Traveling into San Francisco

We went to San Francisco to pick up a friend who had flown in from Milan, Italy yesterday. Today we went on the cable cars and went to Fishermans wharf and went to Coit Tower on top of one of the San Francisco hills. It was a fun thing to do because I realized I had never ridden on a cable car before today. One of the more interesting things about Cable Cars is that they use one or more pieces of Redwood as a brake on the cable. The reason you would do this is Redwood doesn't burn very well which is why Redwood trees don't usually burn completely down even in a fire. So, you will see redwoods partly burnt but still alive usually especially the older ones that are 150 to 200 feet high or more.

So, when we went down the hills as we were braking you could smell the smoking redwood on the braking system that keeps the Cable Cars from taking off down the hill and into the ocean on a downward down the hill trajectory. So, going uphill you are being pulled by the cable under the street up the hill. But then, when you go downhill you are braking with the redwood braking on the cable to stop by pressing I was told two redwood pieces press together against the drive cable to stop at stop signs or signals or traffic.