The Spying Raven no. Theres a bunch... just lying in a box of vhs tapes that will probably never been seen again. Props to those to convert these over and upload them to youtube
Check out Nelson Sullivan's videos about life in New York City (especially the avant garde art/music/LGBTQ culture) in the 80s. He lived in the Meatpacking district which was a rough and seedy industrial area then, but became super-gentrified years later (like South of Market area in San Francisco was). There is a series of videos done at the editorial offices of Rolling Stone magazine. He was originally a Southerner so there are some videos of him in Atlanta. One of his friends was a young RuPaul before he became famous. He died in 1989, way too young.
The Embarcadero freeway was so much fun to experience every time I drove on it. That said, I am still happy that ugly blight from this city was removed.
@@MrMarkOlson It seemed very convenient and I'd be quite happy to use it, but at what cost? The nice ferry terminal building should not have been covered up - it was a different thinking back then I guess when ports and urban riversides were viewed as unsightly. It was only around the 1980's when attitudes to dockland areas started to change. Towns and cities started to look back towards their rivers.
Things changed in California right around 97 or so, it just wasn’t feasible to own anything outside of the 90s It just wasn’t SoCal vibes after that point 😎
This was filmed exactly the time I left SF for Denmark! In SF I drove cab operated by a Chinese family who managed 11 medallions. My cab was Pacific Cab 422. I played in a punk band and lived in North Beach, Columbus near Broadway, and in Mission Dolores. Great City.
I was born in October, before the earthquake. Living in SF now, this blows my mind that there used to be a freeway there. I wish I knew someone who took pictures of this so I could see it then and now in comparison. I love the history of San Francisco's development.
I'm not sure which is more striking... seeing the Embarcadero Freeway still there or seeing the giant billboards for cigarettes... definitely don't see those anymore.
In 2064 (another 40 years), we might not miss the mess of bike lanes on the streets and the horrible tangles of metal up against buildings! While I agree that the Embarcadero Freeway was a mistake, so too is the current idiotic transport thinking across the Western World.
Whenever I pull out my camcoder (I mean a real thing, not those crappy and shaky cell phone videos) and record car rides or plazas with shots of people eating lunch or drinking coffee, someone comes up and ask why would I do that? I just say that I want to keep the feeling of this very moment and that very place. They do not understand. Watching this now 33 year old footage of something I just know from film sets and video games just shows me I am good with all the hours of footage of my hometown I was recording. One day, people will appreciate it.....
"Shaky"? I'm pretty sure camcorders are shaky too. And I own a camcorder(as a 15 year old) I'm guessing I'm missing something but aside that, I get where your coming from. I also use my camcorder(and phone too) just to record thses moments and look back to in like the next 50 years.
It's so rare to see images of a drive on the Embarcadero Freeway. I remember looking down on the pier facades from a school bus on the lower deck and flying over the city on the top. The waterfront area is way more pleasant now without the freeway, gentrification aside, but I wouldn't mind another chance to ride on this road.
goastsighting they need to turn the embarcadero road that is there now into a limited access parkway instead of the ugly elevated crap, it would really suit the style of the place and it could eventually connect to the golden gate br.
My mom always use to take that freeway as a shortcut. I loved sitting in the back seat feeling that breeze. The embarcadero now is better. I felt the freeway took up space.
Gentrification doesn’t really occur in San Francisco . It has been an expensive city after WWII . It was a blue collar - union stronghold. . Barry Fucking Goldwater held the Republican National Convention in San Francisco in 1964. That town is run by proud , but greedy landlords. That is whom runs that city . Not the mayor. Landlords .
If only whoever was filming this knew how historical it would be just 5 years later (not to mention now) after the Loma Prieta earthquake it was demolished.
I was a 13-year-old girl who was very excited about the upcoming Summer Olympics in Los Angeles at the time. "The Dukes of Hazzard," had finished its 6th season. Wow! What a time!
I love this film. It was so easy to get in and out of the Chinatown area when the embarcadero freeway was there, now it takes so much longer and you sit in traffic, going from one traffic light to another. People walking between cars and bikes everywhere. Everybody likes the freeway gone now, but it had it good side too. I think everyone was safer with it there.
This is great, I remember all this stuff living as a kid in s.f. in the 80's. Crazy times for me as a youngster. Thank you Thank you. The embarcadero freeway and the Unocal 76 tower. This video is really clean also for how old it is. Plus the driver and the radio soundtrack is bad ass!
I was born 72 and this was the America of the movies. But America wasn't real to me in my small English town but a mythical place. I eventually got to road trip Vegas - > la - > SFo in 2013 and it was awesome, but I was too late to see many iconic us cars on the road like here
Thank you for the vintage video. The Embarcadero exit onto Broadway was the ticket to Mabuhay Gardens, On Broadway, the Stone, the Old Waldorf, and Wolfgang’s. Great rocking music and weak drinks: Flipper versus Wire Train.
