Washington streetcars
Encyclopedia
For just under 100 years, between 1862 and 1962, streetcars in Washington, D.C. transported people across the city
and region.
The first streetcars in Washington D.C. were drawn by horses and carried people short distances on flat terrain; but the introduction of cleaner and faster electric streetcars, capable of climbing steeper inclines, opened up the hilly suburbs north of the old city and in Anacostia
. Several of the District's streetcar lines were extended into Maryland
, and two Virginia
lines crossed into the District. For a brief time, the city experimented with cable car
s, but by the beginning of the 20th century, the streetcar system was fully electrified. A bit later, the extensive mergers dubbed the "Great Streetcar Consolidation" gathered most local transit firms into two major companies. In 1933, all streetcars were brought under one company, Capital Transit. The streetcars began to scale back with the rising popularity of the automobile
and pressure to switch to bus
es. After a strike
in 1955, the company changed ownership and became DC Transit, with explicit instructions to switch to buses. The system was dismantled in the early 1960s and the last streetcar ran on January 28, 1962.
Today streetcars, car barns, trackage
, stations and right-of-way of the system still exist in various states of usage.
and M Street NW
) in Georgetown
by way of M Street NW and Pennsylvania Avenue NW/SE
to William Tunnicliff's Tavern at the site now occupied by the Supreme Court Building
. Service ended soon after it began.
The next attempt at public transit arrived in the spring of 1830, when Gilbert Vanderwerken
's Omnibuses
, horse-drawn wagon
s, began running from Georgetown to the Navy Yard
. The company maintained stables on M Street, NW. These lines were later extended down 11th Street SE to the waterfront and up 7th Street NW
to L Street NW. Vanderwerken's success attracted competitors, who added new lines, but by 1854, all omnibuses had come under the control of two companies, "The Union Line" and "The Citizen's Line." In 1860, these two merged under the control of Vanderwerken and continued to operate until they were run out of business by the next new technology
: streetcars.
Streetcars began operation in New York City along the Bowery
in 1832, but the technology did not really become popular until 1852, when Alphonse Loubat
invented a side-bearing rail that could be laid flush with the street
surface
, allowing the first horse-drawn streetcar lines. The technology
began to spread and on May 17, 1862, the first Washington, D.C. streetcar company, the Washington and Georgetown Railroad
was incorporated.
The company ran the first streetcar in Washington D.C. from the Capitol to the State Department starting on July 29, 1862. It expanded to full operations from the Navy Yard
to Georgetown
on October 2, 1862. Another line opened on November 15, 1862. It was built along 7th Street NW from N Street NW to the Potomac River
and expanded to the Arsenal (now Fort McNair) in 1875. A third line ran down 14th Street
NW from Boundary Street NW (now Florida Avenue
) to the Treasury Building. In 1863 the 7th Street line was extended north to Boundary Street NW.
, was incorporated. It opened lines from the Capitol to the War Department
along H Street
NW. In 1872, it built a line on 9th Street NW and purchased the Union Railroad (chartered on January 19, 1872). It used the Union's charter to expand into Georgetown. In 1873 it purchased the Boundary and Silver Spring Railway (chartered on January 19, 1872) and used its charter to build north on what is now Georgia Avenue.
In June 1874, it absorbed the Connecticut Avenue and Park Railway (chartered on July 13, 1868; operations started in April 1873) and its line on Connecticut Avenue from the White House to Boundary Avenue.
By 1888, it had built additional lines down 4th Street NW/SW to P Street SW, and on East Capitol Street
to 9th Street.
on May 24, 1870 and beginning operations the same year, the Columbia Railway
was the city’s third horse car operator. It ran from the Treasury Building along H Street NW/NE to the city boundary at 15th Street NE. The company built a car barn and stable
on the east side of 15th Street just south of H Street at the eastern end of the line.
was chartered on May 5, 1870. It wasn't given approval by Congress until February 18, 1875 but it was constructed that year. The streetcars traveled from the Arsenal and crossed the Navy Yard Bridge to Uniontown (now Historic Anacostia) to Nichols Avenue SE (now Martin Luther King Avenue) and V Street SE where a car barn and stables were maintained by the company. In 1888 the Anacostia and Potomac River expanded from the Navy Yard to Congressional Cemetery
, and past Garfield Park to the Center Market (now the National Archives
) in downtown. It also expanded up Nichols Avenue past the Government Hospital for the Insane (now St. Elizabeths Hospital
).
. It was incorporated on March 3, 1875 and began operation later that year. It ran on a circular route around downtown D.C. A P Street NW track was added in 1876. In 1881, the route was extended north and south on 11th Street West and tracks were rerouted across the Mall. It changed its name to the Belt Railway on February 18, 1893.
companies. Starting on March 5, 1877, the date of President Hayes'
inauguration, single-horse carriages began running on a route roughly parallel to the Washington and Georgetown's Pennsylvania Avenue route. After three years, streetcars forced the chariots out of business.
This was followed almost immediately by the Herdic Phaeton Company
. The electric streetcar, however, was too much for the company to compete with and when its principal stockholder died in 1896, it ceased operations.
After the Herdic Company went under, the Metropolitan Coach Company began running horse-drawn coaches
in conjunction with the Metropolitan Railroad, carrying passengers from 16th
and T Streets NW to 22nd and G Streets NW. It began operations on May 1, 1897 with a car barn at 1914 E Street NW. In 1904, it became its own corporation
.
Horsecars, though an improvement over horse drawn wagons, were slow, dirty and inefficient. Horses needed to be housed and fed, created large amounts of waste
, had difficulty climbing hills and were difficult to dispose of. Almost as soon as they were instituted, companies began looking for alternatives. For example, the Washington and Georgetown experimented with a steam motor
car in the 1870s and 1880s which was run on Pennsylvania Avenue NW near the Capitol several times, but was never placed in permanent use.
In 1883, Frank Sprague an 1878 Naval Academy
graduate, resigned from the Navy
to work for
Thomas Edison
. He wound up in Richmond, Virginia
where, on February 2, 1888 he put into service the first electric-powered
streetcar system. After 1888, many cities, including Washington, turned to electric-powered streetcars. To get electricity to the streetcars from the powerhouse
where it was generated, an overhead wire
was installed over city streets. A streetcar would touch this electric wire with a long pole (a "trolley" pole) on its roof. Back at the powerhouse, big steam engines would turn huge generators
to produce the electricity needed to operate the streetcars. A new name was soon developed for streetcars powered by electricity in this manner; they were called trolley cars.
By 1888, Washington was expanding north of Boundary Street NW
into the hills of Washington Heights
and Petworth
. Boundary Street was becoming such a misnomer that in 1890 it was renamed Florida Avenue. Climbing the hills to the new parts of the city was difficult for horses, but electric streetcars could do it easily. In the year following the successful demonstration of the Richmond streetcar
, four electric streetcar companies were incorporated in Washington D.C. The Eckington and Soldiers' Home Railway was the first to charter, on June 19, 1888, and started operation on October 17. Its tracks started at 7th Street and New York Avenue NW, east of Mount Vernon Square
, and traveled 2.5 miles to the Eckington
Car Barn at 4th and T Streets NE via Boundary Street NE, Eckington Place NE, R Street NE, 3rd Street NE and T Street NE. Another line ran up 4th Street NE to Michigan Avenue NE. A one-week pass cost $1.25. In 1889, the line was extended along T Street NE, 2nd Street NE and V Street NE to Glenwood Cemetery, but the extension proved unprofitable and was closed in 1894. At the same time, an extension was built along Michigan Avenue NE to the B&O railroad tracks. In 1895, the company removed its overhead trolley lines in accordance with its charter and attempted to replace them with batteries
. These proved too costly and the company replaced them with horses in the central city. In 1896, Congress directed the Eckington and Soldier's Home
to try compressed air motors and to substitute underground electric power for all its horse and overhead trolley lines in the city. The compressed-air motors were a failure and in 1899 the company switched to the standard underground electric power conduit
.
The Rock Creek Railway
was the second electric streetcar incorporated in D.C. It was incorporated in 1888 and started operations in 1890 on 2 blocks of Florida Avenue east of Connecticut Avenue. After completing a bridge over Rock Creek at Calvert Street on July 21, 1891, the line was extended through Adams Morgan and north on Connecticut Avenue to Chevy Chase Lake, Maryland
. In 1893 a line was added through Cardoza/Shaw
to 7th Street NW.
The third electric streetcar company to incorporate, the Georgetown and Tenleytown Railway, was chartered on August 22, 1888. In 1890, the railway started operations connecting Georgetown to the extant village of Tenleytown
. The line traveled the length of the Georgetown and Rockville Road (now Wisconsin Avenue NW), stretching from the Potomac River
to the Maryland
state line. In 1890 it was extended across the Maryland line to Bethesda. In 1897, the Washington and Rockville Railway was formed to extend the line to Rockville
. Though the two companies legally acted as different entities, they traveled identical routes on identical rails and shared a car barn (owned by WRECo) on Wisconsin Avenue NW at the District boundary. By 1900, the tracks had extended to Rockville. Map of the Rockville line http://www.peerlessrockville.org/peerless_places/images/trolley2.jpg.
Two more Washington D.C. streetcar companies operating in Maryland
were incorporated by acts of Congress in the summer of 1892. The Washington and Great Falls Electric Railway was approved on July 28, 1892 to build an electric streetcar line from the Aqueduct Bridge
to Cabin John Creek
. It completed its track in August 1895. Because the railroad never reached Great Falls
, but instead terminated at Cabin John
, it was often referred to as the "Cabin John Trolley". The Maryland and Washington Railway was approved a few days later on August 1, 1892. In ran on Rhode Island Avenue
NE from 4th Street NE reaching what is now Mount Rainier
on the Maryland line in 1897. At its southern terminus it connected to the Eckington and Soldier's Home.
The first electric streetcar to operate in Anacostia was the Capital Railway. It was incorporated by Colonel Arthur Emmett Randle on March 2, 1895 to serve Congress Heights
. It was to run from Shepherds Ferry along the Potomac and across the Navy Yard Bridge to M Street SE. A second line would run along Good Hope Road SE to the District boundary. The line was built during the Panic of 1896
despite 18 months of opposition from the Anacostia and Potomac River. In 1897 it experimented with the "Brown System", which used magnet
s in boxes to relay power instead of overhead or underground lines, and with double trolley lines over the Navy Yard Bridge. Both were failures. By 1898, the streetcar line ran along Nichols Avenue SE to Congress Heights, ending at Upsal Street SE. At the same time the Capital Railway was incorporated, the Washington and Marlboro Electric Railway was chartered to run trains across the Anacostia River
through southeast Anacostia to the District boundary at Suitland Road and from there to Upper Marlboro
, but it never laid any track.
The Baltimore and Washington Transit Company
was incorporated prior to 1894, with authorization to run from the District of Columbia, across Maryland to the Pennsylvania
border. On June 8, 1896 it was given permission to enter the District of Columbia and connect to the spur of the Brightwood that ran on Butternut St NW. In 1897, it began construction on a line, known locally as the Dinky Line, that began at the end of the Brightwood spur at 4th and Butternut Streets NW, traveled south on 4th Street NW to Aspen Street NW and then east on Aspen Street NW and Laurel Street NW into Maryland. Later, between 1903 and 1917, a line was added running south on 3rd St NW and west on Kennedy St NW to Colorado Avenue where it connected to Capital Traction's 14th Street line. On March 14, 1914, it changed its name to the Washington and Maryland Railway.
The East Washington Heights Traction Railroad was incorporated on June 18, 1898. By 1903 it ran from the Capitol along Pennsylvania Avenue SE to Barney Circle, and by 1908, it went across the bridge
to Randle Highlands (now known as Twining) as far as 27th St SE. By 1917 it had been extended out Pennsylvania Avenue past 33rd Street SE.
The last new streetcar company to form was the Washington, Spa Spring and Gretta Railroad. It was chartered by the state of Maryland on February 13, 1905 and authorized to enter the District on February 18, 1907. Construction began by March 22, 1908.
In 1910, it began running cars along a single track from a modest waiting station
and car barn near 15th Street NE and H Street NE along Bladensburg Road NE to Bladensburg
. [On July 5, 1892 the District of Columbia Suburban Railway was incorporated to run streetcars along the same route - on Bladensburg Road NE from the Columbia tracks on H Street NE to the Maryland line and from Brookland to Florida Avenue NE, but it was never constructed]. Although initially planned to go as far as Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
, the line never ran further than an extension to Berwyn Heights, Maryland
. The route was planned to promote development
of company-owned land adjacent to the tracks, but it never successfully competed with established rail lines in the same area. Noting its diminished ambitions, it became the Washington Interurban Railway on October 12, 1912 and changed the Railway to Railroad in 1919.
power to underground cable
or to electricity
provided by battery
or underground wire
and in 1890 companies were authorized to sell stock
to pay for the upgrades - provided they did not involve overhead wires. In 1892, one-horse cars were banned within the city, and by 1894 Congress began requiring companies to switch to something other than horse power while continuing to disallow overhead lines within the city.
After the March 2, 1889 law passed, the Washington and Georgetown began installing an underground cable system. Their 7th Street line switched to cable car on April 12, 1890. The rest of the system switched to cable by August 18, 1892. In 1892, they extended their track along 14th to Park Road NW.
