William E. Eppelsheimer was a tram

Tram

A tram is a passenger rail vehicle which runs on tracks along public urban streets and also sometimes on separate rights of way. It may also run between cities and/or towns , and/or partially grade separated even in the cities...

way engineer known for his work on cable car

Cable car (railway)

A cable car or cable railway is a mass transit system using rail cars that are hauled by a continuously moving cable running at a constant speed. Individual cars stop and start by releasing and gripping this cable as required...

 systems. He was born and studied engineering in what is now Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

. Eppelsheimer designed the Clay Street Hill Railroad

Clay Street Hill Railroad

The Clay Street Hill Railroad was the first successful cable hauled street railway. It was located on Clay Street, a notably steep street in San Francisco in California, and first operated in August 1873....

 in San Francisco

San Francisco, California

San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...

. This was the first practical cable car

Cable car

A cable car is any of a variety of transportation systems relying on cables to pull vehicles along or lower them at a steady rate, or a vehicle on these systems.-Aerial lift:Aerial lifts where the vehicle is suspended in the air from a cable:...

 line in the world and the first line in what was to become the San Francisco cable car system

San Francisco cable car system

The San Francisco cable car system is the world's last permanently operational manually operated cable car system, in the US sense of a tramway whose cars are pulled along by cables embedded in the street. It is an icon of San Francisco, California...

, although that line is more often attributed to its promoter, Andrew Smith Hallidie

Andrew Smith Hallidie

Andrew Smith Hallidie was the promoter of the Clay Street Hill Railroad in San Francisco, USA. This was the world's first practical cable car system, and Hallidie is often therefore regarded as the inventor of the cable car and father of the present day San Francisco cable car system, although...

. Eppelsheimer later designed the bottom grip for the Geary Street, Park & Ocean Railway

Geary Street, Park & Ocean Railway

The Geary Street, Park and Ocean Railway was one of the first cable car operators in San Francisco. Operation commenced in 1880, and the route soon proved quite popular. The line was purchased by the Market Street Railway in 1887. In 1912, the city declined to renew the franchise and instead...

, another San Francisco line, and this is still used by that city's surviving cable cars.

Eppelsheimer went on to design the Chicago City Railway

Chicago City Railway

The Chicago City Railway was a cable car system, designed by William Eppelsheimer and opened in Chicago in 1882.This system was to become, for a while, the largest and most profitable cable car system in the world. Counter to some people's expectations, the cable cars did not suffer much from the...

, at one time the world's largest and most profitable cable car system, and London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

's Highgate Hill Cable Tramway, Europe's first cable tramway.