Every time Willa Johnson steps out of San Francisco’s cable car barn at the head of one of the city’s famous wooden ambassadors, in a sense it’s the story that drives the story.
In the 150-year history of the city’s cable car, Johnson is only the second woman, and the second woman of color, to work as a dam. And yet Johnson doesn’t feel the weight of that history as he navigates the heavy wooden beasts up and down the city streets.
“I didn’t grow up to say, ‘Hey, I want to grow up to drive a cable car,'” Johnson said, reclining in an out-of-service car. “It wasn’t that. It just happened.”
For Johnson, life happened. Landing on the cable car fleet was just another unexpected point in a journey as winding as the Powell-Mason line.
“I actually wanted to be a firefighter, but I applied so many times and they never called me back,” she laughed. “So that’s what I got.”
Born in San Francisco’s Fillmore district, Johnson grew up in housing projects in a neighborhood once nicknamed The Harlem of the West, populated by jazz clubs and black-owned businesses until redevelopment in the 1960s forced them to leave many black and Japanese families.
Johnson’s family moved across town to Bayview-Hunters Point, where they opened a soul food restaurant on 3rd Street. If Johnson had enjoyed cooking, he would have lived a different story. But she didn’t. So he got a job in the medical field working for many years at Kaiser and Laguna Honda hospitals.
But after many years, she was eager for a change and looked for a job as a bus driver in the Muni fleet. She was daunted by the prospect of having to navigate a 60-foot bus through the city’s chaotic streets, so she decided to look for a job as a driver in the cable car division. His co-workers didn’t wish him luck.
“I even had people from the other divisions say, ‘Oh, you’re coming back, everybody’s coming back,'” Johnson recalled. “That just made me want it even more.”
Johnson stayed on as conductor and eventually decided to try the demanding grip job at the front of the car, a job that had only been held by a woman before. He failed to qualify his first year, but came back the following year and got the job, showing a tenacity to stick to his goals as well as stick to it.
“At first I felt like I knew I could do it,” Johnson said. “I’ve always been a determined person to do what I set out to do.”
Fannie Mae Barnes, the first woman to ride a cable car, popped in from time to time to give advice and even some supplies.
“She came out and presented me with some pink covers and encouraged me and gave me some advice,” Johnson said, adding a laugh. “And let me know she was first.”
On a recent day, Johnson slipped into the front cabin of the 8 cable car and deftly slid it out of the cable car barn and onto the Hyde Street route, looking around for hazards and cars, stopping the car after also spy an orange cone. near the tracks about 200 yards up the hill from Jackson Street.
“It’s hard work,” he said, pulling back the hilt. “It’s a tough job even for a man.”
Johnson loves the gig, though: the fresh San Francisco air blowing past his face, the changing cast of tourists excited to witness the city aboard its iconic ships.
With her stocking cap and a scarf wrapped around her face, Johnson said she is often mistaken for a man. She likes the stunned look when passengers realize she’s a woman, and she’s responsible for it.
“If it’s a really nice sunny day, I’ve got my nails done, I’ve got my makeup on,” she said with a laugh. “They’re whispering to each other, ‘I know she’s not going to drive this car.'”
Johnson pushed herself through the cable car’s wooden roof all while raising four children. Two of his children went to college. Her daughter encouraged Johnson to pursue what she now calls her proudest achievement.
“Since I’ve been here on the cable car, I’ve graduated from college,” Johnson said with satisfaction. “It was like 25 years after I got out of high school.”
Johnson doesn’t think much of her place as a role model on cable cars, presenting a different side to a male-dominated gig. She leaves the trumpet to others.
“We absolutely hope that girls in San Francisco and the Bay Area, all over the world, will see women like Willa and be inspired to follow this path,” said Josephine Ayankoya, SFMTA’s Racial Equity Officer.
If there’s another point of pride for Johnson, it’s that he’s doing what others didn’t expect him to do in a job that few others have done. Since joining the cable cars, two more women are working on the grip. Johnson has become a mentor to them at times.
“It’s been a while, I’m still catching up,” Johnson said. “I’m glad I was able to prove people wrong about that.”
