As you most probably know, work on the Visitacion Valley/Little Hollywood segment of the Third Street Light Rail is now underway. Once the project is completed our neighborhood will once again be connected with the rest of the city along a set of tracks -- "once again" because several streetcar lines served our valley by 1910.
According to the Visitacion Valley Grapevine and a 1967 issue of Schlage Lock's newsletter, Lock and Key, one line ran from Market Street to the Five Mile House at San Bruno and Wilde and another to the Six Mile House at Bayshore and Sunnydale, while a third stretched from Geneva at Mission to the Six Mile House. The streetcars themselves soon gained an assortment of affectionate nicknames, including "Toonerville Trolley, " Galloping Goose," "The Dinky" and "Molasses Special"! A one-way ride cost five cents and, because each line had only one track, meaning that the carriages had to be turned around at each terminus, passengers often had fairly lengthy waits, leading to the neighborhood being called "Hesitation Valley" by impatient commuters. By the end of World War II the three streetcar lines had been replaced by the MUNI bus routes which residents know today. Progress? Possibly. The new light rail will eventually give us the revived option of "riding the rails" to and from downtown San Francisco.
Third Street Light Rail Project Hot Line: 415-703-6655