On October 18, 1888, the day after the Eckington and Soldier's Home began operation, Congress authorized the Brightwood Railway to electrify the Metropolitan's streetcar line on Seventh Street Extended NW or Brightwood Avenue NW (now known as Georgia Avenue NW
) and to extend it to the District boundary at Silver Spring
. In 1890 they bought the former Boundary and Silver Spring line from the Metropolitan, but continued to operate it as a horse line. In 1892 it was ordered by Congress to switch to overhead electrical power and complete the line. The next year, the streetcar tracks reached Takoma Park
via a spur along Butternut Street NW to 4th Street NW. In 1898, the Brightwood was ordered to switch to underground electric power on pain of having its charter revoked.
The Metropolitan experimented with batteries in 1890 but found them unsatisfactory. On August 2, 1894 Congress ordered the Metropolitan to switch to underground electrical power. It complied, installing the underground sliding shoe on the north-south line in January 1895. The Metropolitan switched the rest of the system to electric power on July 7, 1896 In 1895, the Metropolitan built a streetcar barn near the Arsenal and a loop in Georgetown to connect it to the Georgetown Car Barn. In 1896 it extended service along East Capitol Street and built the East Capitol Street Car Barn, ( photo); and extended its service to Mount Pleasant.
The Columbia decided to try a cable system, the last cable car system built in the United States. They built a new cable car barn and began operating the system on March 9, 1895. It became clear that the underground electrical system was superior, so it quickly abandoned cable cars and switched to electrical power on July 22, 1899. The last cable car in the city ran the next day.
Using electricity from the power plant built to power its cable operation, the Columbia won permission in 1898 to build a line east along Benning Road NE, splitting on the east side of the Anacostia. One branch ran to Kenilworth
, and the other connected at Seat Pleasant
with the terminus of the steam-powered
Chesapeake Beach Railway
.
In 1896 the Belt Railway tried out compressed air motors. The compressed air motors were a failure, and in 1899 the cars were equipped with the standard underground power system.
The Anacostia and Potomac River switched from horses to electricity in April 1900. This was the last horse drawn streetcar to run in the District.
operated also in the District and a third received permission to do so, but never did.
The Washington and Arlington Railway was the first Virginia company given permission to operate in Washington. It was incorporated on February 28, 1892 with the right to run a streetcar from the train station at 6th Street NW and B Street
NW to Virginia across a new Three Sisters
Bridge. It was also allotted space in the Georgetown Car Barn. The company was never able to construct the new bridge, and so never operated in Washington.
The Washington, Alexandria and Mount Vernon Electric Railway started construction in Virginia in 1892. On August 23, 1894 it was given permission to enter the District of Columbia using a ferry
. It completed its tracks in 1896 and began serving a waiting station at 14th Street NW and B Street NW. From the waiting station it used the Belt Line's track on 14th Street to reach the Long Bridge, a combined road and rail crossing of the Potomac River, never opting to use the ferry system. The Jefferson Davis Highway
was later relocated from the rail alignment to a new through-truss crossing, immediately west of the Long Bridge. This original highway span was removed in the early 1970s.
In 1902 its station was moved to 12th Street NW and D Street NW (near the site of the present Federal Triangle Metro station
) to make room for the District Building. On October 17, 1910 the Washington and Arlington, by then the Washington, Arlington and Falls Church Railroad, and the Washington, Alexandria and Mount Vernon merged to form the Washington–Virginia Railway. The company had difficulty competing and in 1924 declared bankruptcy
. In 1927 the two companies were split and sold at auction
. The former Washington, Arlington and Falls Church reemerged as the Arlington and Fairfax Electric Railway and continued to serve the city on the Washington-Virginia route until January 17, 1932, when the Mt. Vernon Memorial Highway (now the George Washington Memorial Parkway
) opened.
The Great Falls and Old Dominion Railroad
was chartered January 24, 1900 and authorized to enter the District on January 29, 1903. It crossed over the Aqueduct Bridge and terminated at a station immediately west of the Georgetown Car Barn. In 1912, it was incorporated into the new Washington and Old Dominion Railway and became the Great Falls Division of that company.
By the mid-1890s, there were numerous streetcar companies operating in the District. Congress tried to deal with this fractured transit system by requiring them to accept transfers
, set standard pricing
and by allowing them to use one another's track. But eventually, lawmakers settled on consolidation
as the best solution.
On March 1, 1895, Congress authorized the Rock Creek to purchase
the Washington and Georgetown on Sept. 21, producing the Capital Traction Company
. In 1916 Capital Traction took ownership of the Washington and Maryland and its 2.591 miles of track.
After Capital Traction's powerhouse at 14th and E NW burned down on September 29, 1897, the company replaced the cable cars with an electric system. The 14th Street branch switched to electric power on February 27, 1898, the Pennsylvania Avenue division on April 20, 1898 and the 7th Street branch on May 26, 1898.
The Anacostia and Potomac River began expanding on June 24, 1898, by purchasing the Belt Railway; the next year, it bought the Capital Railway.
Later that year, the Eckington and Soldier's Home purchased the Maryland and Washington. On June 27, 1898, the new, combined company changed its name to the City and Suburban Railway of Washington. Later that year, it bought the Columbia and Maryland Railway, which ran from Mount Rainier to Laurel
.
Between 1896 and 1899, three businessmen purchased controlling interests in the Metropolitan; the Columbia; the Anacostia and Potomac River; the Georgetown and Tennallytown; the Washington, Woodside and Forest Glen; the Washington and Great Falls; and the Washington and Rockville railway companies, in addition to the Potomac Electric Power Company
(PEPCO) and the United States Electric Lighting Company. They incorporated the Washington Traction and Electric Company on June 5, 1899 as a holding company
for these interests. But the holding company had borrowed too heavily and paid too much for the subsidiaries and quickly landed in financial trouble. To prevent transit disruption, Congress on June 5, 1900, authorized the Washington and Great Falls to acquire the stock of any and all of the railways and power companies
owned by Washington Traction. When Washington Traction defaulted
on its loans on June 1, 1901, Washington and Great Falls moved in to take its place. On February 4, 1902, Washington and Great Falls changed its named to the Washington Railway and Electric Company
, reincorporated as a holding company and exchanged stock in Washington Traction and Electric one for one for stock in the new company (at a discounted rate).
Not every company became a part of Washington Railway immediately. The City and Suburban and the Georgetown and Tennallytown operated as subsidiaries
of Washington Railway until October 31, 1926 when it purchased the remainder of their stock.
During this time the streetcar companies continued to expand both trackage and service. The American Sight-Seeing Car and Coach Company started running tourist cars along Washington Railway streetcar tracks in 1902 and continued until it switched to large automobiles in 1904. In 1908, Washington Railway's U Street line was extended east down Florida Avenue NW/NE to 8th Street NE, and from there south down 8th Street NE/SE to the Navy Yard. On June 24, 1908 the first streetcars began service to Union Station
along Delaware Avenue NE and by December 6 cars of both Capital Traction and Washington Railway were serving the building along Massachusetts Avenue NE.
In 1908, the Washington, Baltimore and Annapolis Electric Railway
began service from Washington to Baltimore and Annapolis
. Though technically an interurban
, this railway utilized streetcar tracks from its terminal at 15th and H Streets NE and across the Benning Road Bridge where it switched to its own tracks in Deanwood
. It was the main source of transportation to Suburban Gardens
, known as "the black Glen Echo
", the first and only major amusement park
within Washington.
The next major consolidation occurred on August 31, 1912 when the Washington Railway purchased the controlling stock of the Anacostia and Potomac River. This left only 6 companies operating in Washington - four of which had less than 3 miles of track. It also led to Congress passing the "Anti-Merger Act", prohibiting mergers without Congress' approval and establishing the Public Utilities Commission
. In 1914 a failed attempt was made to have the Federal Government
purchase all of the streetcar lines and companies.
Streetcars were unionized
in 1916 when local 689 of the Amalgamated Association of Street, Electric Railway and Motor Coach Employees of America won recognition after a three day strike
.
Further consolidation came in the form of the North American Company
, a transit and utilities holding company. North American began to acquire stock in Washington Railway in 1922, gaining a controlling interest by 1928. By December 31, 1933 it owned 50.016% of the voting stock. North American tried to purchase Capital Traction, but never owned more than 2.5% of Capital Traction stock.
had over 200 miles of track, with almost 100 in the city. Passengers could travel to Great Falls, Glen Echo
, Rockville
, Kensington
and Laurel
in Maryland; and to Mount Vernon
, Alexandria
, Vienna
, Fairfax
, Leesburg
, Great Falls
and Bluemont
in Virginia. World War I
saw further increases in passenger traffic. But the streetcars were also under increasing threat from competition.
The first threat to the streetcars came with the introduction of gasoline
powered taxicabs. The taximeter
, invented in 1891, combined with the combustion engine
, created a new form of public transportation. Taxicabs were put into service in Paris in 1899, in New York in 1907 and in Washington in 1908. Over the years, their numbers expanded.
In 1909 the Metropolitan Coach Company began to switch from horse-drawn coaches to gasoline-powered coaches - replacing its entire system by 1913 - becoming a precursor to the bus companies. It was a financial failure though and on August 13, 1915 the company ceased operations.
The gasoline-powered bus
was invented in Germany in 1895 and motorized buses were introduced in New York City in 1905. As improvements, such as balloon tire
s, were made, buses became more popular. The first formal bus company in Washington, the Washington Rapid Transit Company, was incorporated on January 20, 1921. By 1932 it was carrying 4.5% of transit customers. Two years later, the last streetcar line was built.
Just as the horse cars had replaced carriages and the electric streetcar replaced horse cars, so too were buses to replace the electric streetcars.
In 1923, the number of streetcar companies operating in Washington cut in half as three companies switched to buses. The East Washington Heights became the first streetcar company to switch, replacing its two streetcars and one mile of track with a bus line. The Washington Interurban switched next and its tracks were removed when Bladensburg Road was repaved. In that same year, the Key Bridge
was constructed and, as a result, the Washington and Old Dominion gave up rail access to D.C. in exchange for a terminal in Rosslyn.
When electric streetcars began, several lines also delivered freight on rail cars running on their lines. Capital Traction abandoned this service in 1931.
In 1932, the Arlington and Fairfax Motor Transportation Company was established to replace the streetcar service of the Arlington and Fairfax which lost the right to use the Highway Bridge. The last Arlington and Fairfax streetcar departed from 12th Street NW and D Street NW, on January 17, 1932, abandoning all streetcar service in the city.
In the summer of 1935 - after consolidation, several major lines were converted from streetcars to buses. The line from Friendship Heights
to Rockville (formerly the Washington and Rockville), the P Street line (Metropolitan), the Anacostia-Congress Heights line (Capital Railway) and the Connecticut Avenue line in Chevy Chase
(Rock Creek) were all replaced with buses. At the same time, the Chesapeake Beach Railway
and the Washington, Baltimore and Annapolis interurban
ceased operations. The rail of the WB&A become the property of Capital Transit.
With further bustitution
, the Columbia Railway Company Car Barn was converted to a bus barn in 1942.
of one company.
Capital Transit made several changes. As part of the merger, the Capital Traction generating plant in Georgetown was closed (and, in 1943, decommissioned
) and Capital Transit used only conventionally-supplied electric power. In 1935, it closed several lines and replaced them with bus service. Because the Rockville line in Maryland was one of the lines that was closed, the Capital Transit Community Terminal was opened at Wisconsin Avenue NW and Western Avenue NW on August 4, 1935. At the same time, the car barn on the west side of Wisconsin at Ingomar was razed and replaced with the Western Bus Garage. In 1936, the system introduced route numbers. On August 28, 1937 the first PCC streetcars began running on 14th Street NW. By early 1946, the company would place in service 489 of the streamlined, modern PCC model and, in the early 1950s, become the first in the nation to have an all-PCC fleet. (Here's a General Electric ad about PCC cars in Washington.)
During the 1930s, city newspapers began pushing for streetcar tunneling. The Capitol Subway was built in 1906 and three years later, the Washington Post called for a citywide subway to be built. Nothing happened until Capital Transit took over. The full $35 million plan to depress streets as trenches for exclusive streetcar use never materialized, but in 1942 an underground loop terminal was built at 14th and C Streets SW under the Bureau of Engraving and on December 14, 1949, the Connecticut Avenue subway tunnel
under Dupont Circle
, running from N Street to R Street, was opened.
At first, business was good for the new company. During World War II
, gasoline rationing
limited automobile use, but transit companies were exempt from the rationing. Meanwhile, wage freezes
held labor
costs in check. With increased revenue
and steady costs, Capital Transit conservatively built up a $7 million cash reserve. In 1945 Capital Transit had America’s 3rd largest streetcar fleet. (A map of the system in 1948)
In 1946, a decision by the United States Supreme Court in North American Company v. Security and Exchange Commission, the Supreme Court upheld the Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935
and forced the North American Company, because it also owned the Potomac Electric Power Company
, to sell its shares of Capital Transit. Buyers were hard to come by, but on September 12, 1949, Louis Wolfson
and his three brothers purchased from North American 46.5% of the company's stock for $20 per share and the Washington Railway was dissolved. For $2.2 million they bought a company with $7 million in cash. The Wolfson's began paying themselves huge dividend
s until, in 1955, the war chest
was down to $2.7 million. During the same period, transit trips dropped by 40,000 trips per day and automobile ownership doubled.
