This week's Clip of the Week isn't a new clip. Not by a long shot. It's from 1906, and it was the focus of a very interesting 60 Minutes piece this weekend. Taken by a cable car operator just days before the infamous San Francisco earthquake, the clip is simultaneously a rare time capsule and an eerie view of a city unwittingly enjoying the calm before an unimaginable storm.
You can also see the 60 Minutes report on the clip (including some cool commentary) here. I would've embedded the 60 Minutes report itself, but CBS News' embed function is notoriously screwy, and YouTube's worked better. Watch them both if you want the full effect.
I think it's both poignant and unsettling to watch these people going about their business without a hint of an idea of what's coming. Many (or most) of the buildings pictured were completely destroyed days later, and undoubtedly many of the people filmed were killed.
But besides all that, it's also just pretty cool to watch. The way they dress, the way there's basically no traffic laws whatsoever (and a bunch of close calls of people and cars cutting in front of the cable cars), the fact that most of the license plates on the cars are simple 4-digit numbers, indicating just how few cars were on the roads back then... It's fun to watch, and the history of the matter just makes it that much more impactful. Cool clip.
[60 Minutes]
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