Sixth Grade
Worksheets
How Does a Cable Car Work?
Colorful, old-fashioned cable cars glide up and down the steep hills of San Francisco, but there is no sound of an engine pulling the cars. How do they do it?
Old-fashioned cable cars move by an ingenious system of cables and grips devised in the 1800s especially to pull cars up and down steep hills. Cable cars were so successful that they soon began to replace horse-drawn carriages in big cities across the United States. By the late 1800s, cable cars had become a popular means of mass transit.
In addition to being able to navigate steep hills, one of the chief advantages of cable cars was that they were cheaper and easier to maintain than horse-drawn cars. Cable cars did not have to be fed, groomed, rested, and housed in a stable like horses did.
