San Francisco County Biographies

ANDREW SMITH HALLIDIE

Transcribed by Donna L. Becker 

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm

	Inventor of the cable railway.  Incidents unimportant in 
themselves, have led to many of the greatest discoveries and inventions which 
mark the progress of the human race.  A falling apple observed by Newton 
heralded the discovery of the law of gravitation, that mighty force which holds 
the wheeling worlds in their courses.  A boiling tea-kettle inspired in the mind 
of Watt the birth-thought of the steam engine.  A spider�s web across the garden 
walk suggested the suspension bridge.  In other instances an appeal to a 
sympathetic heart has been the inspiration of inventive minds whose creations 
have enrolled them in history among the world�s benefactors.  The fall of one of 
the horses struggling up a hill with a loaded street car in San Francisco 
excited the pity of a beholder and led him to the invention of the cable 
railway, which has revolutionized the method of travel in large cities.
 
Mr. Hallidie, the gentleman referred to, is a native of Scotland, born in 1836.  
In early youth he studied civil engineering and subsequently worked three years 
in a shop.  At the age of seventeen he came to California and spent several 
years in the mines, dividing the time between searching for gold, surveying 
roads and constructing water ways.  Before he had passed his twenty-first 
birthday, young Hallidie had built a suspension bridge and aqueduct across the 
middle fork of the American river with a span of 220 feet, the cross section of 
the conduit being three feet by two.  He also designed and put in operation a 
number of important improvements in mining apparatus.  A sudden rise of the 
river in 1855 having swept away everything he had previously earned, Mr. 
Hallidie set about retrieving his loss with doubled energy.  He ran a quartz 
mill in 1856, and spent the following year in improvising machinery on the 
middle fork of the American river.  Here he made and put in operation the first 
wire rope ever used on the Pacific coast.  It was employed for transporting the 
ore from a quartz mine to the stamp mill, was 1,600 feet in length and operated 
on an incline of twenty-four degrees.  Turning his mechanical genius to good 
purpose, he devoted his spare time to sharpening and repairing tools for the 
miners, at which he made $15 to $20 a day.
 
In 1857 he surveyed and ran the tunnel for a water way through a spur of a 
mountain, using instruments made by himself on the ground, and his levels run 
from opposite sides met midway within half an inch!  About this time the Indians 
were troublesome, robbing and murdering the whites; and Mr. Hallidie, having 
borrowed and repaired all the old guns he could secure, he and some twenty 
others pursued and captured two bands of the red marauders; but before reaching 
the settlement with their prisoners they were snowed in for nearly a month in 
the mountains, and the whole party narrowly escaped perishing.  Six 
years�1852��58�were passed by him amid the exciting and perilous experiences of 
pioneer life as a prospector and engineer�years full of adventure and hazardous 
experiences not distasteful to one of his daring spirit.  On one occasion he 
narrowly escaped death from a premature explosion of a blast at the entrance of 
a 600-foot tunnel.  Soon after this he was entombed by a caving bank of earth; 
and when completing his suspension bridge the scaffolding gave way and 
precipitated him upon the rocks twenty feet below.  At another time he was 
carried over the fall and rapids of the American river a mile and a half, 
clinging to a stick of timber.
 
For a number of years Mr. Hallidie was engaged in designing and erecting 
bridges,�chifly [sic] suspension bridges,�of which he built some fourteen on the 
Pacific slope, of 220 to 350 foot span.  In 1858 he established a manufactory of 
wire rope in San Francisco, in which he has been successfully engaged ever 
since, and which he has developed into the �California Wire Works,� an 
organization with half a million dollars capital, of which he is president and 
managing head, and giving employment to 225 men.
 