On December 29, 1954, Capital Transit lost one of its last freight customers when the East Washington Railway took over the delivery of coal
from the B&O to the PEPCO
Power plant at Benning
. Previously this had been done using Capital Transit's steeple-cab electric locomotives operating over a remnant of the Benning car line.
In January 1955 the Capital Transit Company, then consisting of 750 buses and 450 streetcars, sought permission for a fare
increase, but was denied. So that spring, when employees asked for a raise, there was no money available and the company refused to increase pay
. Frustrated, employees went on strike on July 1, 1955. The strike, only the third in D.C. history and the first since a three day strike in 1945, lasted for seven weeks. Commuters were forced to hitch
rides and walk in the brutal summer heat.
On July 18, 1956, after Wolfson dared the Senate
to revoke his franchise
claiming no other entrepreneur would take the company on, the Congress did just that. Months later, the franchise was sold to O. Roy Chalk
, a New York financier
who owned controlling interest in Trans Caribbean Airways
, for $13.5 million. The company's name was then changed to DC Transit.
by 1963. Chalk fought the retirement of the streetcars but was unsuccessful, and the final abandonment of the streetcar system began on September 7, 1958 with the end of the North Capitol Street (Route 80) and Maryland (Route 82) lines. On January 3, 1960, the Glen Echo (Route 20), Friendship Heights (Route 30) & Georgia Avenue (Routes 70, 72, 74) streetcar lines were abandoned and the Southern Division (Maine Avenue) Car Barn was closed. This technically ended "trolley" cars in D.C. as only conduit operations remained. On December 3, 1961 the streetcar lines to Mount Pleasant
(Routes 40, 42) and 11th Street (Route 60) were abandoned.
The remaining system, including lines to the Navy Yard, the Colorado Avenue terminal, and the Bureau of Engraving
(Routes 50, 54) and to the Calvert Street Loop, Barney Circle, and Union Station (Routes 90, 92) was shut down in January 1962. Early on the morning of Sunday, January 28, 1962, preceded by cars 1101 and 1053, car 766 entered the Navy Yard Car Barn for the last time, and Washington's streetcars became history.
After the system was abandoned, most of the cars were either destroyed or sold. Several hundred cars were scrapped, cut in half at the center door and junked. 150 of the streetcars were sold to Barcelona
where they were in service into the 1970s; 200 more were sold to Sarajevo
where they ran until the civil war
; and 15 more went to Fort Worth, TX for use on the Tandy Center Subway until it shut down in 2002.
About 20 streetcars remain of the hundreds that once plied the streets of Washington.
Only one, Capital Transit 1551, is still in daily transit use. One of the 15 sold to Fort Worth, it was repainted and transferred to the McKinney Avenue Transit Authority
in 2002 where it provides part-time regular streetcar service along the streets of Dallas.
One other car remains in intermittant use: a Capital Transit PCC car sold to Sarajevo that has been restored and operates in charter service in Sarajevo.
Others serve as museum pieces. The only Washington streetcar still in the District is Capital Traction 303 which serves as an exhibit in the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History
. Washington and Georgetown 212 is also preserved by the Smithsonian, but stored in the Smithsonian's facility in Suitland, Maryland. Seven more, including D.C. Transit 1101 and 1540, Capital Transit 509, 522, 766 and 1430, and Washington Railway 650, are preserved at the National Capital Trolley Museum
in the Washington suburbs. Three other cars owned by the Trolley Museum were destroyed in a fire on September 28, 2003. Farther from D.C., D.C. Transit 1470 is kept at the Virginia Museum of Transportation
in Roanoke, Virginia
, Capital Transit 09 is at Rockhill Trolley Museum
in Rockhill Furnace, Pennsylvania
, Capital Transit 010 is maintained at the Connecticut Trolley Museum
and D.C. Transit 1304 is kept at the Seashore Trolley Museum
in Kennebunkport, Maine
. Three of the Ft. Worth cars are held in storage by North Texas Historic Transportation with plans to place them in a yet-to-be-built museum. Finally, two of the Barcelona cars are privately owned and stored in Madrid, Spain, and Ejea de los Caballeros
, Spain, and another two are in the Museu del Transport in Castellar de n'Hug
, Spain (Photo of one).
Much of the track in D.C. was removed and sold for scrap. The complex trackwork on Capitol Plaza in front of Washington Union Station was removed in the mid-1960s. The Pennsylvania Avenue NW trackwork between the Capitol and the Treasury Building was removed during the street's mid-1980s redevelopment.
Elsewhere, the track was buried under pavement. The loop tracks of the former Capitol Transit connection, behind the closed restaurant on Calvert Street NW, immediately east of the Duke Ellington Bridge
, are extant under asphalt. The tracks on Florida Avenue also exist under pavement (as shown by the eternal seam above the conduit). Tracks also exist under Ellington Place NE, 3rd Street NE, 8th Street SE, and elsewhere.
The region's only remaining visible tracks and conduit are in the center of the cobblestone
3400 through 3800 blocks of P Street NW and O Street NW in Georgetown.
Other car barns were demolished.
A few stations and terminals have survived. Sometime after conversion of the Mt. Pleasant Line in December 1961, the Dupont Circle
streetcar stations were used as a civil defense
storage area for a few years and then left empty again. The space was once considered for a columbarium
. In 1993 one of the stations was opened as a food court called DuPont Down Under, but after only 18 months it closed and the space has been vacant ever since. In 2007, D.C. Council member Jim Graham
began consideration of a suggestion to allow adult-themed clubs to move into the property.
The Colorado Avenue Terminal on 14th Street NW is still in use as a Metrobus stop and the Calvert Street loop just east of the Duke Ellington Bridge
is still used as a Metrobus turnaround loop.
There was a streetcar station in the center of Barney Circle
but it was removed in the 1970s.
The streetcar turnaround at 11th and Monroe NW is now the 11th and Monroe Streets Park.
streetcar station tunnel entrances, located where the tree-filled medians of Connecticut Avenue NW now stand north of N Street NW and between R Street NW and S Street NW, were filled in and paved over in August 1964, leaving only the traffic tunnel.
The C Street NW/NE tunnel beneath the Upper Senate Park remained in use as a one-way service road adjacent to the Capital, but since 9/11 it has been closed to the public.
The Bureau of Engraving and Printing
underground loop is now part of a parking structure and storage area that is located directly underneath 14th Street SW. Tracks can still be seen in the floors in some locations of the Bureau.
The right-of-way of the Glen Echo line is extant from the Georgetown Car Barn all the way to the Dalecarlia Reservoir
filtration plant. It includes an abutment near an entrance to Georgetown University
, a trestle
over Foundry Branch in Glover Archibald Park, and the median of Sherier Place NW from Cathedral Avenue NW to Manning Place NW. Part of the right-of-way on the Georgetown campus was removed in the spring of 2007 to create a turning lane off of Canal Road NW. A trestle over Clark Place NW, adjacent to Canal Road, was also removed after the Cabin John line was abandoned.
The wide median of Pennsylvania Avenue SE from the Capitol to Barney Circle was built in 1903 to serve as a streetcar right of way. It now serves as urban greenspace.
system, run by the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority
(WMATA). On January 14, 1973, WMATA purchased DC Transit and the Washington, Virginia and Maryland Coach Company (followed on February 4 by the purchase of AB&W Transit Company and WMA Transit Company) unifying all the bus companies in D.C.
Many of today's WMATA's bus routes are only marginally changed from the streetcar lines they followed. For example, the #30 streetcar route that ran from Barney Circle to Friendship Heights is now the #30 bus line that runs from Anacostia through Barney Circle to Friendship Heights.
Still other remnants include the Potomac Electric Power Company
, the electric portion of Washington Traction and Electric Company, which remains the D.C. area's primary electrical power company; some streetcar-related manhole covers that remain in use around town; and two trolley poles for Capital Traction's overhead wires on the Connecticut Avenue Bridge over Klingle Valley
in Cleveland Park
. The poles likely date back to the bridge's construction in 1931.
City
A city is a relatively large and permanent settlement. Although there is no agreement on how a city is distinguished from a town within general English language meanings, many cities have a particular administrative, legal, or historical status based on local law.For example, in the U.S...
and region.
The first streetcars in Washington D.C. were drawn by horses and carried people short distances on flat terrain; but the introduction of cleaner and faster electric streetcars, capable of climbing steeper inclines, opened up the hilly suburbs north of the old city and in Anacostia
Anacostia
Anacostia is a historic neighborhood in Washington, D.C. Its historic downtown is located at the intersection of Good Hope Road and Martin Luther King, Jr. Avenue It is the most famous neighborhood in the Southeast quadrant of Washington, located east of the Anacostia River, after which the...
. Several of the District's streetcar lines were extended into Maryland
Maryland
Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...
, and two Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
lines crossed into the District. For a brief time, the city experimented with 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...
s, but by the beginning of the 20th century, the streetcar system was fully electrified. A bit later, the extensive mergers dubbed the "Great Streetcar Consolidation" gathered most local transit firms into two major companies. In 1933, all streetcars were brought under one company, Capital Transit. The streetcars began to scale back with the rising popularity of the automobile
Automobile
An automobile, autocar, motor car or car is a wheeled motor vehicle used for transporting passengers, which also carries its own engine or motor...
and pressure to switch to bus
Bus
A bus is a road vehicle designed to carry passengers. Buses can have a capacity as high as 300 passengers. The most common type of bus is the single-decker bus, with larger loads carried by double-decker buses and articulated buses, and smaller loads carried by midibuses and minibuses; coaches are...
es. After a strike
Strike action
Strike action, also called labour strike, on strike, greve , or simply strike, is a work stoppage caused by the mass refusal of employees to work. A strike usually takes place in response to employee grievances. Strikes became important during the industrial revolution, when mass labour became...
in 1955, the company changed ownership and became DC Transit, with explicit instructions to switch to buses. The system was dismantled in the early 1960s and the last streetcar ran on January 28, 1962.
Today streetcars, car barns, trackage
Tramway track
Tramway track is used on tramways or light rail operations. Grooved rails are often used in order to make street running feasible...
, stations and right-of-way of the system still exist in various states of usage.
Early transit in Washington
Public transportation began in Washington, D.C. almost as soon as the city was founded. In May 1800, two-horse stage coaches began running twice daily from Bridge and High Streets NW (now Wisconsin AvenueWisconsin Avenue (Washington, D.C.)
Wisconsin Avenue is a major thoroughfare in Washington, D.C., and its Maryland suburbs. It starts in Georgetown just north of the Potomac River, at an intersection with K Street under the Whitehurst Freeway...
and M Street NW
M Street (Washington, D.C.)
The name "M Street" refers to two major roads in the United States capital of Washington, D.C. Because of the Cartesian-coordinate-based street-naming system in Washington, the name M Street can be used to refer to any east-west street located twelve blocks north or south of the dome of the United...
) in Georgetown
Georgetown, Washington, D.C.
Georgetown is a neighborhood located in northwest Washington, D.C., situated along the Potomac River. Founded in 1751, the port of Georgetown predated the establishment of the federal district and the City of Washington by 40 years...
by way of M Street NW and Pennsylvania Avenue NW/SE
Pennsylvania Avenue (Washington, D.C.)
Pennsylvania Avenue is a street in Washington, D.C. that joins the White House and the United States Capitol. Called "America's Main Street", it is the location of official parades and processions, as well as protest marches...
to William Tunnicliff's Tavern at the site now occupied by the Supreme Court Building
United States Supreme Court building
The Supreme Court Building is the seat of the Supreme Court of the United States. It is situated in Washington, D.C. at 1 First Street, NE, on the block immediately east of the United States Capitol. The building is under the jurisdiction of the Architect of the Capitol. On May 4, 1987, the Supreme...
. Service ended soon after it began.
The next attempt at public transit arrived in the spring of 1830, when Gilbert Vanderwerken
Gilbert Vanderwerken
Gilbert Vanderwerken , originally from Albany, New York, was most notably recognized for introducing the omnibus, an urban version of the stagecoach, in Newark, New Jersey, in 1826.-Biography:...
's Omnibuses
Bus
A bus is a road vehicle designed to carry passengers. Buses can have a capacity as high as 300 passengers. The most common type of bus is the single-decker bus, with larger loads carried by double-decker buses and articulated buses, and smaller loads carried by midibuses and minibuses; coaches are...
, horse-drawn wagon
Wagon
A wagon is a heavy four-wheeled vehicle pulled by draught animals; it was formerly often called a wain, and if low and sideless may be called a dray, trolley or float....
s, began running from Georgetown to the Navy Yard
Washington Navy Yard
The Washington Navy Yard is the former shipyard and ordnance plant of the United States Navy in Southeast Washington, D.C. It is the oldest shore establishment of the U.S. Navy...
. The company maintained stables on M Street, NW. These lines were later extended down 11th Street SE to the waterfront and up 7th Street NW
7th Street (Washington, D.C.)