This video begins when "The Streets of San Francisco" guest star credits in the Broadway tunnel ends. The top part of the Embarcadero Freeway is where Dirty Harry drove with Hal Holbrook pointing a gun to his head in "Magnum Force". The lower level is when Alan Arkin and James Caan drove off and crashed into an apartment building in "Freebie and the Bean". My family drove on it to visit relatives in Oakland after picking up my grandparents from Chinatown in the 70s & 80s. Great memories!
Used to love this drive when I lived in the City. I would take Lombard to Van Ness, then on to Broadway and the Embarcadero freeway to the Bay Bridge. Took this route many a time to go to A Day on the Green in Oakland. Was not yet 21, so my friends and I would go drinking and dancing at the Enlisted Club on Treasure Island. I have great memories of the Bay Area.
I drove the Embarcadero Freeway just a couple of times before it was put out of commission by the Loma Prieta earthquake in 1989. The freeway was an awful eyesore, but the view FROM it was fantastic, especially at night.
I wish I could find someone in 1980's Niagara Falls or Buffalo (or surrounding areas) doing this but alas, no old videos. It must be just some LA/Frisco/Big Apple/huge metropolis on the coasts thing. Must've been a thing for folks to show off their new-fangled camcorders back then (why else would some random 1980's person take a home video of a random car ride?).
I love this! I was only 3 years old in 1984 but it's amazing to see what's changed and what's not changed. I too miss those days. Life seemed so simple.
Wow. Borned and raised in San Francisco this brings back memories. I was 10 years old in 84. Thanks for this. Hope you can post more videos during this era.
Every now and then I remember having gone through the Embarcadero Freeway when I see photos/videos of it. Gives me chills thinking back to 1989 and what happened. What I remember mostly was all the pictures on the wall swaying back and forth and couldn't figure out what was going on. That and I was watching Small Wonder.
WOW! Virtual time-travel! I like these sort of videos! 4:46 - "White Lines!" OMG! I remember that song! And, here, I'm listening to it as if it were brand-new in a car back in 1984. This is too cool! When you think about it, Movies, Video, Photographs & Audio are, in a way, virtual time travel. How else, would a person living in 2015 be able to see and hear stuff that no longer exists and people who are long dead (as if they're still alive and/or existing....like this freeway for example)?
I've watched this video several times before -- such a thrill to see my old stomping grounds back in the day. High praise for keeping the radio on KALX (KUSF would have been fine, too). At that exact moment in time I made a daily commute in my 78 VW Rabbit from my flat in Upper Haight to my job in Embarcadero 2, 14th floor. I parked in the Embarcadero Garage for three or four bucks a day. On the weekends, I'd head back down to the North Beach clubs to catch the great little punk/new wave music scene in all the clubs down there.
@@eastsons Hello, got married in 85, we moved out of SF in 98, by then we had two kids and needed to find good public schools. We settled in northern NYC suburbs and raised the kids there. I'm 67 now and still listen to the Offs and Mutants, etc. Good times!
I was only 3 years old then. Really awesome seeing what SF and the Embarcadero freeway looked like. That would've been a fun drive to do. Alot of people here wish there were more 80's footage... well 30 years from now, somebody will be watching your films made today. So film as much as possible!
I think that the song everyone's looking for (from 3:10 on) is Dynamite Nitro by Juke Jumpers. I can't find the real version anywhere, but there are a few covers here on RUclips.
Seven years later, I still can't find it anywhere online, except in covers. So many obscure things are online now that it's kind of a shock to find something that someone hasn't uploaded somewhere. It's been a long time since I've had an earworm I can't just pull up and play, and honestly, I didn't miss that experience.
Thanks for the memories! I was in the city today and was trying to explain to my friend and his mom about the old Embarcadero freeway and they couldn't picture it. What a difference it made though!
I never this freeway existed until this year. I'm born and raised in San Jose and find the history of America's highways strangely fascinating. RIP CA SR 480
Wow, a great historical record! This gave me a strange feeling...like everything's changed, and yet nothing has changed. This looks like it was a beautiful drive to take! Good music too, on the radio. :-) LOL, I was born 1984, and I was only 5 when the Loma Prieta quake happened (didn't know about it years later---I live FAR away from San Fran). Thanks for posting this!
I'm from France and I visited San Francisco many times around the year this was filmed. It's so awesome to see SF back 30 years ago with all those great cars and quite a good easy flow of traffic. I agree with a few comments saying that was America at its best at that time, united and friendly. Times has changed, sadly
Wow, I love that shot with the SoMa skyline at 3:02! The Pac-Bell building looks so graceful standing there by itself, as if it was being pitted against all the concrete boxes on the other side of Market. I was born in 87, so I don't really have much of a memory of what the place looked like without all the shiny condominium towers that are there now. Thanks for sharing this video!
