A Trip Down Market Street

A Trip Down Market Street
Produced byMiles Brothers
CinematographyHarry J. Miles
Release date
  • April 21, 1906 (1906-04-21)
Running time
13 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

A Trip Down Market Street is a 1906 phantom ride film of a cable car as it travels down Market Street in San Francisco. It is notable for capturing the city four days before the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.[1][2] The film shows details of daily life in a major early 20th-century American city, including the transportation, fashions and architecture of the era. The film begins at 8th Street and continues eastward to the cable car turntable, at the Embarcadero, in front of the Ferry Building.

On April 17, two of the four Miles Brothers—Harry and Joseph—boarded a train for New York, taking the two films with them, but they heard about the earthquake and sent the films to New York while they boarded another train headed back to San Francisco. The Turk Street house of Earl Miles survived the earthquake and the subsequent catastrophic fire but the studio did not. The Miles brothers based their business out of Earl's home, and shot more film of post-earthquake scenes; some of this footage, including that of a second trip down a now devastated Market Street, reemerged in 2016.[2][3][4][5]

In 2010, the film was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress.[6][7][8]

  1. ^ Garrone, Max (April 30, 2010). "Market Street on film 1906". SFGate Blog.
  2. ^ a b Chokshi, Niraj (April 14, 2018). "Found Footage Offers a New Glimpse at 1906 San Francisco Earthquake". The New York Times.
  3. ^ "Rediscovered film takes a trip through San Francisco in ruins". YouTube. PBS News Hour. June 13, 2018. Retrieved January 19, 2019.
  4. ^ "Film found at flea market shows San Francisco right after 1906 quake". YouTube. BBC News. June 15, 2018. Retrieved January 19, 2019.
  5. ^ Kiehn, David (July 2006). "The Brothers Who Filmed the Earthquake". San Francisco Silent Film Festival. Archived from the original on May 26, 2013. Retrieved April 13, 2013.
  6. ^ Fleming, Mike: National Film Registry's 25 Films For 2010 December 28, 2010. Last accessed December 29, 2010
  7. ^ "Complete National Film Registry Listing". Library of Congress. Retrieved May 13, 2020.
  8. ^ "Hollywood Blockbusters, Independent Films and Shorts Selected for 2010 National Film Registry". Library of Congress. Retrieved May 13, 2020.