There are four north-south arteries in Washington, D.C. named Seventh Street that are differentiated by the quadrants of the city in which they are located. Historically, 7th Street has been a main north-south road in Washington, being the main route for travelers and farmers coming into the city...
to L Street NW. Vanderwerken's success attracted competitors, who added new lines, but by 1854, all omnibuses had come under the control of two companies, "The Union Line" and "The Citizen's Line." In 1860, these two merged under the control of Vanderwerken and continued to operate until they were run out of business by the next new technology
Technology
Technology is the making, usage, and knowledge of tools, machines, techniques, crafts, systems or methods of organization in order to solve a problem or perform a specific function. It can also refer to the collection of such tools, machinery, and procedures. The word technology comes ;...
: streetcars.
Washington and Georgetown
Bowery
Bowery may refer to:Streets:* The Bowery, a thoroughfare in Manhattan, New York City* Bowery Street is a street on Coney Island in Brooklyn, N.Y.In popular culture:* Bowery Amphitheatre, a building on the Bowery in New York City...
in 1832, but the technology did not really become popular until 1852, when Alphonse Loubat
Alphonse Loubat
Alphonse Loubat was a French inventor who developed improvements in tram and rail equipment, and helped develop tram lines in New York City and Paris....
invented a side-bearing rail that could be laid flush with the street
Street
A street is a paved public thoroughfare in a built environment. It is a public parcel of land adjoining buildings in an urban context, on which people may freely assemble, interact, and move about. A street can be as simple as a level patch of dirt, but is more often paved with a hard, durable...
surface
Pavement (material)
Road surface or pavement is the durable surface material laid down on an area intended to sustain vehicular or foot traffic, such as a road or walkway. In the past cobblestones and granite setts were extensively used, but these surfaces have mostly been replaced by asphalt or concrete. Such...
, allowing the first horse-drawn streetcar lines. The technology
Technology
Technology is the making, usage, and knowledge of tools, machines, techniques, crafts, systems or methods of organization in order to solve a problem or perform a specific function. It can also refer to the collection of such tools, machinery, and procedures. The word technology comes ;...
began to spread and on May 17, 1862, the first Washington, D.C. streetcar company, the Washington and Georgetown Railroad
Washington and Georgetown Railroad
The Washington and Georgetown Railroad Company was the first streetcar company to operate in Washington, D.C. It was incorporated and started operations in 1862, running from Georgetown to the Navy Yard. Two additional lines ran on 7th Street NW/SW and 14th Street NW. In 1890 it switched from...
was incorporated.
The company ran the first streetcar in Washington D.C. from the Capitol to the State Department starting on July 29, 1862. It expanded to full operations from the Navy Yard
Washington Navy Yard
The Washington Navy Yard is the former shipyard and ordnance plant of the United States Navy in Southeast Washington, D.C. It is the oldest shore establishment of the U.S. Navy...
to Georgetown
Georgetown, Washington, D.C.
Georgetown is a neighborhood located in northwest Washington, D.C., situated along the Potomac River. Founded in 1751, the port of Georgetown predated the establishment of the federal district and the City of Washington by 40 years...
on October 2, 1862. Another line opened on November 15, 1862. It was built along 7th Street NW from N Street NW to the Potomac River
Potomac River
The Potomac River flows into the Chesapeake Bay, located along the mid-Atlantic coast of the United States. The river is approximately long, with a drainage area of about 14,700 square miles...
and expanded to the Arsenal (now Fort McNair) in 1875. A third line ran down 14th Street
14th Street Northwest and Southwest (Washington, D.C.)
Fourteenth Street is a street in Northwest and Southwest Washington, D.C., located 1¼ mi. west of the U.S. Capitol. It runs from the 14th Street Bridge north to Eastern Avenue....
NW from Boundary Street NW (now Florida Avenue
Florida Avenue (Washington, D.C.)
Florida Avenue is a major street in Washington, D.C. It was originally named Boundary Street, because it formed the northern boundary of Pierre L'Enfant's original plan for the Federal City...
) to the Treasury Building. In 1863 the 7th Street line was extended north to Boundary Street NW.
Metropolitan
The Washington and Georgetown's monopoly didn't last long. On July 1, 1864, a second streetcar company, the Metropolitan RailroadMetropolitan Railroad
The Metropolitan Railroad was the second streetcar company to operate in Washington, D.C. It was incorporated and started operations in 1864, running from the Capitol to the War Department and along H Street NW in downtown. It added lines on 9th Street NW, on 4th Street SW/SE, along Connecticut...
, was incorporated. It opened lines from the Capitol to the War Department
United States Department of War
The United States Department of War, also called the War Department , was the United States Cabinet department originally responsible for the operation and maintenance of the United States Army...
along H Street
H Street (Washington, D.C.)
H Street is an east-west street in Washington, D.C.. It is also used as an alternate name for the Near Northeast neighborhood, as H Street is the neighborhood's main commercial strip.-History:...
NW. In 1872, it built a line on 9th Street NW and purchased the Union Railroad (chartered on January 19, 1872). It used the Union's charter to expand into Georgetown. In 1873 it purchased the Boundary and Silver Spring Railway (chartered on January 19, 1872) and used its charter to build north on what is now Georgia Avenue.
In June 1874, it absorbed the Connecticut Avenue and Park Railway (chartered on July 13, 1868; operations started in April 1873) and its line on Connecticut Avenue from the White House to Boundary Avenue.
By 1888, it had built additional lines down 4th Street NW/SW to P Street SW, and on East Capitol Street
East Capitol Street
East Capitol Street is a major street that divides the northeast and southeast quadrants of Washington, D.C. It runs due east from the United States Capitol to the DC-Maryland border. The street is uninterrupted until Lincoln Park then continues eastward to Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium...
to 9th Street.
Columbia
Chartered by CongressUnited States Congress
The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....
on May 24, 1870 and beginning operations the same year, the Columbia Railway
Columbia Railway
The Columbia Railway was the third streetcar company to operate in Washington, D.C. It was incorporated and started operations in 1870, running from the Treasury Building along H Street NW/NE to the city boundary at 15th Street NE. It switched to cable power in 1895 and then electric power in...
was the city’s third horse car operator. It ran from the Treasury Building along H Street NW/NE to the city boundary at 15th Street NE. The company built a car barn and stable
Stable
A stable is a building in which livestock, especially horses, are kept. It most commonly means a building that is divided into separate stalls for individual animals...
on the east side of 15th Street just south of H Street at the eastern end of the line.
Anacostia and Potomac River
The Anacostia and Potomac River RailroadAnacostia and Potomac River Railroad
The Anacostia and Potomac River Railroad Company was the fourth streetcar company to operate in Washington, D.C. and the first to cross the Anacostia River. It was chartered in 1870, authorized by Congress in 1875 and built later that year. The line ran from the Arsenal to Union Town...
was chartered on May 5, 1870. It wasn't given approval by Congress until February 18, 1875 but it was constructed that year. The streetcars traveled from the Arsenal and crossed the Navy Yard Bridge to Uniontown (now Historic Anacostia) to Nichols Avenue SE (now Martin Luther King Avenue) and V Street SE where a car barn and stables were maintained by the company. In 1888 the Anacostia and Potomac River expanded from the Navy Yard to Congressional Cemetery
Congressional Cemetery
The Congressional Cemetery is a historic cemetery located at 1801 E Street, SE, in Washington, D.C., on the west bank of the Anacostia River. It is the final resting place of thousands of individuals who helped form the nation and the city of Washington in the early 19th century. Many members of...
, and past Garfield Park to the Center Market (now the National Archives
National Archives and Records Administration
The National Archives and Records Administration is an independent agency of the United States government charged with preserving and documenting government and historical records and with increasing public access to those documents, which comprise the National Archives...
) in downtown. It also expanded up Nichols Avenue past the Government Hospital for the Insane (now St. Elizabeths Hospital
St. Elizabeths Hospital
St. Elizabeths Hospital is a psychiatric hospital operated by the District of Columbia Department of Mental Health. It was the first large-scale, federally-run psychiatric hospital in the United States. Housing several thousand patients at its peak, St. Elizabeths had a fully functioning...
).
Capitol, North O Street and South Washington
The last streetcar company to begin operation during the horsecar era was the Capitol, North O Street and South Washington RailwayCapitol, North O Street and South Washington Railway
The Capitol, North O Street and South Washington Railway was a street railway company in Washington, D.C. from 1875 to 1898. It was the sixth and final company to start during the horse car era. It operated on a loop, or "belt", around downtown and the National Mall. For that reason, and because of...
. It was incorporated on March 3, 1875 and began operation later that year. It ran on a circular route around downtown D.C. A P Street NW track was added in 1876. In 1881, the route was extended north and south on 11th Street West and tracks were rerouted across the Mall. It changed its name to the Belt Railway on February 18, 1893.
Horse-drawn chariots and the Herdic Phaeton Company
During this time, streetcars competed with numerous horse-drawn chariotChariot
The chariot is a type of horse carriage used in both peace and war as the chief vehicle of many ancient peoples. Ox carts, proto-chariots, were built by the Proto-Indo-Europeans and also built in Mesopotamia as early as 3000 BC. The original horse chariot was a fast, light, open, two wheeled...
companies. Starting on March 5, 1877, the date of President Hayes'
Rutherford B. Hayes
Rutherford Birchard Hayes was the 19th President of the United States . As president, he oversaw the end of Reconstruction and the United States' entry into the Second Industrial Revolution...
inauguration, single-horse carriages began running on a route roughly parallel to the Washington and Georgetown's Pennsylvania Avenue route. After three years, streetcars forced the chariots out of business.
This was followed almost immediately by the Herdic Phaeton Company
Herdic Phaeton Company
The Herdic Phaeton Company was a late 19th Century horse drawn stagecoach company in Washington, D.C. It started operations in December 1879, taking over for a horse drawn chariot company that had operated unsuccessfully for three years. The company took its name from the chariot's designer Peter...
. The electric streetcar, however, was too much for the company to compete with and when its principal stockholder died in 1896, it ceased operations.
After the Herdic Company went under, the Metropolitan Coach Company began running horse-drawn coaches
Stagecoach
A stagecoach is a type of covered wagon for passengers and goods, strongly sprung and drawn by four horses, usually four-in-hand. Widely used before the introduction of railway transport, it made regular trips between stages or stations, which were places of rest provided for stagecoach travelers...
in conjunction with the Metropolitan Railroad, carrying passengers from 16th
16th Street Northwest (Washington, D.C.)
16th Street Northwest is a prominent north-south thoroughfare in the northwest quadrant of Washington, D.C.Part of Pierre L'Enfant's design for the city, 16th Street begins just north of the White House across Lafayette Park at H Street and continues due north in a straight line passing K Street,...
and T Streets NW to 22nd and G Streets NW. It began operations on May 1, 1897 with a car barn at 1914 E Street NW. In 1904, it became its own corporation
Corporation
A corporation is created under the laws of a state as a separate legal entity that has privileges and liabilities that are distinct from those of its members. There are many different forms of corporations, most of which are used to conduct business. Early corporations were established by charter...
.
The switch to electric power
Manure
Manure is organic matter used as organic fertilizer in agriculture. Manures contribute to the fertility of the soil by adding organic matter and nutrients, such as nitrogen, that are trapped by bacteria in the soil...
, had difficulty climbing hills and were difficult to dispose of. Almost as soon as they were instituted, companies began looking for alternatives. For example, the Washington and Georgetown experimented with a steam motor
Steam engine
A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid.Steam engines are external combustion engines, where the working fluid is separate from the combustion products. Non-combustion heat sources such as solar power, nuclear power or geothermal energy may be...
car in the 1870s and 1880s which was run on Pennsylvania Avenue NW near the Capitol several times, but was never placed in permanent use.
In 1883, Frank Sprague an 1878 Naval Academy
United States Naval Academy
The United States Naval Academy is a four-year coeducational federal service academy located in Annapolis, Maryland, United States...
graduate, resigned from the Navy
United States Navy
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
to work for
Thomas Edison
Thomas Edison
Thomas Alva Edison was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices that greatly influenced life around the world, including the phonograph, the motion picture camera, and a long-lasting, practical electric light bulb. In addition, he created the world’s first industrial...
. He wound up in Richmond, Virginia
Richmond, Virginia
Richmond is the capital of the Commonwealth of Virginia, in the United States. It is an independent city and not part of any county. Richmond is the center of the Richmond Metropolitan Statistical Area and the Greater Richmond area...
where, on February 2, 1888 he put into service the first electric-powered
Electricity
Electricity is a general term encompassing a variety of phenomena resulting from the presence and flow of electric charge. These include many easily recognizable phenomena, such as lightning, static electricity, and the flow of electrical current in an electrical wire...
streetcar system. After 1888, many cities, including Washington, turned to electric-powered streetcars. To get electricity to the streetcars from the powerhouse
Power station
A power station is an industrial facility for the generation of electric energy....
where it was generated, an overhead wire
Wire
A wire is a single, usually cylindrical, flexible strand or rod of metal. Wires are used to bear mechanical loads and to carry electricity and telecommunications signals. Wire is commonly formed by drawing the metal through a hole in a die or draw plate. Standard sizes are determined by various...
was installed over city streets. A streetcar would touch this electric wire with a long pole (a "trolley" pole) on its roof. Back at the powerhouse, big steam engines would turn huge generators
Electrical generator
In electricity generation, an electric generator is a device that converts mechanical energy to electrical energy. A generator forces electric charge to flow through an external electrical circuit. It is analogous to a water pump, which causes water to flow...
to produce the electricity needed to operate the streetcars. A new name was soon developed for streetcars powered by electricity in this manner; they were called trolley cars.