1984: Reaganomics, and the Cold War fear of global annihilation hanging overhead. It wasn't all sweetness and light (but they had an artificial sweetener by that name). But I liked the video
Just saw a shot of the Embarcadero Skyway in a Dirty Harry film and thought "what the hell is that?" After a quick wikipedia and RUclips search, here's my answer. Thanks for posting.
I actually never knew a freeway like this existed, until my science teacher mentioned about driving it prior to the Lima Prieta quake, when we were talking about quakes, so I researched this.
Wow does this bring back memories. I lived in the east bay in 1984 and worked at a place called Thomas Irvine Print Shop on Geary. Rode my 1982 Honda V-45 Sabre to work and back; over the Bay Bridge. Remember KMEL radio?
Hey, my old apartment at 1:30! I didn't live in that complex until 2011 but can't imagine having that gross freeway right...there. I was ten and living in the East Bay when the earthquake hit. It was scary. Went to school, fifth grade, the next day, and of course it was all anyone talked about. Parents' house had a swimming pool, oriented length-wise east to west, and the water splashed waaay out at each end of the pool. Our area was too far away and too new (60's-era ranch houses) to have any damage other than a few things falling off shelves and crooked pictures, but TV cable was out for at least an hour so we didn't know how bad it was elsewhere until later that evening. I don't remember us ever losing electricity, though, so that was a small blessing. Took a long time but it brought about a lot of changes in SF, too: Embarcadero Fwy torn down and revitalization of the waterfront; Central Fwy extension to Oak/Fell Streets torn down and revitalization of Hayes Valley; forced the construction of three new buildings for museums (de Young, California Academy of Sciences, and The Asian Art Museum); new Central Library when the Asian Art Museum took over the old Central Library building; forced seismic work on a ton of the old buildings...
Hey! I was 4 when the earthquake hit and I was living in Oakland but born in SF! Weirdly I still remember glimpses of that day. I love your comment. It took me way back.
@@eaj7319 Thanks! We were even further east, like along 680 and I did the dumbest thing when the ground started shaking. I ran out the front door into the middle of the cul-de-sac...right under a bunch of overhead power lines. What can I say? I was 10, I panicked. I'd been in earthquakes before but that one remains the biggest and it wasn't a quick jolt with jitter-jitter-jitter motion. Where I was it came in a swaying side-to-side, wide back-and-forth motion, thus the water sloshing out of the pool. Are you still in the Bay Area? I moved overseas a couple of years ago and have visited since but I miss living there. Coincidentally, I was taking a business trip to Japan in 2011 and it was canceled a few days before leaving because of _their_ quake. Trip was rescheduled for a month later
Der Glückliche That's so cool!! I like that you have such a vivid memory of that day! You reacted like any normal, scared yet adventurous kid so I don't fault you for that hahaha but I'm glad you and your family were safe and ok! Unfortunately I moved out of the Bay Area two years ago to help take care of my mom but I'm still in California. I MISS THE BAY so much that's why I've found myself watching these videos on RUclips. I miss it every day. I think you and I are lucky we grew up there!! I wouldn't mind living overseas too, so I hope you're enjoying your time away 😊 Oh yeah!! I'm glad you got to bypass the Japan quake! That was no joke 😳
what a fucking awesome video!!!! I lived in SF 84 - 92. I drove on, under, around the Embarcadero freeway all the time. Thanks for this priceless video. You should have played more "White Lines"
Wow at 0:48 Vanessi's on Broadway. It was just like Original Joe's but the cooks would sing loud Italian songs or even opera. Great memories of living & working in the city. I drove a beer truck and my delivery route was North Beach, Chinatown and parts of Fisherman's wharf!!!!
@@DonaldTrumpsDankMemeStash Yeah, complaining about modern cars when the 1980s were the peak of bland boxy car design is hilarious. The few decent looking vehicles in this video were probably all manufactured over a decade before it was taken.
Best place ever! The view coming from the bay bridge to sf has the same skyline until 2013 when everything became modern in downtown SF and they rebuild the bay bridge. Many things are still the same as in the 80s in SF
Thank you so much for this. I've always had very fond snippets memories of my early childhood in the City (late 80's). This video brings back very good feelings. =)
I remember getting off a 3-11 at Letterman Hospital in the Presidio, my husband picking me up on his R65 for the flight to Berkeley, we were in the R lane of the Embarcadero section, when I made eye contact with a passenger in a car coming over into our lane, fortunately R sped ahead for the save, I really thought we were gonna fly away O glory!
I live in the brick building at 0:54. I believe it's been up since the early 1900s. The bottom floor where it says "La Bettola" (or whatever) is now Centerfolds.
