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In the background the Bay Bridge can be seen with the lights of Oakland and the dark patch of the Yerba Buena Island.Is our piano there? :)Cable cars were invented in 1873 by Andrew Hallidie to climb the hills of San Francisco. Many cities once had cable cars, but today, San Francisco's 3 lines are the only ones left in the world. The single-ended Powell Street cars are the older of the two types now in service. The Powell cars have one open grip end and can be turned only with the help of the turntables built into the street at the ends of the lines.With the statue of Columbus in the center.Balclutha is a three-masted, steel-hulled, square-rigged ship built to carry a variety of cargo all over the world. It was launched in 1886.This cable car turntable is at the Hyde St - Beach St intersection. The long queue of people consists of tourists who want to ride the cable car. The two Powell Street lines (Powell-Hyde & Powell-Mason) use cable cars that are operable from only one end. They thus require turntables to reverse direction at the ends of the line. Mrs. Friedel Klussmann, the Cable Car Lady, led the campaign that saved the San Francisco cable cars in the late 1940's.After the windy part, the Lombard Street continues through the Telegraph Hill neighborhood, until it becomes Telegraph Hill Boulevard, where vehicles can access the Coit Tower. Funny, that behind the hill Lombard Street starts again for 2 blocks and finally terminates at The Embarcadero.The switchback's design was born out of necessity in order to reduce the hill's natural 27% grade, which was too steep for most vehicles to climb. The speed limit in this section is 5 mph (8 km/h).