When Steam Ran on the Streets of San Francisco is the first book devoted exclusively to the subject of steam-powered transit in San Francisco. Materials selected had to meet three criteria. First, the transit had to be steam powered. Horsecars, cable cars and streetcars are discussed, but only as they relate to steam services. Second, the service had to run on at least one of San Francisco's city streets. Third, this study is limited to passenger carrying operations. Freight services, however, are only discussed as they relate to passenger steam operations. During an eighty-five-year period (1860-1945), the rein of the iron horse, in the city-by-the-bay, is chronicled. The scope includes such famous routes like the Ferries and Cliff House Railway's Land's End Cliff route to the almost forgotten World War II Hunters Point Shipyard Railway and rare operations such as the use of by the California Street Railroad of the famous locomotive the C.P. Huntington.