Wow my goodness and hello seat850c, thank you so much for posting this video. I grew up in the Bay Area all my life and I was in San Francisco in 1984 working at my parents restaraunt located on 701 3rd St. near AT&T park which is now occupied by McDonalds. That area was an industrial slum that time now it's an urban professional area filled with yuppies. I live in the Tri-City area across the bay working as a computer sales consultant in the valley and also starting my own business.
Tbh, it was a freeway that gave a good view of SF, but it was also an obstacle. I would prefer present day Embarcadero for space, but prefer Embarcadero Freeway for a good drive.
Fascinating. I was only 7 when the earthquake hit, and quite frankly, never did get a chance to go onto the Embarcadero Freeway; always saw it on maps, though. Thanks for posting this.
Nice post, always wanted to know about that Embarcadero Freeway To Nowhere. Saw a plaque for it right at the Ferry Terminal building talking about its deconstruction.
@JumpingCookie95 - It was some sort of two-piece VHS portable, with the tape in one piece that hangs from a shoulder strap, and the camera on it's own, plugged into the tape unit. I think it was RCA, but it's been almost 30 years... can't remember for sure.
I remember the Embarcadero freeway when I was a kid i was born in SF in 1979 at general hospital must have been nice to drive directly to north beach in those days.
Videos like this on the internet are very, very rare.
The Spying Raven no. Theres a bunch... just lying in a box of vhs tapes that will probably never been seen again. Props to those to convert these over and upload them to youtube
Check out the channel “gilbert arciniega” it’s a new channel and the guy recorded his whole life from 88 on up in California.
@@williswhatchutalkinbout4367 one of my favorite channels too bad he is not that big he should tho
no they aren't lmao
Check out Nelson Sullivan's videos about life in New York City (especially the avant garde art/music/LGBTQ culture) in the 80s. He lived in the Meatpacking district which was a rough and seedy industrial area then, but became super-gentrified years later (like South of Market area in San Francisco was). There is a series of videos done at the editorial offices of Rolling Stone magazine. He was originally a Southerner so there are some videos of him in Atlanta. One of his friends was a young RuPaul before he became famous. He died in 1989, way too young.
It's amazing how something so mundane in '84 could be so enjoyable in 2021
Driving is never mundane... except when you're stuck in traffic, maybe.
The Embarcadero freeway was so much fun to experience every time I drove on it. That said, I am still happy that ugly blight from this city was removed.
@@MrMarkOlson It seemed very convenient and I'd be quite happy to use it, but at what cost? The nice ferry terminal building should not have been covered up - it was a different thinking back then I guess when ports and urban riversides were viewed as unsightly. It was only around the 1980's when attitudes to dockland areas started to change. Towns and cities started to look back towards their rivers.
This is how I remember 1984, lots of cars from the 70s still on the road.
Same!
and lead
Things changed in California right around 97 or so, it just wasn’t feasible to own anything outside of the 90s It just wasn’t SoCal vibes after that point 😎
This was filmed exactly the time I left SF for Denmark! In SF I drove cab operated by a Chinese family who managed 11 medallions. My cab was Pacific Cab 422. I played in a punk band and lived in North Beach, Columbus near Broadway, and in Mission Dolores. Great City.
Thanks for this remembrance, I love it. Live long and prosper.
I used to live on jackson & kearny for a short time.
I wish it was still the 80's
+Speed Demon Does RUclips Oh boo hoo
+Speed Demon Does RUclips lol, you deleted your comment
We have Trump now, it's only a matter of time before another nuclear war so whats the difference? lol
Hey Daniel: Is your last name CU** ????? You're sure acting like one with this IGNORANT remark! Bye
@@danielc6816 #Trump2020
I was born in October, before the earthquake. Living in SF now, this blows my mind that there used to be a freeway there. I wish I knew someone who took pictures of this so I could see it then and now in comparison. I love the history of San Francisco's development.
I'm not sure which is more striking... seeing the Embarcadero Freeway still there or seeing the giant billboards for cigarettes... definitely don't see those anymore.
smileyeagle1021 that 76! That’s the SF I remember!
The Marlboro cigarette ads basically stayed the same until they discontinued them in the late 90s.
In 2064 (another 40 years), we might not miss the mess of bike lanes on the streets and the horrible tangles of metal up against buildings!
While I agree that the Embarcadero Freeway was a mistake, so too is the current idiotic transport thinking across the Western World.
Whenever I pull out my camcoder (I mean a real thing, not those crappy and shaky cell phone videos) and record car rides or plazas with shots of people eating lunch or drinking coffee, someone comes up and ask why would I do that? I just say that I want to keep the feeling of this very moment and that very place. They do not understand.
Watching this now 33 year old footage of something I just know from film sets and video games just shows me I am good with all the hours of footage of my hometown I was recording. One day, people will appreciate it.....