Eckington and Soldiers' Home
Florida Avenue (Washington, D.C.)
Florida Avenue is a major street in Washington, D.C. It was originally named Boundary Street, because it formed the northern boundary of Pierre L'Enfant's original plan for the Federal City...
into the hills of Washington Heights
Kalorama, Washington, D.C.
The Kalorama area within the Northwest Quadrangle of Washington, D.C., includes two adjacent, quite affluent historical residential neighborhoods, Kalorama Triangle and Sheridan-Kalorama. The area is accessible from the Dupont Circle and Woodley Park Metro stations, as well as various bus lines...
and Petworth
Petworth, Washington, D.C.
Petworth is a residential neighborhood in the Northwest quadrant of Washington, D.C., bounded by Georgia Avenue to the west, North Capitol Street to the east, Rock Creek Church Road to the south, and Kennedy Street NW to the north...
. Boundary Street was becoming such a misnomer that in 1890 it was renamed Florida Avenue. Climbing the hills to the new parts of the city was difficult for horses, but electric streetcars could do it easily. In the year following the successful demonstration of the Richmond streetcar
Richmond Union Passenger Railway
The Richmond Union Passenger Railway, in Richmond, Virginia, was the first practical electric trolley system, and set the pattern for most subsequent electric trolley systems around the world. It is an IEEE milestone in engineering....
, four electric streetcar companies were incorporated in Washington D.C. The Eckington and Soldiers' Home Railway was the first to charter, on June 19, 1888, and started operation on October 17. Its tracks started at 7th Street and New York Avenue NW, east of Mount Vernon Square
Mount Vernon Square
Mount Vernon Square is a city square in the Northwest quadrant of Washington, D.C. It is located where the following streets would otherwise intersect: Massachusetts Avenue, New York Avenue, K Street, and 8th Street NW....
, and traveled 2.5 miles to the Eckington
Eckington, Washington, D.C.
Eckington is a neighborhood in Northeast Washington, D.C. located south of the Prospect Hill and Glenwood Cemeteries. Eckington is less than one mile southeast of Howard University and exactly one mile north of the United States Capitol...
Car Barn at 4th and T Streets NE via Boundary Street NE, Eckington Place NE, R Street NE, 3rd Street NE and T Street NE. Another line ran up 4th Street NE to Michigan Avenue NE. A one-week pass cost $1.25. In 1889, the line was extended along T Street NE, 2nd Street NE and V Street NE to Glenwood Cemetery, but the extension proved unprofitable and was closed in 1894. At the same time, an extension was built along Michigan Avenue NE to the B&O railroad tracks. In 1895, the company removed its overhead trolley lines in accordance with its charter and attempted to replace them with batteries
Battery (electricity)
An electrical battery is one or more electrochemical cells that convert stored chemical energy into electrical energy. Since the invention of the first battery in 1800 by Alessandro Volta and especially since the technically improved Daniell cell in 1836, batteries have become a common power...
. These proved too costly and the company replaced them with horses in the central city. In 1896, Congress directed the Eckington and Soldier's Home
Armed Forces Retirement Home
The Armed Forces Retirement Home , formerly the U.S. Soldiers' and Airmen's Home, the U.S. Soldiers' Home, and the U.S. Military Asylum, is an independent establishment in the executive branch of the federal government of the United States...
to try compressed air motors and to substitute underground electric power for all its horse and overhead trolley lines in the city. The compressed-air motors were a failure and in 1899 the company switched to the standard underground electric power conduit
Conduit current collection
Conduit current collection is a system of electric current collection used by electric trams, where the power supply is carried in a channel under the roadway, rather than located overhead.-Description:...
.
Rock Creek
The Rock Creek Railway
Rock Creek Railway
The Rock Creek Railway was one of the first electric streetcar companies to operate in Washington, D.C. It was incorporated in 1888 and started operations in 1890. After expansion, the line ran from the Cardoza/Shaw neighborhood of D.C. to Chevy Chase Lake, Maryland...
was the second electric streetcar incorporated in D.C. It was incorporated in 1888 and started operations in 1890 on 2 blocks of Florida Avenue east of Connecticut Avenue. After completing a bridge over Rock Creek at Calvert Street on July 21, 1891, the line was extended through Adams Morgan and north on Connecticut Avenue to Chevy Chase Lake, Maryland
Chevy Chase, Maryland
Chevy Chase is the name of both a town and an unincorporated census-designated place in Montgomery County, Maryland. In addition, a number of villages in the same area of Montgomery County include "Chevy Chase" in their names...
. In 1893 a line was added through Cardoza/Shaw
Shaw, Washington, D.C.
Shaw is a neighborhood located in the Northwest quadrant of Washington, D.C. It is roughly bounded by M Street, NW or Massachusetts Avenue NW to the south; New Jersey Avenue, NW to the east; Florida Avenue, NW to the north; and 11th Street, NW to the west...
to 7th Street NW.
Georgetown and Tenleytown
The third electric streetcar company to incorporate, the Georgetown and Tenleytown Railway, was chartered on August 22, 1888. In 1890, the railway started operations connecting Georgetown to the extant village of Tenleytown
Tenleytown
Tenleytown is a historic neighborhood in Northwest, Washington, DC.-History:In 1790, Washington locals began calling the neighborhood "Tennally's Town" after area tavern owner John Tennally...
. The line traveled the length of the Georgetown and Rockville Road (now Wisconsin Avenue NW), stretching from the Potomac River
Potomac River
The Potomac River flows into the Chesapeake Bay, located along the mid-Atlantic coast of the United States. The river is approximately long, with a drainage area of about 14,700 square miles...
to the Maryland
Maryland
Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...
state line. In 1890 it was extended across the Maryland line to Bethesda. In 1897, the Washington and Rockville Railway was formed to extend the line to Rockville
Rockville, Maryland
Rockville is the county seat of Montgomery County, Maryland, United States. It is a major incorporated city in the central part of Montgomery County and forms part of the Baltimore-Washington Metropolitan Area. The 2010 U.S...
. Though the two companies legally acted as different entities, they traveled identical routes on identical rails and shared a car barn (owned by WRECo) on Wisconsin Avenue NW at the District boundary. By 1900, the tracks had extended to Rockville. Map of the Rockville line http://www.peerlessrockville.org/peerless_places/images/trolley2.jpg.
Washington and Great Falls - Maryland and Washington
Two more Washington D.C. streetcar companies operating in Maryland
Washington D.C. Streetcars (Maryland)
Streetcars and interurbans operated in the Maryland suburbs of Washington, D.C., between 1890 and 1962. Lines in Maryland were established as separate legal entities, but eventually they were all owned or leased by DC Transit. Unlike the Virginia lines the Washington and Maryland lines were...
were incorporated by acts of Congress in the summer of 1892. The Washington and Great Falls Electric Railway was approved on July 28, 1892 to build an electric streetcar line from the Aqueduct Bridge
Potomac Aqueduct Bridge
The Aqueduct Bridge was a bridge between Georgetown, Washington, D.C., and Rosslyn, Virginia, in Arlington County. It was built to transport cargo-carrying boats on the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal in Georgetown across the Potomac River to the Alexandria Canal...
to Cabin John Creek
Cabin John Creek (Potomac River)
Cabin John Creek is a tributary stream of the Potomac River in Montgomery County, Maryland. The watershed covers an area of . The headwaters of the creek originate in the city of Rockville, and the creek flows southward for to the Potomac River....
. It completed its track in August 1895. Because the railroad never reached Great Falls
Great Falls of the Potomac River
The Great Falls of the Potomac River are located at the fall line of the Potomac River, upstream from Washington, D.C. Great Falls Park, operated by the National Park Service, is located on the southern banks in Virginia, while Chesapeake and Ohio Canal parkland is located along the northern banks...
, but instead terminated at Cabin John
Cabin John, Maryland
Cabin John is a census-designated place and an unincorporated area in Montgomery County, Maryland, United States. The placename is a corruption of its original name of "Captain John's Mills."-Geography:...
, it was often referred to as the "Cabin John Trolley". The Maryland and Washington Railway was approved a few days later on August 1, 1892. In ran on Rhode Island Avenue
Rhode Island Avenue (Washington, D.C.)
Rhode Island Avenue is a diagonal avenue in the Northwest and Northeast quadrants of Washington, D.C. and the capital's inner suburbs in Prince George's County, Maryland. Paralleling New York Avenue, Rhode Island Avenue was one of the original streets in Pierre L'Enfant's plan for the capital. ...
NE from 4th Street NE reaching what is now Mount Rainier
Mount Rainier, Maryland
Mount Rainier is a city in Prince George's County, Maryland, United States. The population was 8,498 at the 2000 census. Bordering Washington, DC, Mount Rainier got its start as a streetcar suburb. According to local tradition, surveyors from the Pacific Northwest named the town, giving the...
on the Maryland line in 1897. At its southern terminus it connected to the Eckington and Soldier's Home.
Capital Railway
The first electric streetcar to operate in Anacostia was the Capital Railway. It was incorporated by Colonel Arthur Emmett Randle on March 2, 1895 to serve Congress Heights
Congress Heights
Congress Heights is a largely residential neighborhood in Southeast Washington, D.C. Although it is in the poorest section of what is generally regarded as inner-city Washington—the area east of the Anacostia River -- it is very likely the most economically diverse, and most suburban, neighborhood...
. It was to run from Shepherds Ferry along the Potomac and across the Navy Yard Bridge to M Street SE. A second line would run along Good Hope Road SE to the District boundary. The line was built during the Panic of 1896
Panic of 1896
The Panic of 1896 was an acute economic depression in the United States that was less serious than other panics of the era precipitated by a drop in silver reserves and market concerns on the effects it would have on the gold standard. Deflation of commodities prices drove the stock market to new...
despite 18 months of opposition from the Anacostia and Potomac River. In 1897 it experimented with the "Brown System", which used magnet
Magnet
A magnet is a material or object that produces a magnetic field. This magnetic field is invisible but is responsible for the most notable property of a magnet: a force that pulls on other ferromagnetic materials, such as iron, and attracts or repels other magnets.A permanent magnet is an object...
s in boxes to relay power instead of overhead or underground lines, and with double trolley lines over the Navy Yard Bridge. Both were failures. By 1898, the streetcar line ran along Nichols Avenue SE to Congress Heights, ending at Upsal Street SE. At the same time the Capital Railway was incorporated, the Washington and Marlboro Electric Railway was chartered to run trains across the Anacostia River
Anacostia River
The Anacostia River is a river in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States. It flows from Prince George's County in Maryland into Washington, D.C., where it joins with the Washington Channel to empty into the Potomac River at Buzzard Point. It is approximately long...
through southeast Anacostia to the District boundary at Suitland Road and from there to Upper Marlboro
Upper Marlboro, Maryland
Upper Marlboro is a town in and the county seat of Prince George's County, Maryland, United States. The live-in population of the town core proper was only 648 at the 2000 census, although Greater Upper Marlboro is many times larger....
, but it never laid any track.
Baltimore and Washington
The Baltimore and Washington Transit Company
Baltimore and Washington Transit Company
The Baltimore and Washington Transit Company was incorporated in Maryland in the 1890s to build an interurban between Baltimore and Washington, and was authorized to enter Washington to a junction with the Brightwood Railway on June 8, 1896...
was incorporated prior to 1894, with authorization to run from the District of Columbia, across Maryland to the Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
border. On June 8, 1896 it was given permission to enter the District of Columbia and connect to the spur of the Brightwood that ran on Butternut St NW. In 1897, it began construction on a line, known locally as the Dinky Line, that began at the end of the Brightwood spur at 4th and Butternut Streets NW, traveled south on 4th Street NW to Aspen Street NW and then east on Aspen Street NW and Laurel Street NW into Maryland. Later, between 1903 and 1917, a line was added running south on 3rd St NW and west on Kennedy St NW to Colorado Avenue where it connected to Capital Traction's 14th Street line. On March 14, 1914, it changed its name to the Washington and Maryland Railway.
East Washington Heights
The East Washington Heights Traction Railroad was incorporated on June 18, 1898. By 1903 it ran from the Capitol along Pennsylvania Avenue SE to Barney Circle, and by 1908, it went across the bridge
John Philip Sousa Bridge
The John Philip Sousa Bridge is a bridge that carries Pennsylvania Avenue across the Anacostia River in Washington, D.C., U.S.A. It has partial interchanges with unsigned Interstate 695 at its western terminus and with District of Columbia Route 295 at its eastern terminus.The first bridge at that...
to Randle Highlands (now known as Twining) as far as 27th St SE. By 1917 it had been extended out Pennsylvania Avenue past 33rd Street SE.
Washington, Spa Spring, and Gretta
The last new streetcar company to form was the Washington, Spa Spring and Gretta Railroad. It was chartered by the state of Maryland on February 13, 1905 and authorized to enter the District on February 18, 1907. Construction began by March 22, 1908.
