PhotoFan, it had been restored by the time I began working in the building in 1985. It survived the 1906 earthquake and fire because only the steel frame had been built.
That building was opened in 1908 as the Humboldt Savings Bank, but it's been a BofA for many years now. In the mid 1970s its dome was painted red, white and blue for the nation's bicentennial. I believe it was still carrying that patriotic, but ghastly paint when I began working in downtown SF in 1980.
Supplementing TimeAndAgainPhoto's 2009 shot, this Google street view shows the construction associated with the Union Square/Market Street station of the Central Subway project, expected to open in 2018. The view is down Ellis Street toward its intersection with Stockton and Market.
I love the seat styled people catchers on the front cable cars. In case someone was hit they would just sit down instead of getting run over.
Below is the same view from September of 2009.
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