"Shaky"? I'm pretty sure camcorders are shaky too. And I own a camcorder(as a 15 year old) I'm guessing I'm missing something but aside that, I get where your coming from. I also use my camcorder(and phone too) just to record thses moments and look back to in like the next 50 years.
Camcorders are crap compared to phone cameras.
Post them when they hit 10 or 15 years old!!
It's so rare to see images of a drive on the Embarcadero Freeway. I remember looking down on the pier facades from a school bus on the lower deck and flying over the city on the top. The waterfront area is way more pleasant now without the freeway, gentrification aside, but I wouldn't mind another chance to ride on this road.
goastsighting they need to turn the embarcadero road that is there now into a limited access parkway instead of the ugly elevated crap, it would really suit the style of the place and it could eventually connect to the golden gate br.
My mom always use to take that freeway as a shortcut. I loved sitting in the back seat feeling that breeze. The embarcadero now is better. I felt the freeway took up space.
Gentrification doesn’t really occur in San Francisco . It has been an expensive city after WWII . It was a blue collar - union stronghold. . Barry Fucking Goldwater held the Republican National Convention in San Francisco in 1964. That town is run by proud , but greedy landlords. That is whom runs that city . Not the mayor. Landlords .
If only whoever was filming this knew how historical it would be just 5 years later (not to mention now) after the Loma Prieta earthquake it was demolished.
yeah that and mandela parkway. the bay bridge isn't even there at this point either, it's a different one now. kalx is still around though at least :)
I was a 13-year-old girl who was very excited about the upcoming Summer Olympics in Los Angeles at the time. "The Dukes of Hazzard," had finished its 6th season. Wow! What a time!
The cars, the music, the decor... All which made us, Europeans, dreaming about America :)
I love watching these films from the past. It is a time gone that we can can never get back. Only in memories.
That looks glorious, I wish that road still existed. How amazing to go sailing over the city like that.
I love this film. It was so easy to get in and out of the Chinatown area when the embarcadero freeway was there, now it takes so much longer and you sit in traffic, going from one traffic light to another. People walking between cars and bikes everywhere. Everybody likes the freeway gone now, but it had it good side too. I think everyone was safer with it there.
4:36 White Lines by Grandmaster Flash & Melle Mel playing while they drive past Hospital Curve on Southbound 101. CLASSIC!
LOl just made the same comment then saw yours
@@d.c.1059 That was my old RUclips comment from 11 years ago. Wild. Classic footage here.
@@DJAUDIO1 Its a Timeless & Universal B-Boy response!!!
A lot of fond memories of the skyline, the music, and the era!
The video was shot in mid July, 1984, I am sure of the time period because the Democratic Convention was going on that week.
Yeah, there's actually an audio snippet of Jesse Jackson on the car radio giving a speech.
were you listening to brigandage's hide and seek?!!
at like the 1:45 mark
This is great, I remember all this stuff living as a kid in s.f. in the 80's. Crazy times for me as a youngster. Thank you Thank you. The embarcadero freeway and the Unocal 76 tower. This video is really clean also for how old it is.
Plus the driver and the radio soundtrack is bad ass!
11 years ago wow
I was looking and hoping the car had an 8 - Tack player in it.
I can’t believe I’m never going to see America like this 😥
❤️
I was born 72 and this was the America of the movies. But America wasn't real to me in my small English town but a mythical place. I eventually got to road trip Vegas - > la - > SFo in 2013 and it was awesome, but I was too late to see many iconic us cars on the road like here
Thank you for the vintage video. The Embarcadero exit onto Broadway was the ticket to Mabuhay Gardens, On Broadway, the Stone, the Old Waldorf, and Wolfgang’s. Great rocking music and weak drinks: Flipper versus Wire Train.
Don't forget The Back Dor. And Wire Train vs. Flipper? No contest. Flipper Rules.
This video begins when "The Streets of San Francisco" guest star credits in the Broadway tunnel ends. The top part of the Embarcadero Freeway is where Dirty Harry drove with Hal Holbrook pointing a gun to his head in "Magnum Force". The lower level is when Alan Arkin and James Caan drove off and crashed into an apartment building in "Freebie and the Bean". My family drove on it to visit relatives in Oakland after picking up my grandparents from Chinatown in the 70s & 80s. Great memories!
Look at all those American made cars!
I was born in San Francisco in 1984❤️
same here! :D
I was born there too, but 1963!
Used to love this drive when I lived in the City. I would take Lombard to Van Ness, then on to Broadway and the Embarcadero freeway to the Bay Bridge. Took this route many a time to go to A Day on the Green in Oakland. Was not yet 21, so my friends and I would go drinking and dancing at the Enlisted Club on Treasure Island. I have great memories of the Bay Area.