In 1910, it began running cars along a single track from a modest waiting station
Train station
A train station, also called a railroad station or railway station and often shortened to just station,"Station" is commonly understood to mean "train station" unless otherwise qualified. This is evident from dictionary entries e.g...
and car barn near 15th Street NE and H Street NE along Bladensburg Road NE to Bladensburg
Bladensburg, Maryland
Bladensburg is a town in Prince George's County, Maryland, United States. The population was 7,661 at the 2000 census.Bladensburg is from central Washington, DC...
. [On July 5, 1892 the District of Columbia Suburban Railway was incorporated to run streetcars along the same route - on Bladensburg Road NE from the Columbia tracks on H Street NE to the Maryland line and from Brookland to Florida Avenue NE, but it was never constructed]. Although initially planned to go as far as Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
Gettysburg is a borough that is the county seat, part of the Gettysburg Battlefield, and the eponym for the 1863 Battle of Gettysburg. The town hosts visitors to the Gettysburg National Military Park and has 3 institutions of higher learning: Lutheran Theological Seminary, Gettysburg College, and...
, the line never ran further than an extension to Berwyn Heights, Maryland
Berwyn Heights, Maryland
Berwyn Heights is a town in Prince George's County, Maryland, United States. The population was 2,942 at the 2000 census. It is bordered by College Park to the west, Greenbelt to the northeast, East Riverdale to the southwest, and Riverdale Park to the south....
. The route was planned to promote development
Land improvement
Land improvement or land amelioration refers to investments making land more usable by humans. In terms of accounting, land improvements refer to any variety of projects that increase the value of the property...
of company-owned land adjacent to the tracks, but it never successfully competed with established rail lines in the same area. Noting its diminished ambitions, it became the Washington Interurban Railway on October 12, 1912 and changed the Railway to Railroad in 1919.
Conversion of horse cars to mechanical and electrical power
On March 2, 1889 the District authorized every streetcar company in Washington to switch from horseHorse
The horse is one of two extant subspecies of Equus ferus, or the wild horse. It is a single-hooved mammal belonging to the taxonomic family Equidae. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million years from a small multi-toed creature into the large, single-toed animal of today...
power to underground cable
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...
or to electricity
Electricity
Electricity is a general term encompassing a variety of phenomena resulting from the presence and flow of electric charge. These include many easily recognizable phenomena, such as lightning, static electricity, and the flow of electrical current in an electrical wire...
provided by battery
Battery (electricity)
An electrical battery is one or more electrochemical cells that convert stored chemical energy into electrical energy. Since the invention of the first battery in 1800 by Alessandro Volta and especially since the technically improved Daniell cell in 1836, batteries have become a common power...
or underground wire
Wire
A wire is a single, usually cylindrical, flexible strand or rod of metal. Wires are used to bear mechanical loads and to carry electricity and telecommunications signals. Wire is commonly formed by drawing the metal through a hole in a die or draw plate. Standard sizes are determined by various...
and in 1890 companies were authorized to sell stock
Stock
The capital stock of a business entity represents the original capital paid into or invested in the business by its founders. It serves as a security for the creditors of a business since it cannot be withdrawn to the detriment of the creditors...
to pay for the upgrades - provided they did not involve overhead wires. In 1892, one-horse cars were banned within the city, and by 1894 Congress began requiring companies to switch to something other than horse power while continuing to disallow overhead lines within the city.
Washington and Georgetown
After the March 2, 1889 law passed, the Washington and Georgetown began installing an underground cable system. Their 7th Street line switched to cable car on April 12, 1890. The rest of the system switched to cable by August 18, 1892. In 1892, they extended their track along 14th to Park Road NW.
Brightwood
On October 18, 1888, the day after the Eckington and Soldier's Home began operation, Congress authorized the Brightwood Railway to electrify the Metropolitan's streetcar line on Seventh Street Extended NW or Brightwood Avenue NW (now known as Georgia Avenue NW
Georgia Avenue
Georgia Avenue is a major north-south artery in Northwest Washington, D.C. and Montgomery County, Maryland. Within the District of Columbia and a short distance in Silver Spring, Maryland, Georgia Avenue is also U.S. Route 29...
) and to extend it to the District boundary at Silver Spring
Silver Spring, Maryland
Silver Spring is an unincorporated area and census-designated place in Montgomery County, Maryland, United States. It had a population of 71,452 at the 2010 census, making it the fourth most populous place in Maryland, after Baltimore, Columbia, and Germantown.The urbanized, oldest, and...
. In 1890 they bought the former Boundary and Silver Spring line from the Metropolitan, but continued to operate it as a horse line. In 1892 it was ordered by Congress to switch to overhead electrical power and complete the line. The next year, the streetcar tracks reached Takoma Park
Takoma Park, Maryland
Takoma Park is a city in Montgomery County, Maryland, United States. It is a suburb of Washington, D.C., and part of the Washington Metropolitan Area. Founded in 1883 and incorporated in 1890, Takoma Park, informally called "Azalea City," is a Tree City USA and a nuclear-free zone...
via a spur along Butternut Street NW to 4th Street NW. In 1898, the Brightwood was ordered to switch to underground electric power on pain of having its charter revoked.
Metropolitan
The Metropolitan experimented with batteries in 1890 but found them unsatisfactory. On August 2, 1894 Congress ordered the Metropolitan to switch to underground electrical power. It complied, installing the underground sliding shoe on the north-south line in January 1895. The Metropolitan switched the rest of the system to electric power on July 7, 1896 In 1895, the Metropolitan built a streetcar barn near the Arsenal and a loop in Georgetown to connect it to the Georgetown Car Barn. In 1896 it extended service along East Capitol Street and built the East Capitol Street Car Barn, ( photo); and extended its service to Mount Pleasant.
Columbia
Using electricity from the power plant built to power its cable operation, the Columbia won permission in 1898 to build a line east along Benning Road NE, splitting on the east side of the Anacostia. One branch ran to Kenilworth
Kenilworth, Washington, D.C.
Kenilworth is a residential neighborhood in Northeast Washington, D.C., located on the eastern bank of the Anacostia River and just inside the D.C.-Maryland border. A large public housing complex, Kenilworth Courts, dominates the area...
, and the other connected at Seat Pleasant
Seat Pleasant, Maryland
Seat Pleasant is an incorporated city in Prince George's County, Maryland, United States immediately east of Washington D.C. The population was 4,885 at the 2000 census. Two state highways run through it — Maryland Route 704 and Maryland Route 214...
with the terminus of the steam-powered
Steam locomotive
A steam locomotive is a railway locomotive that produces its power through a steam engine. These locomotives are fueled by burning some combustible material, usually coal, wood or oil, to produce steam in a boiler, which drives the steam engine...
Chesapeake Beach Railway
Chesapeake Beach Railway
The Chesapeake Beach Railway , now defunct, was an American railroad of southern Maryland and Washington, DC built in the 19th century. The CBR ran 27.629 miles from Washington, D.C. on tracks formerly owned by the Southern Maryland Railroad and then on its own single track through Maryland farm...
.
Belt
In 1896 the Belt Railway tried out compressed air motors. The compressed air motors were a failure, and in 1899 the cars were equipped with the standard underground power system.
Anacostia and Potomac River
The Anacostia and Potomac River switched from horses to electricity in April 1900. This was the last horse drawn streetcar to run in the District.
Virginia trolleys operating in Washington, D.C.
Two electric trolley companies serving Northern VirginiaNorthern Virginia trolleys
The earliest electric railway, or streetcar line, in Northern Virginia opened in 1892. At their peak, when merged into a single interurban system , the successors of this and several other lines ran between downtown Washington, D.C., Rosslyn and Arlington Junction – present day Crystal City...
operated also in the District and a third received permission to do so, but never did.
The Washington and Arlington Railway was the first Virginia company given permission to operate in Washington. It was incorporated on February 28, 1892 with the right to run a streetcar from the train station at 6th Street NW and B Street
Constitution Avenue
In Washington, D.C., Constitution Avenue is a major east-west street running just north of the United States Capitol in the city's Northwest and Northeast quadrants...
NW to Virginia across a new Three Sisters
Three Sisters (District of Columbia)
The Three Sisters, variously known as the Three Sisters Islands and the Three Sisters Island, are three rocky islands in the Potomac River in Washington, D.C., west of the Key Bridge. They represent the farthest point navigable by larger boats....
Bridge. It was also allotted space in the Georgetown Car Barn. The company was never able to construct the new bridge, and so never operated in Washington.
The Washington, Alexandria and Mount Vernon Electric Railway started construction in Virginia in 1892. On August 23, 1894 it was given permission to enter the District of Columbia using a ferry
Ferry
A ferry is a form of transportation, usually a boat, but sometimes a ship, used to carry primarily passengers, and sometimes vehicles and cargo as well, across a body of water. Most ferries operate on regular, frequent, return services...
. It completed its tracks in 1896 and began serving a waiting station at 14th Street NW and B Street NW. From the waiting station it used the Belt Line's track on 14th Street to reach the Long Bridge, a combined road and rail crossing of the Potomac River, never opting to use the ferry system. The Jefferson Davis Highway
Jefferson Davis Highway
The Jefferson Davis Memorial Highway was a planned transcontinental highway in the United States in the 1910s and 1920s that began in Washington, D.C. and extended south and west to San Diego, California; it was named for Jefferson Davis, who, in addition to being the first and only President of...
was later relocated from the rail alignment to a new through-truss crossing, immediately west of the Long Bridge. This original highway span was removed in the early 1970s.
In 1902 its station was moved to 12th Street NW and D Street NW (near the site of the present Federal Triangle Metro station
Federal Triangle (Washington Metro)
Federal Triangle is an island platformed Washington Metro station in Downtown Washington, D.C., United States. The station was opened on July 1, 1977, and is operated by the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority . Providing service for both the Blue and Orange Lines, the station's entrance...
) to make room for the District Building. On October 17, 1910 the Washington and Arlington, by then the Washington, Arlington and Falls Church Railroad, and the Washington, Alexandria and Mount Vernon merged to form the Washington–Virginia Railway. The company had difficulty competing and in 1924 declared bankruptcy
Bankruptcy
Bankruptcy is a legal status of an insolvent person or an organisation, that is, one that cannot repay the debts owed to creditors. In most jurisdictions bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debtor....
. In 1927 the two companies were split and sold at auction
Auction
An auction is a process of buying and selling goods or services by offering them up for bid, taking bids, and then selling the item to the highest bidder...
. The former Washington, Arlington and Falls Church reemerged as the Arlington and Fairfax Electric Railway and continued to serve the city on the Washington-Virginia route until January 17, 1932, when the Mt. Vernon Memorial Highway (now the George Washington Memorial Parkway
George Washington Memorial Parkway
The George Washington Memorial Parkway, known to local motorists simply as the "G.W. Parkway", is a parkway maintained by the U.S. National Park Service. It is located mostly in Northern Virginia, although a short section northwest of the Arlington Memorial Bridge passes over Columbia Island,...
) opened.
The Great Falls and Old Dominion Railroad
Great Falls and Old Dominion Railroad
The Great Falls and Old Dominion Railroad was an interurban trolley line that ran in Northern Virginia during the early 20th century.-History:...
was chartered January 24, 1900 and authorized to enter the District on January 29, 1903. It crossed over the Aqueduct Bridge and terminated at a station immediately west of the Georgetown Car Barn. In 1912, it was incorporated into the new Washington and Old Dominion Railway and became the Great Falls Division of that company.
The Great Streetcar Consolidation
Transfer (public transit)
A transfer allows the rider of a public transportation vehicle who pays for a single-trip fare to continue the trip on another bus or train. Depending on the network, there may or may not be an additional fee for the transfer...
, set standard pricing
Pricing
Pricing is the process of determining what a company will receive in exchange for its products. Pricing factors are manufacturing cost, market place, competition, market condition, and quality of product. Pricing is also a key variable in microeconomic price allocation theory. Pricing is a...
and by allowing them to use one another's track. But eventually, lawmakers settled on consolidation
Consolidation (business)
Consolidation or amalgamation is the act of merging many things into one. In business, it often refers to the mergers and acquisitions of many smaller companies into much larger ones. In the context of financial accounting, consolidation refers to the aggregation of financial statements of a group...
as the best solution.
On March 1, 1895, Congress authorized the Rock Creek to purchase
Mergers and acquisitions
Mergers and acquisitions refers to the aspect of corporate strategy, corporate finance and management dealing with the buying, selling, dividing and combining of different companies and similar entities that can help an enterprise grow rapidly in its sector or location of origin, or a new field or...
the Washington and Georgetown on Sept. 21, producing the Capital Traction Company
Capital Traction Company
The Capital Traction Company was the smaller of the two major street railway companies in Washington, D.C. in the early 20th Century. It was formed through a merger of the Rock Creek Railway and the Washington and Georgetown Railroad Company in 1895. The company ran streetcars from Georgetown;...
. In 1916 Capital Traction took ownership of the Washington and Maryland and its 2.591 miles of track.
After Capital Traction's powerhouse at 14th and E NW burned down on September 29, 1897, the company replaced the cable cars with an electric system. The 14th Street branch switched to electric power on February 27, 1898, the Pennsylvania Avenue division on April 20, 1898 and the 7th Street branch on May 26, 1898.
