Now Playing:

Luis Ferreira moved to San Francisco over 30 years ago from Madera, Portugal, with ambitions to follow in his grandfather’s footsteps and become a master craftsman. Today, he serves as one of four carpenters who are given the unique responsibility of restoring and repairing San Francisco’s greatest tourist attraction, the cable car.

His specialty, according to his team, are the one-of-a-kind curves it takes to make the seats and roofing of the cable car.

“They learned that I have this technique to work on these garlands and curves and twists,” says Ferreira. “The better the challenge, the more I put my mind into it.”

The SFMTA Woods Division cable car shop does not build new cars from scratch; their only task is to repair and restore the 44 cars that are currently active in the fleet. Ferreira doesn’t see himself leaving his position anytime soon. He enjoys being a part of San Francisco’s history.

“When you start working on this as a professional and you see the people’s faces or the outcome of the work that we did over the years, it’s very rewarding,” says Ferreira.

Back to Gallery The Regulars: Carpenter crafts cable cars’ beauty 7 1 of 7 Photo: Jessica Christian, The Chronicle 2 of 7 Photo: Jessica Christian, The Chronicle 3 of 7 Photo: Jessica Christian, The Chronicle 4 of 7 Photo: Jessica Christian, The Chronicle 5 of 7 Photo: Jessica Christian, The Chronicle 6 of 7 Photo: Jessica Christian, The Chronicle 7 of 7 Photo: Jessica Christian, The Chronicle













The craftsmen still work off of the original blueprints that are more than 100 years old. According to Ferreira, it takes a special kind of carpenter to work on something as delicate and historic as a cable car.

“You have to be able to pick up a good piece of wood to deliver a good part,” says Ferreira. “It’s not like you can bring a supervisor from Tesla to run a shop with these cars. They would be lost in space.”