I drove the Embarcadero Freeway just a couple of times before it was put out of commission by the Loma Prieta earthquake in 1989. The freeway was an awful eyesore, but the view FROM it was fantastic, especially at night.
wish I'd been alive when that freeway was around-still believe the 80's kicked ass..
gosh i love these vids its the only type of time travel in my age 1970-2000 best years this world has ever seen
+Ayyy lmao Same here! Virtual time travel. Love it. Never been to Frisco but it's been a long time since I've been to the 1980s.
I wish I could find someone in 1980's Niagara Falls or Buffalo (or surrounding areas) doing this but alas, no old videos. It must be just some LA/Frisco/Big Apple/huge metropolis on the coasts thing. Must've been a thing for folks to show off their new-fangled camcorders back then (why else would some random 1980's person take a home video of a random car ride?).
Those preview trailers of GTA 6 look sick (SF and the 80s! I can dream)
I love this! I was only 3 years old in 1984 but it's amazing to see what's changed and what's not changed. I too miss those days. Life seemed so simple.
Wow. Borned and raised in San Francisco this brings back memories. I was 10 years old in 84. Thanks for this. Hope you can post more videos during this era.
What a great video -- RIP the mighty Embarcadero. Love the 80s hits on the car radio!
This was the year I graduated high school! Love these videos frozen in time!
Every now and then I remember having gone through the Embarcadero Freeway when I see photos/videos of it. Gives me chills thinking back to 1989 and what happened. What I remember mostly was all the pictures on the wall swaying back and forth and couldn't figure out what was going on. That and I was watching Small Wonder.
WOW! Virtual time-travel! I like these sort of videos!
4:46 - "White Lines!" OMG! I remember that song! And, here, I'm listening to it as if it were brand-new in a car back in 1984. This is too cool!
When you think about it, Movies, Video, Photographs & Audio are, in a way, virtual time travel. How else, would a person living in 2015 be able to see and hear stuff that no longer exists and people who are long dead (as if they're still alive and/or existing....like this freeway for example)?
So when you record something you're initiating contact with the future.
A lot of drivers in 1984 are still around today - assuming a minimum driving age of 16, the youngest ones would be 55 now.
@@davidfreesefan23 Of course!
Do you happen to know the song at 0:05 ?
Wow...a color video camera, with zoom, back in 1984, you guys must have been rich.
The camera was a rental.
Color?? This is the 1980s not the 1950s.
I love watching this. 1984 was the best year of my life and the last year I spent in the Bay Area.
I was 76 years old in 1984. good memories of that year
I've watched this video several times before -- such a thrill to see my old stomping grounds back in the day. High praise for keeping the radio on KALX (KUSF would have been fine, too). At that exact moment in time I made a daily commute in my 78 VW Rabbit from my flat in Upper Haight to my job in Embarcadero 2, 14th floor. I parked in the Embarcadero Garage for three or four bucks a day. On the weekends, I'd head back down to the North Beach clubs to catch the great little punk/new wave music scene in all the clubs down there.
i am interested to know if you still live in sf and if not just share your current town and reasons for the move. that is if you do not mind sharing.
@@eastsons Hello, got married in 85, we moved out of SF in 98, by then we had two kids and needed to find good public schools. We settled in northern NYC suburbs and raised the kids there. I'm 67 now and still listen to the Offs and Mutants, etc. Good times!
This is literally a drive down memory lane ! As a native San Franciscan , this brings back so many memories . Thanks for sharing this !
I was only 3 years old then. Really awesome seeing what SF and the Embarcadero freeway looked like. That would've been a fun drive to do.
Alot of people here wish there were more 80's footage... well 30 years from now, somebody will be watching your films made today. So film as much as possible!
Oh yeah, I definitely remember the 76 sign. Memories...
I think that the song everyone's looking for (from 3:10 on) is Dynamite Nitro by Juke Jumpers. I can't find the real version anywhere, but there are a few covers here on RUclips.
Seven years later, I still can't find it anywhere online, except in covers. So many obscure things are online now that it's kind of a shock to find something that someone hasn't uploaded somewhere. It's been a long time since I've had an earworm I can't just pull up and play, and honestly, I didn't miss that experience.
A freeway I absolutely miss!
Who knew that when this was recorded it was going to be a treasure. 🥰
Only one thing missing from that time capsule video, KFRC on the car stereo
I listened to KSAN
I remember KFRC and DJ 'Dr. Donald D Rose'. Durring 'Traffic' and 'Weather Reports' he would refere to Sacramento as, *Sacra-tomato* . 😅
Love the metal music at the beginning. Reminds me of being a teen in the mid 90s with my buddy when we would cruise down to LA.
Thanks for the memories! I was in the city today and was trying to explain to my friend and his mom about the old Embarcadero freeway and they couldn't picture it. What a difference it made though!