The Anacostia and Potomac River began expanding on June 24, 1898, by purchasing the Belt Railway; the next year, it bought the Capital Railway.
Later that year, the Eckington and Soldier's Home purchased the Maryland and Washington. On June 27, 1898, the new, combined company changed its name to the City and Suburban Railway of Washington. Later that year, it bought the Columbia and Maryland Railway, which ran from Mount Rainier to Laurel
Laurel, Maryland
Laurel is a city in northern Prince George's County, Anne Arundel County, and Howard County, Maryland, United States, located midway between Washington, D.C. and Baltimore. Incorporated in 1870, the city maintains a historic district including its Main Street...
.
Between 1896 and 1899, three businessmen purchased controlling interests in the Metropolitan; the Columbia; the Anacostia and Potomac River; the Georgetown and Tennallytown; the Washington, Woodside and Forest Glen; the Washington and Great Falls; and the Washington and Rockville railway companies, in addition to the Potomac Electric Power Company
Potomac Electric Power Company
The Potomac Electric Power Company, known as Pepco, is a public utility supplying electric power to the city of Washington, D.C., and to surrounding communities in Maryland...
(PEPCO) and the United States Electric Lighting Company. They incorporated the Washington Traction and Electric Company on June 5, 1899 as a holding company
Holding company
A holding company is a company or firm that owns other companies' outstanding stock. It usually refers to a company which does not produce goods or services itself; rather, its purpose is to own shares of other companies. Holding companies allow the reduction of risk for the owners and can allow...
for these interests. But the holding company had borrowed too heavily and paid too much for the subsidiaries and quickly landed in financial trouble. To prevent transit disruption, Congress on June 5, 1900, authorized the Washington and Great Falls to acquire the stock of any and all of the railways and power companies
Electrical power industry
The electric power industry provides the production and delivery of electric energy, often known as power, or electricity, in sufficient quantities to areas that need electricity through a grid connection. The grid distributes electrical energy to customers...
owned by Washington Traction. When Washington Traction defaulted
Default (finance)
In finance, default occurs when a debtor has not met his or her legal obligations according to the debt contract, e.g. has not made a scheduled payment, or has violated a loan covenant of the debt contract. A default is the failure to pay back a loan. Default may occur if the debtor is either...
on its loans on June 1, 1901, Washington and Great Falls moved in to take its place. On February 4, 1902, Washington and Great Falls changed its named to the Washington Railway and Electric Company
Washington Railway and Electric Company
The Washington Railway and Electric Company was the larger of the two major street railway companies in Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States, until 1933. At that time, it was merged with its main competitor, the Capital Traction Company, to form the Capital Transit Company...
, reincorporated as a holding company and exchanged stock in Washington Traction and Electric one for one for stock in the new company (at a discounted rate).
Not every company became a part of Washington Railway immediately. The City and Suburban and the Georgetown and Tennallytown operated as subsidiaries
Subsidiary
A subsidiary company, subsidiary, or daughter company is a company that is completely or partly owned and wholly controlled by another company that owns more than half of the subsidiary's stock. The subsidiary can be a company, corporation, or limited liability company. In some cases it is a...
of Washington Railway until October 31, 1926 when it purchased the remainder of their stock.
Union Station (Washington, D.C.)
Washington Union Station is a train station and leisure destination visited by 32 million people each year in the center of Washington, D.C. The train station is served by Amtrak, MARC and Virginia Railway Express commuter rail services as well as by Washington Metro subway trains and local buses...
along Delaware Avenue NE and by December 6 cars of both Capital Traction and Washington Railway were serving the building along Massachusetts Avenue NE.
In 1908, the Washington, Baltimore and Annapolis Electric Railway
Washington, Baltimore and Annapolis Electric Railway
The Washington, Baltimore and Annapolis Electric Railway , now defunct, was an American railroad of central Maryland and Washington, DC built in the 19th and 20th century. The WB&A absorbed two older railroads, the Annapolis and Elk Ridge Railroad and the Baltimore & Annapolis Short Line, and...
began service from Washington to Baltimore and Annapolis
Annapolis, Maryland
Annapolis is the capital of the U.S. state of Maryland, as well as the county seat of Anne Arundel County. It had a population of 38,394 at the 2010 census and is situated on the Chesapeake Bay at the mouth of the Severn River, south of Baltimore and about east of Washington, D.C. Annapolis is...
. Though technically an interurban
Interurban
An interurban, also called a radial railway in parts of Canada, is a type of electric passenger railroad; in short a hybrid between tram and train. Interurbans enjoyed widespread popularity in the first three decades of the twentieth century in North America. Until the early 1920s, most roads were...
, this railway utilized streetcar tracks from its terminal at 15th and H Streets NE and across the Benning Road Bridge where it switched to its own tracks in Deanwood
Deanwood
Deanwood is a neighborhood in Northeast Washington, D.C., bounded by Eastern Avenue to the northeast, Kenilworth Avenue to the northwest, and Nannie Helen Burroughs Avenue to the south....
. It was the main source of transportation to Suburban Gardens
Suburban Gardens
Suburban Gardens was the first and only major amusement park within Washington, D.C. Located at 50th and Hayes Streets, NE, in the Deanwood neighborhood near the National Training School for Women and Girls, Suburban Gardens opened in 1921 and was in operation for almost two decades...
, known as "the black Glen Echo
Glen Echo Park (Maryland)
Glen Echo Park, also known as Glen Echo Amusement Park and Glen Echo Park Historic District, is a public park and national historic district in Glen Echo, Montgomery County, Maryland. It is managed by the National Park Service as part of the George Washington Memorial Parkway. It began in 1891 as...
", the first and only major amusement park
Amusement park
thumb|Cinderella Castle in [[Magic Kingdom]], [[Disney World]]Amusement and theme parks are terms for a group of entertainment attractions and rides and other events in a location for the enjoyment of large numbers of people...
within Washington.
The next major consolidation occurred on August 31, 1912 when the Washington Railway purchased the controlling stock of the Anacostia and Potomac River. This left only 6 companies operating in Washington - four of which had less than 3 miles of track. It also led to Congress passing the "Anti-Merger Act", prohibiting mergers without Congress' approval and establishing the Public Utilities Commission
Public Utilities Commission
A Utilities commission, Utility Regulatory Commission , Public Utilities Commission or Public Service Commission is a governing body that regulates the rates and services of a public utility...
. In 1914 a failed attempt was made to have the Federal Government
Federal government of the United States
The federal government of the United States is the national government of the constitutional republic of fifty states that is the United States of America. The federal government comprises three distinct branches of government: a legislative, an executive and a judiciary. These branches and...
purchase all of the streetcar lines and companies.
Streetcars were unionized
Trade union
A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...
in 1916 when local 689 of the Amalgamated Association of Street, Electric Railway and Motor Coach Employees of America won recognition after a three day strike
Strike action
Strike action, also called labour strike, on strike, greve , or simply strike, is a work stoppage caused by the mass refusal of employees to work. A strike usually takes place in response to employee grievances. Strikes became important during the industrial revolution, when mass labour became...
.
Further consolidation came in the form of the North American Company
North American Company
The North American Company was a holding company incorporated in New Jersey on June 14, 1890, and controlled by Henry Villard, to succeed to the assets and property of the Oregon and Transcontinental Company...
, a transit and utilities holding company. North American began to acquire stock in Washington Railway in 1922, gaining a controlling interest by 1928. By December 31, 1933 it owned 50.016% of the voting stock. North American tried to purchase Capital Traction, but never owned more than 2.5% of Capital Traction stock.
Bustitution and competition
By 1916 streetcar use was reaching its peak in Washington, D.C. The combined systemsPublic transport
Public transport is a shared passenger transportation service which is available for use by the general public, as distinct from modes such as taxicab, car pooling or hired buses which are not shared by strangers without private arrangement.Public transport modes include buses, trolleybuses, trams...
had over 200 miles of track, with almost 100 in the city. Passengers could travel to Great Falls, Glen Echo
Glen Echo, Maryland
Glen Echo is a town in Montgomery County, Maryland, United States, that was chartered in 1904. The population was 242 at the 2000 census.Glen Echo derives its name from Edward and Edwin Baltzley, who came up with name circa 1888...
, Rockville
Rockville, Maryland
Rockville is the county seat of Montgomery County, Maryland, United States. It is a major incorporated city in the central part of Montgomery County and forms part of the Baltimore-Washington Metropolitan Area. The 2010 U.S...
, Kensington
Kensington, Maryland
Kensington is a town in Montgomery County, Maryland, United States. The population was 1,873 at the 2000 census. Greater Kensington encompasses the entire 20895 zip code and its population is an order of magnitude larger than that of the town at its center....
and Laurel
Laurel, Maryland
Laurel is a city in northern Prince George's County, Anne Arundel County, and Howard County, Maryland, United States, located midway between Washington, D.C. and Baltimore. Incorporated in 1870, the city maintains a historic district including its Main Street...
in Maryland; and to Mount Vernon
Mount Vernon, Virginia
Mount Vernon is a census-designated place in Fairfax County, Virginia, United States. Nearby CDPs are Fort Belvoir , Groveton, Virginia and Hybla Valley, Virginia , and Fort Hunt, Virginia...
, Alexandria
Alexandria, Virginia
Alexandria is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of 2009, the city had a total population of 139,966. Located along the Western bank of the Potomac River, Alexandria is approximately six miles south of downtown Washington, D.C.Like the rest of northern Virginia, as well as...
, Vienna
Vienna, Virginia
Vienna is a town in Fairfax County, Virginia, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, it had a population of 15,687. Significantly more people live in zip codes with the Vienna postal addresses bordered approximately by Interstate 66 on the south, Interstate 495 on the east, Route 7 to...
, Fairfax
Fairfax, Virginia
The City of Fairfax is an independent city forming an enclave within the confines of Fairfax County, in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. Although politically independent of the surrounding county, the City is nevertheless the county seat....
, Leesburg
Leesburg, Virginia
Leesburg is a historic town in, and county seat of, Loudoun County, Virginia, United States of America. Leesburg is located west-northwest of Washington, D.C. along the base of the Catoctin Mountain and adjacent to the Potomac River. Its population according the 2010 Census is 42,616...
, Great Falls
Great Falls, Virginia
Great Falls is a census-designated place in Fairfax County, Virginia, United States. The population was 15,427 at the 2010 census.Although primarily a bedroom community for Washington, D.C., one major attraction is Great Falls Park which overlooks the Great Falls of the Potomac River, for which...
and Bluemont
Bluemont, Virginia
Bluemont is an unincorporated village in Loudoun County, Virginia located at the base of Snickers Gap in the Blue Ridge Mountain. At 680 feet , it is the highest community in Loudoun County...
in Virginia. World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
saw further increases in passenger traffic. But the streetcars were also under increasing threat from competition.
The first threat to the streetcars came with the introduction of gasoline
Gasoline
Gasoline , or petrol , is a toxic, translucent, petroleum-derived liquid that is primarily used as a fuel in internal combustion engines. It consists mostly of organic compounds obtained by the fractional distillation of petroleum, enhanced with a variety of additives. Some gasolines also contain...
powered taxicabs. The taximeter
Taximeter
A taximeter is a mechanical or electronic device installed in taxicabs and auto rickshaws that calculates passenger fares based on a combination of distance travelled and waiting time...
, invented in 1891, combined with the combustion engine
Internal combustion engine
The internal combustion engine is an engine in which the combustion of a fuel occurs with an oxidizer in a combustion chamber. In an internal combustion engine, the expansion of the high-temperature and high -pressure gases produced by combustion apply direct force to some component of the engine...
, created a new form of public transportation. Taxicabs were put into service in Paris in 1899, in New York in 1907 and in Washington in 1908. Over the years, their numbers expanded.
In 1909 the Metropolitan Coach Company began to switch from horse-drawn coaches to gasoline-powered coaches - replacing its entire system by 1913 - becoming a precursor to the bus companies. It was a financial failure though and on August 13, 1915 the company ceased operations.
The gasoline-powered bus
Bus
A bus is a road vehicle designed to carry passengers. Buses can have a capacity as high as 300 passengers. The most common type of bus is the single-decker bus, with larger loads carried by double-decker buses and articulated buses, and smaller loads carried by midibuses and minibuses; coaches are...
was invented in Germany in 1895 and motorized buses were introduced in New York City in 1905. As improvements, such as balloon tire
Tire
A tire or tyre is a ring-shaped covering that fits around a wheel rim to protect it and enable better vehicle performance by providing a flexible cushion that absorbs shock while keeping the wheel in close contact with the ground...
s, were made, buses became more popular. The first formal bus company in Washington, the Washington Rapid Transit Company, was incorporated on January 20, 1921. By 1932 it was carrying 4.5% of transit customers. Two years later, the last streetcar line was built.
Just as the horse cars had replaced carriages and the electric streetcar replaced horse cars, so too were buses to replace the electric streetcars.