His experience in inventing and operating aerial wire-rope ways in the mines for 
transporting ore and other heavy material over rough mountain surfaces prepared 
him for his greater invention, the cable railway, a few years later.  It was on 
an unpleasant day in 1869 that he witnessed the fall of a horse, before 
mentioned in this article, while it and four others were striving in vain to 
draw a car filled with passengers up Jackson street hill.  The harsh treatment 
of the poor animals and their mute appeal for sympathy touched his heart, and he 
then and there resolved to devise a more humane and effective method than 
horse-power for propelling cars over the hilly streets of San Francisco; and in 
spite of numerous onerous private and official duties demanding his attention, 
he set about solving the problem with his characteristic energy and 
determination.  Many serious obtacles [sic] and difficulties confronted him on 
every hand, not the least of which were the discouragements thrown in his way by 
the faithless persons who assumed the role of adverse advisers and 
obstructionists; but with unswerving persistency he pursued his purpose, neither 
halting or faltering, enlisting the interest and support of two or three friends 
to whom he had submitted his designs and plans in 1871, and who had firm 
confidence in his genius to achieve success.
 
Clay street was selected on which to build the experimental cable line, because 
on this street the road would traverse Russian hill, one of the highest points 
in the city, reaching an altitude of 307 feet from the starting on Kearny 
street, and thus would be presented all the difficulties likely to be 
encountered on any other street.  In June, 1873, ground was broken and the work 
of the construction begun, under the personal supervision of the inventor; and 
on the first day of August that year, at four o�clock in the morning, the trial 
trip was successfully made.  Then was demonstrated for the first time in the 
world�s history the practicability of propelling street cars by a stationary 
engine, through the medium of an endless wire cable running below the surface of 
the street.  Mr. Hallidie had solved the problem of street travel in cities 
without obstructing general traffic, and made it possible to build cities on 
hills without marring the beauty of the natural landscape.
 
After three years and a half of successful operation of the Clay street cable 
railway, the Sutter street line was built in San Francisco.  Other roads of the 
kind were rapidly built in this and other cities, until there are now hundreds 
of miles of cable roads in operation in the United States.  Great Britain, 
Australia and even China have adopted this improved mode of transportation, 
which is destined to extend to all the principals cities of the world.
 
For years Mr. Hallidie was absorbed in his great invention, perfecting it in all 
its details and taking out a number of patents, in foreign countries as well as 
in the United States.  For further particulars, see page 303.
 
In addition to these he has secured patents on nearly a hundred other mechanical 
devices, covering an extensive field and placing him in the front rank of noted 
inventors of this prolific age.  Despite his wonderful activity in this channel, 
he has given much thought and effort to scientific questions and enterprises.  
In 1868 he was elected president of the Mechanics� Institute of San Francisco, 
and filled the office for ten successive years during the most critical period 
of its existence, and through his self-sacrificing devotion to its interests 
paid off thousands of dollars of its indebtedness, and left the office with 
thousands of dollars to its credit and the Institute occupying a position of 
commanding prominence.  He is one of the trustees of the mechanical school 
endowed by the late James Lick with $450,000; he has served as a member of the 
Board of Regents of the University of California for twenty-one years, being 
chairman of the finance committee.  He was also one of the founders of the San 
Francisco public library; is a leading, active member of the Manufacturers� 
Association of the State, having served three years as its president; was the 
prime mover in organizing the Society for the Suppression of Vice, and the Boys 
and Girls� Society; was one of the founders of the San Francisco Art Society; is 
a member of the California Academy of Sciences, and of the Geographical Society 
of San Francisco; was president of the San Francisco Industrial Association from 
1868 to 1878; also a member of the State Historical Society, and of the American 
Geographical Society of New York, and is now serving on the San Francisco 
Executive Board of the World�s Columbian Exposition for 1892-�93.
 
On national questions Mr. Hallidie is a Republican, was a member of the County 
Executive Committee, and was at one time a nominee for the State Senate; is 
vice-president for California of the National Protective Tariff League.
 
Even these multitudinous interests and responsibilities have not fully occupied 
his wonderfully energetic and active mind, which has in its researches reached 
out beyond the confines of the Pacific slope and of this continent.  Besides 
traveling extensively in this country, he has visited Europe and Australia, and 
has attended several of the great international expositions and spent some time 
at several of the most celebrated technical schools.  Numerous published 
articles from his potent pen and addresses attest his marked ability to deal 
with live questions of interest and importance to the public weal.  Among these 
may be mentioned his address before the Mechanics� Institute on �Trade Tuition: 
its Status at Home and Abroad:� his paper read before the Manufacturers� 
Association of California on the �Position of the Manufacturer in San 
Francisco;� and numerous articles in the daily press.  In the Overland Monthly, 
of April and May, 1890, was �A Study of Skilled-Labor Organizations;� and his 
report to the convention of Pacific Coast Chamber of Commerce on the Canadian 
Pacific Railroad, and numerous addresses before scientific and social 
organizations, have also been published.
 