I never this freeway existed until this year. I'm born and raised in San Jose and find the history of America's highways strangely fascinating. RIP CA SR 480
Wow, a great historical record! This gave me a strange feeling...like everything's changed, and yet nothing has changed. This looks like it was a beautiful drive to take! Good music too, on the radio. :-)
LOL, I was born 1984, and I was only 5 when the Loma Prieta quake happened (didn't know about it years later---I live FAR away from San Fran). Thanks for posting this!
I'm from France and I visited San Francisco many times around the year this was filmed. It's so awesome to see SF back 30 years ago with all those great cars and quite a good easy flow of traffic. I agree with a few comments saying that was America at its best at that time, united and friendly. Times has changed, sadly
Wow, I love that shot with the SoMa skyline at 3:02! The Pac-Bell building looks so graceful standing there by itself, as if it was being pitted against all the concrete boxes on the other side of Market. I was born in 87, so I don't really have much of a memory of what the place looked like without all the shiny condominium towers that are there now. Thanks for sharing this video!
1984: Reaganomics, and the Cold War fear of global annihilation hanging overhead. It wasn't all sweetness and light (but they had an artificial sweetener by that name). But I liked the video
Reagan won by a landslide in 1984, winning 49 of 50 states. The country was happy and united. Good times
serious flashbacks, great soundtrack.
Thanks for the great feedback everyone, glad you liked it!
Just saw a shot of the Embarcadero Skyway in a Dirty Harry film and thought "what the hell is that?" After a quick wikipedia and RUclips search, here's my answer. Thanks for posting.
I actually never knew a freeway like this existed, until my science teacher mentioned about driving it prior to the Lima Prieta quake, when we were talking about quakes, so I researched this.
Thank you for bringing back memories. I used to drive these routes to and from San Francisco State University. Albeit in 1985.
Wow does this bring back memories. I lived in the east bay in 1984 and worked at a place called Thomas Irvine Print Shop on Geary. Rode my 1982 Honda V-45 Sabre to work and back; over the Bay Bridge. Remember KMEL radio?
Yes and KSOL radio
I was born in the Bay Area in '82 but left about six months before this was shot. I have no memory of the Embarcadero Freeway but thanks anyway!
Thank you so much for the time travel. California was a very beautiful place before 2012.
Back when there was no traffic.
Total lie.
There’s always been traffic in San Francisco wtf you talking about?
Not in L.A in those yrs.
nice video... this is when MTV played videos and when tab was a drink not a bill. lol
Have you ever watched Back to the Future?
I'm pretty sure tab has always meant bill.
Hey, my old apartment at 1:30! I didn't live in that complex until 2011 but can't imagine having that gross freeway right...there.
I was ten and living in the East Bay when the earthquake hit. It was scary. Went to school, fifth grade, the next day, and of course it was all anyone talked about. Parents' house had a swimming pool, oriented length-wise east to west, and the water splashed waaay out at each end of the pool. Our area was too far away and too new (60's-era ranch houses) to have any damage other than a few things falling off shelves and crooked pictures, but TV cable was out for at least an hour so we didn't know how bad it was elsewhere until later that evening. I don't remember us ever losing electricity, though, so that was a small blessing.
Took a long time but it brought about a lot of changes in SF, too: Embarcadero Fwy torn down and revitalization of the waterfront; Central Fwy extension to Oak/Fell Streets torn down and revitalization of Hayes Valley; forced the construction of three new buildings for museums (de Young, California Academy of Sciences, and The Asian Art Museum); new Central Library when the Asian Art Museum took over the old Central Library building; forced seismic work on a ton of the old buildings...
Hey! I was 4 when the earthquake hit and I was living in Oakland but born in SF! Weirdly I still remember glimpses of that day. I love your comment. It took me way back.
@@eaj7319 Thanks! We were even further east, like along 680 and I did the dumbest thing when the ground started shaking. I ran out the front door into the middle of the cul-de-sac...right under a bunch of overhead power lines. What can I say? I was 10, I panicked. I'd been in earthquakes before but that one remains the biggest and it wasn't a quick jolt with jitter-jitter-jitter motion. Where I was it came in a swaying side-to-side, wide back-and-forth motion, thus the water sloshing out of the pool.
Are you still in the Bay Area? I moved overseas a couple of years ago and have visited since but I miss living there.
Coincidentally, I was taking a business trip to Japan in 2011 and it was canceled a few days before leaving because of _their_ quake. Trip was rescheduled for a month later
Der Glückliche That's so cool!! I like that you have such a vivid memory of that day! You reacted like any normal, scared yet adventurous kid so I don't fault you for that hahaha but I'm glad you and your family were safe and ok! Unfortunately I moved out of the Bay Area two years ago to help take care of my mom but I'm still in California. I MISS THE BAY so much that's why I've found myself watching these videos on RUclips. I miss it every day. I think you and I are lucky we grew up there!! I wouldn't mind living overseas too, so I hope you're enjoying your time away 😊 Oh yeah!! I'm glad you got to bypass the Japan quake! That was no joke 😳
Thank you for posting this! It brought back so many memories of growing up in SF.
