City by the Bay: SF Scenes 1929

This 1929 silent film, San Francisco Scenes, sweeps through San Francisco’s vibrant tapestry. Aerials frame the Pacific Telephone Building, Market Street from 8th, and the Ferry Building, with ferries like the Golden Gate gliding past Goat Island (Yerba Buena). Shot from Twin Peaks and planes, it pans waterfront piers, the Belt Railroad, and cargo—copra, hemp, silk—unloaded by longshoremen. Streetcars clatter past Union Square, cable cars spin at Powell, and Chinatown buzzes with pagodas and switchboards. Berkeley’s Campanile and Oakland’s Lake Merritt shine, while Golden Gate Park’s bandstand and Portals of the Past glow in a 1920s urban ode.