In his wide business and social relations, Mr. Hallidie is esteemed and honored 
for his gentlemanly qualities and his affable manner.  He possesses a highly 
nervous temperament, a strongly sympathetic nature, and is intensely loyal to 
the interests of society and of the Golden State.
 
For his wife he married Miss Mattie Woods, a native of Quincy, Illinois, and 
daughter of pioneer settlers in Sacramento.
 
Source: "The Bay of San Francisco," Vol. 2, pages 112-115, Lewis Publishing Co, 
1892. 


	While his home was in San Francisco for nearly half a 
century, and while he gave in full measure of his powers and abilities to the 
city, the real fame of Andrew Smith Hallidie belongs to the world, as did his 
achievement in practical science and mechanical invention. He was one of the 
great contributors to the volume of invention and mechanical progress that 
marked the last half of the nineteenth century. San Francisco esteems him the 
more because in what was perhaps his greatest invention. The application of the 
cable system to railway transportation, he made the first successful application 
in his home city. San Francisco justly claims the first cable railway system of 
the world.
On Sutter Street, between Montgomery and Kearney, is the Hallidie Building, on 
which has been fixed a tablet by the regents of the University of California, 
with the following inscription:
"Hallidie Building, named in honor of Andrew Smith Hallidie, born in London, 
England, March 16, 1836; died in San Francisco April 24, 1900. Creator of our 
cable railway. Twice member of the Board of Freeholders, chosen to frame a 
charter for this city. Regent of the University from the first meeting of the 
board on June 9, 1868, to the day of his death. During the last twenty-six 
years, devoted chairman of its Finance Committee. Builder, Citizen, Regent, a 
Man of Integrity."
He was a son of Andrew and Julia (Johnstone) Smith, but later he adopted, and 
the adoption was formally approved by the California Legislature, the family 
name Hallidie, in honor of his god-father and uncle, Sir Andrew Hallidie, a 
Scotch physician. His father, Andrew Smith, was born in Dumfrieshire, Scotland, 
and was also distinguished for his inventive genius. Before he left England he 
took out patents which then cost between $1,500 and $2,000. His most important 
invention was the making of ropes and cables from iron and steel wire. He took 
out his first patent on this process in 1835. Wire ropes and cables have 
effected great changes in many branches of industry, and such a cable, of 
course, was the essential feature of a cable railroad.
In 1852 the Hallidies, father and son, came to California. Andrew Smith Hallidie 
prospected in the mining district, and along with mining, continued the study in 
practice of engineering. He did much surveying and bridge building, and also 
conducted a small blacksmith and machine shop. In 1855, at the age of nineteen, 
he designed and built a wire suspension aqueduct of 220 feet span across the 
middle fork of the American River, for conveying water in an open flume three 
feet wide by two feet deep for use in the mines. Making use of his father�s 
invention, he extemporized in June, 1856, machinery for making wire rope, thus 
producing the first cable made on the Pacific slope. The next year he 
established a manufactory for wire ropes in San Francisco. He designed and built 
a great number of bridges, chiefly wire suspension bridges, in the period from 
1858 to 1868, including one or more over the Fraser River in British Columbia. 
He took out his first patent for his invention of a rigid suspension bridge in 
1867. In the same year he invented a method of transporting freight across 
mountainous and rugged districts by an endless overhead moving rope, a 
contrivance subsequently known as the "Hallidie ropeway."
It was largely the development of this idea that led up to his achievement of a 
cable railroad. He matured his plans for such a railway in 1871. The suggestion 
for such means of pulling street cars was given him in San Francisco, where 
horses frequently stumbled and fell in dragging the street cars up the heavy 
grades in that city. His cable road was constructed on Clay Street. The 
difficulty of constructing such a line was due less to the technical problems 
involved, than to the hesitation of capital to invest in such an unproved 
enterprise. The three men who shared with him jointly the financial expense 
involved were Joseph Britton, Henry L. Davis and James Moffit. Each contributed 
something over $20,000 and on August 1, 1873, the first steel street car was 
propelled by the cable railroad system. While some features of his system were 
appropriated and patented by others, the real credit for inaugurating a 