This is very cool!!! Two years before I moved there.
Awesome trip down memory lane, thank you for sharing!
Memory freeway!
what a fucking awesome video!!!! I lived in SF 84 - 92. I drove on, under, around the Embarcadero freeway all the time. Thanks for this priceless video. You should have played more "White Lines"
There was a distinct lack of billboards for data storage solutions, weed delivery apps, and routers back in the 1980s. And homeless people.
I was 24. Great to get a glimpse of the Chi Chi Club. Very cool.
Wow really good quality for 1984😎
Asshole
I just love the music this dude is playing!
Wow at 0:48 Vanessi's on Broadway. It was just like Original Joe's but the cooks would sing loud Italian songs or even opera. Great memories of living & working in the city. I drove a beer truck and my delivery route was North Beach, Chinatown and parts of Fisherman's wharf!!!!
The music really brings it together!
When you can tell the difference between American cars and imports. Today they're all turtle shells on wheels.
+eldo59 All the cars in this video look like boxes to me
@@DonaldTrumpsDankMemeStash Yeah, complaining about modern cars when the 1980s were the peak of bland boxy car design is hilarious. The few decent looking vehicles in this video were probably all manufactured over a decade before it was taken.
😃😃😃😃THANK YOU VERY MUCH for posting this👍. GOOD OLD DAYS😘😘😘😘😘
Best place ever! The view coming from the bay bridge to sf has the same skyline until 2013 when everything became modern in downtown SF and they rebuild the bay bridge. Many things are still the same as in the 80s in SF
Thank you so much for this. I've always had very fond snippets memories of my early childhood in the City (late 80's). This video brings back very good feelings. =)
I remember getting off a 3-11 at Letterman Hospital in the Presidio, my husband picking me up on his R65 for the flight to Berkeley, we were in the R lane of the Embarcadero section, when I made eye contact with a passenger in a car coming over into our lane, fortunately R sped ahead for the save, I really thought we were gonna fly away O glory!
Thank You for posting this.
I live in the brick building at 0:54. I believe it's been up since the early 1900s. The bottom floor where it says "La Bettola" (or whatever) is now Centerfolds.
Very cool, thanks for the note!
surprisingly amazing quality for the age of the film! awesome!
Wow my goodness and hello seat850c, thank you so much for posting this video. I grew up in the Bay Area all my life and I was in San Francisco in 1984 working at my parents restaraunt located on 701 3rd St. near AT&T park which is now occupied by McDonalds. That area was an industrial slum that time now it's an urban professional area filled with yuppies. I live in the Tri-City area across the bay working as a computer sales consultant in the valley and also starting my own business.
I used to have a Subaru exactly like that one. Best car ever. I liked how the spare tire was under the hood on top of the engine.
Tbh, it was a freeway that gave a good view of SF, but it was also an obstacle. I would prefer present day Embarcadero for space, but prefer Embarcadero Freeway for a good drive.
1950-2000, the golden age of car travel in the USA, specifically the '60s, '70s, and '80s for the SF Bay Area.
Fascinating. I was only 7 when the earthquake hit, and quite frankly, never did get a chance to go onto the Embarcadero Freeway; always saw it on maps, though. Thanks for posting this.
Wow, this video was shot in 1984? I feel ancient.
I love how the song "White Lines" is played on the radio.
I live in the building at 1:30 wow, glad that freeway isnt there now. It wouldve blocked my amazing view
Can I come visit
Nice post, always wanted to know about that Embarcadero Freeway To Nowhere. Saw a plaque for it right at the Ferry Terminal building talking about its deconstruction.
@JumpingCookie95 - It was some sort of two-piece VHS portable, with the tape in one piece that hangs from a shoulder strap, and the camera on it's own, plugged into the tape unit. I think it was RCA, but it's been almost 30 years... can't remember for sure.
wow...completly out of this world. Like truly truly going back in time...
its so weird, this was shot 5 years before i was born.. cool video
One word: BEAUTIFUL
I remember the Embarcadero freeway when I was a kid i was born in SF in 1979 at general hospital must have been nice to drive directly to north beach in those days.
Long before You Tube, love it. awesome
wow this reminds me of the elevated central artery on 93. it's now gone post big dig, but the gridlock still seems to remain.
13 years ago I was 3 and in some way I miss 80s like i feel nostalgic
Alcohol, smoking, and radio ads now replaced by startup and technology companies...
As a kid I loved riding on this freeway when we visited California, and it makes me sad I never got to drive on it myself.
it’s even better, it was ugly asf, god demolished it
Beautiful footage
All those classic cars !!!