practical system of transportation by cable belongs to him. During the next 
twenty years, until the beginning of the electrical railway age, there was great 
development of the cable railway system, and nearly every large modern city in 
the world had some mileage of cable railway.
When one recalls the hilltops and the immense waste of vacant drifting sand, 
hardly worth paying taxes on, that are now embraced in the most valuable 
residential sections of San Francisco, some idea can be gathered of the 
significance of Hallidie�s enterprise. The construction of the cable line was 
followed by the great real estate upheaval that brought sudden wealth to 
thousands of holders of what seemed the most unpromising property in the world. 
He made more millionaires than the Comstock, opened up possibilities before 
undreamed of. It has fallen to the lot of few men to leave such a lasting reward 
of usefulness.
From his many inventions, upwards of a hundred in number, Mr. Hallidie achieved 
the position of a man of wealth. His success in business was accompanied by a 
generous public spirit that was particularly directed toward educational 
progress and the general welfare of his home city. He was especially interested 
in municipal politics, taking an active part in many reform movements. He was a 
partisan for non-partisan principles, and was firm in following out right at 
whatever loss of personal friendships. Mr. Hallidie was a man of scrupulous 
integrity, avoiding even the appearance of wrong doing. He made it a point that 
in no instance should any society or institution with which he was associated as 
officer or trustee purchase goods of his firm. If the University of California 
or the Mechanics� Institute required anything in the way of wire, they must buy 
of his competitors and not of the California Wire Works. The time he gave to 
public affairs was very great. As head of the Finance Committee of the 
University of California he brought to bear the same thorough and patient 
thoughts that he did to his own business, and the services he rendered cannot be 
overestimated. A conservative and careful man, what he did was much, while what 
he prevented was probably more. During the period from the appointment of 
President Wheeler to the time of his installation, Regent Hallidie acted as 
president of the university.
He was deeply interested in the expressions of manual training, and gave much 
time and thought to his duties with the California School of Mechanical Art and 
the Wilmerding Trade School. Of the Mechanics� Institute of San Francisco he 
served as president from 1868 to 1878 and from 1893 to 1896. During that period 
he received and entertained the Engineers Association, the Horticultural 
Association, and many individual notables visiting San Francisco. The Mechanics 
Institute, through his personal efforts, planned the celebration of the day the 
last spike was driven by the Central Pacific Railway. For many years he was a 
trustee of the Free Public Library of San Francisco, and was a member of two 
Boards of Freeholders to frame a charter. He was a member of the American 
Society of Inventors, the American Geographical Society of New York, the 
California Academy of Science, and many other scientific organizations. His 
contributions to magazines and newspapers were numerous and extensive. The 
commercial associations in California delegated him in December, 1884, to visit 
Mexico and present a congratulatory address to President Diaz.
Mr. Hallidie was a man of domestic tastes and enjoyed the hospitality he was 
able to extend. He was at home in his library, and his books were his closest 
friends. His taste for mechanics was very strong and he encouraged it in others. 
He never joined any secret fraternities, but was a member of several social 
clubs in San Francisco. He acted as president of eight industrial exhibitions in 
the city. These services constituted a great volume of labor in behalf of his 
home community, but he was never a candidate for a salaried public office.
In November, 1868, Mr. Hallidie married Miss Martha Elizabeth Woods, daughter of 
David Woods, of Sacramento. She was born in Quincy, Illinois, and was a child 
when brought to California. Her father came to California by way of the Isthmus 
of Panama, making the trip with Governor Woods of Illinois. He was a pioneer 
cabinet maker and contractor in the City of Sacramento, taking up that 
occupation after a trial at mining. David Woods was a descendant of an old 
American family of Revolutionary stock and English descent. His grandfather was 
a soldier in the War of the Revolution. Mrs. Martha E. Hallidie resides in 
Berkeley.

Source: "The San Francisco Bay Region" Vol. 3 page 312-317 by Bailey Millard. 
Published by The American Historical Society, Inc. 1924.

Transcribed by Elaine Sturdevant