In 1923, the number of streetcar companies operating in Washington cut in half as three companies switched to buses. The East Washington Heights became the first streetcar company to switch, replacing its two streetcars and one mile of track with a bus line. The Washington Interurban switched next and its tracks were removed when Bladensburg Road was repaved. In that same year, the Key Bridge
Francis Scott Key Bridge (Washington)
The Francis Scott Key Bridge, more commonly known as the Key Bridge, is a six-lane reinforced concrete arch bridge conveying U.S. Route 29 traffic across the Potomac River between the Rosslyn neighborhood of Arlington County, Virginia and the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C...
was constructed and, as a result, the Washington and Old Dominion gave up rail access to D.C. in exchange for a terminal in Rosslyn.
When electric streetcars began, several lines also delivered freight on rail cars running on their lines. Capital Traction abandoned this service in 1931.
In 1932, the Arlington and Fairfax Motor Transportation Company was established to replace the streetcar service of the Arlington and Fairfax which lost the right to use the Highway Bridge. The last Arlington and Fairfax streetcar departed from 12th Street NW and D Street NW, on January 17, 1932, abandoning all streetcar service in the city.
In the summer of 1935 - after consolidation, several major lines were converted from streetcars to buses. The line from Friendship Heights
Friendship Heights
Friendship Heights is a residential neighborhood in northwest Washington, D.C. and southern Montgomery County, Maryland. Though its borders are not clearly defined, Friendship Heights consists roughly of the neighborhoods and commercial areas around Wisconsin Avenue north of Fessenden Street NW and...
to Rockville (formerly the Washington and Rockville), the P Street line (Metropolitan), the Anacostia-Congress Heights line (Capital Railway) and the Connecticut Avenue line in Chevy Chase
Chevy Chase, Maryland
Chevy Chase is the name of both a town and an unincorporated census-designated place in Montgomery County, Maryland. In addition, a number of villages in the same area of Montgomery County include "Chevy Chase" in their names...
(Rock Creek) were all replaced with buses. At the same time, the Chesapeake Beach Railway
Chesapeake Beach Railway
The Chesapeake Beach Railway , now defunct, was an American railroad of southern Maryland and Washington, DC built in the 19th century. The CBR ran 27.629 miles from Washington, D.C. on tracks formerly owned by the Southern Maryland Railroad and then on its own single track through Maryland farm...
and the Washington, Baltimore and Annapolis interurban
Washington, Baltimore and Annapolis Electric Railway
The Washington, Baltimore and Annapolis Electric Railway , now defunct, was an American railroad of central Maryland and Washington, DC built in the 19th and 20th century. The WB&A absorbed two older railroads, the Annapolis and Elk Ridge Railroad and the Baltimore & Annapolis Short Line, and...
ceased operations. The rail of the WB&A become the property of Capital Transit.
With further bustitution
Bustitution
The word bustitution is a neologism sometimes used to describe the practice of replacing a passenger train service with a bus service either on a temporary or permanent basis. The word is a portmanteau of the words "bus" and "substitution"...
, the Columbia Railway Company Car Barn was converted to a bus barn in 1942.
Monopoly
On December 1, 1933 Washington Railway, Capital Traction, and Washington Rapid Transit merged to form the Capital Transit Company. Washington Railway continued as a holding company, owning 50% of Capital Transit and 100% of PEPCO, but Capital Traction was dissolved. For the first time, street railways in Washington were under the managementManagement
Management in all business and organizational activities is the act of getting people together to accomplish desired goals and objectives using available resources efficiently and effectively...
of one company.
Capital Transit made several changes. As part of the merger, the Capital Traction generating plant in Georgetown was closed (and, in 1943, decommissioned
Greenfield status
Greenfield status is a term used to describe an end point wherein a parcel of land that had been in industrial use is, in principle, restored to the conditions existing before the construction of the plant...
) and Capital Transit used only conventionally-supplied electric power. In 1935, it closed several lines and replaced them with bus service. Because the Rockville line in Maryland was one of the lines that was closed, the Capital Transit Community Terminal was opened at Wisconsin Avenue NW and Western Avenue NW on August 4, 1935. At the same time, the car barn on the west side of Wisconsin at Ingomar was razed and replaced with the Western Bus Garage. In 1936, the system introduced route numbers. On August 28, 1937 the first PCC streetcars began running on 14th Street NW. By early 1946, the company would place in service 489 of the streamlined, modern PCC model and, in the early 1950s, become the first in the nation to have an all-PCC fleet. (Here's a General Electric ad about PCC cars in Washington.)
During the 1930s, city newspapers began pushing for streetcar tunneling. The Capitol Subway was built in 1906 and three years later, the Washington Post called for a citywide subway to be built. Nothing happened until Capital Transit took over. The full $35 million plan to depress streets as trenches for exclusive streetcar use never materialized, but in 1942 an underground loop terminal was built at 14th and C Streets SW under the Bureau of Engraving and on December 14, 1949, the Connecticut Avenue subway tunnel
Tunnel
A tunnel is an underground passageway, completely enclosed except for openings for egress, commonly at each end.A tunnel may be for foot or vehicular road traffic, for rail traffic, or for a canal. Some tunnels are aqueducts to supply water for consumption or for hydroelectric stations or are sewers...
under Dupont Circle
Dupont Circle
Dupont Circle is a traffic circle, park, neighborhood, and historic district in Northwest Washington, D.C. The traffic circle is located at the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue NW, Connecticut Avenue NW, New Hampshire Avenue NW, P Street NW, and 19th Street NW...
, running from N Street to R Street, was opened.
At first, business was good for the new company. During World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, gasoline rationing
Rationing
Rationing is the controlled distribution of scarce resources, goods, or services. Rationing controls the size of the ration, one's allotted portion of the resources being distributed on a particular day or at a particular time.- In economics :...
limited automobile use, but transit companies were exempt from the rationing. Meanwhile, wage freezes
Incomes policy
Incomes policies in economics are economy-wide wage and price controls, most commonly instituted as a response to inflation, and usually below market level.Incomes policies have often been resorted to during wartime...
held labor
Wage labour
Wage labour is the socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer, where the worker sells their labour under a formal or informal employment contract. These transactions usually occur in a labour market where wages are market determined...
costs in check. With increased revenue
Revenue
In business, revenue is income that a company receives from its normal business activities, usually from the sale of goods and services to customers. In many countries, such as the United Kingdom, revenue is referred to as turnover....
and steady costs, Capital Transit conservatively built up a $7 million cash reserve. In 1945 Capital Transit had America’s 3rd largest streetcar fleet. (A map of the system in 1948)
In 1946, a decision by the United States Supreme Court in North American Company v. Security and Exchange Commission, the Supreme Court upheld the Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935
Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935
The Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935 , , also known as the Wheeler-Rayburn Act, was a law that was passed by the United States Congress to facilitate regulation of electric utilities, by either limiting their operations to a single state, and thus subjecting them to effective state...
and forced the North American Company, because it also owned the Potomac Electric Power Company
Potomac Electric Power Company
The Potomac Electric Power Company, known as Pepco, is a public utility supplying electric power to the city of Washington, D.C., and to surrounding communities in Maryland...
, to sell its shares of Capital Transit. Buyers were hard to come by, but on September 12, 1949, Louis Wolfson
Louis Wolfson
Louis Elwood Wolfson was a Wall Street financier and one of the first modern corporate raiders, labeled by Time Magazine as such in a 1956 article...
and his three brothers purchased from North American 46.5% of the company's stock for $20 per share and the Washington Railway was dissolved. For $2.2 million they bought a company with $7 million in cash. The Wolfson's began paying themselves huge dividend
Dividend
Dividends are payments made by a corporation to its shareholder members. It is the portion of corporate profits paid out to stockholders. When a corporation earns a profit or surplus, that money can be put to two uses: it can either be re-invested in the business , or it can be distributed to...
s until, in 1955, the war chest
War chest
In arms and armor, a war chest is a container for the personal weapons and protective gear of a citizen-soldier, kept in the household, and is the origin of the term.-In politics:...
was down to $2.7 million. During the same period, transit trips dropped by 40,000 trips per day and automobile ownership doubled.
On December 29, 1954, Capital Transit lost one of its last freight customers when the East Washington Railway took over the delivery of coal
Coal
Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock usually occurring in rock strata in layers or veins called coal beds or coal seams. The harder forms, such as anthracite coal, can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure...
from the B&O to the PEPCO
Potomac Electric Power Company
The Potomac Electric Power Company, known as Pepco, is a public utility supplying electric power to the city of Washington, D.C., and to surrounding communities in Maryland...
Power plant at Benning
Benning, Washington, D.C.
Benning is a residential neighborhood located in Northeast Washington, D.C. It is bounded by East Capitol Street to the south, Minnesota Avenue to the west, and Benning Road on the north and east...
. Previously this had been done using Capital Transit's steeple-cab electric locomotives operating over a remnant of the Benning car line.
DC Transit
Fare
A fare is the fee paid by a passenger allowing him or her to make use of a public transport system: rail, bus, taxi, etc. In the case of air transport, the term airfare is often used.-Uses:...
increase, but was denied. So that spring, when employees asked for a raise, there was no money available and the company refused to increase pay
Salary
A salary is a form of periodic payment from an employer to an employee, which may be specified in an employment contract. It is contrasted with piece wages, where each job, hour or other unit is paid separately, rather than on a periodic basis....
. Frustrated, employees went on strike on July 1, 1955. The strike, only the third in D.C. history and the first since a three day strike in 1945, lasted for seven weeks. Commuters were forced to hitch
Hitchhiking
Hitchhiking is a means of transportation that is gained by asking people, usually strangers, for a ride in their automobile or other road vehicle to travel a distance that may either be short or long...
rides and walk in the brutal summer heat.
On July 18, 1956, after Wolfson dared the Senate
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...
to revoke his franchise
Exclusive right
In Anglo-Saxon law, an exclusive right is a de facto, non-tangible prerogative existing in law to perform an action or acquire a benefit and to permit or deny others the right to perform the same action or to acquire the same benefit. A "prerogative" is in effect an exclusive right...
claiming no other entrepreneur would take the company on, the Congress did just that. Months later, the franchise was sold to O. Roy Chalk
O. Roy Chalk
Oscar Roy Chalk was a New York entrepreneur who owned real estate, airlines, bus companies, newspapers and a rail line that hauled bananas in Central America...
, a New York financier
Financier
Financier is a term for a person who handles typically large sums of money, usually involving money lending, financing projects, large-scale investing, or large-scale money management. The term is French, and derives from finance or payment...
who owned controlling interest in Trans Caribbean Airways
Trans Caribbean Airways
Trans Caribbean Airways is a former airline owned by O. Roy Chalk. Its hub was San Juan, Puerto Rico. Founded in 1945, it was acquired by American Airlines in 1971. Its headquarters was located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City....
, for $13.5 million. The company's name was then changed to DC Transit.
Abandonment
As part of the deal selling Capital Transit to O. Roy Chalk, he was required to replace the system with busesBustitution
The word bustitution is a neologism sometimes used to describe the practice of replacing a passenger train service with a bus service either on a temporary or permanent basis. The word is a portmanteau of the words "bus" and "substitution"...
by 1963. Chalk fought the retirement of the streetcars but was unsuccessful, and the final abandonment of the streetcar system began on September 7, 1958 with the end of the North Capitol Street (Route 80) and Maryland (Route 82) lines. On January 3, 1960, the Glen Echo (Route 20), Friendship Heights (Route 30) & Georgia Avenue (Routes 70, 72, 74) streetcar lines were abandoned and the Southern Division (Maine Avenue) Car Barn was closed. This technically ended "trolley" cars in D.C. as only conduit operations remained. On December 3, 1961 the streetcar lines to Mount Pleasant
Mount Pleasant, Washington, D.C.
Mount Pleasant is a neighborhood in the northwestern quadrant of Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States. The neighborhood is bounded by Rock Creek Park to the north and west; and Harvard Street, NW and the Adams Morgan neighborhood to the south; and Sixteenth Street, NW and the Columbia...
(Routes 40, 42) and 11th Street (Route 60) were abandoned.
The remaining system, including lines to the Navy Yard, the Colorado Avenue terminal, and the Bureau of Engraving
Bureau of Engraving and Printing
The Bureau of Engraving and Printing is a government agency within the United States Department of the Treasury that designs and produces a variety of security products for the United States government, most notable of which is paper currency for the Federal Reserve. The Federal Reserve itself is...
(Routes 50, 54) and to the Calvert Street Loop, Barney Circle, and Union Station (Routes 90, 92) was shut down in January 1962. Early on the morning of Sunday, January 28, 1962, preceded by cars 1101 and 1053, car 766 entered the Navy Yard Car Barn for the last time, and Washington's streetcars became history.
Streetcars
Barcelona
Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...
where they were in service into the 1970s; 200 more were sold to Sarajevo
Sarajevo
Sarajevo |Bosnia]], surrounded by the Dinaric Alps and situated along the Miljacka River in the heart of Southeastern Europe and the Balkans....
where they ran until the civil war
Yugoslav wars
The Yugoslav Wars were a series of wars, fought throughout the former Yugoslavia between 1991 and 1995. The wars were complex: characterized by bitter ethnic conflicts among the peoples of the former Yugoslavia, mostly between Serbs on the one side and Croats and Bosniaks on the other; but also...
; and 15 more went to Fort Worth, TX for use on the Tandy Center Subway until it shut down in 2002.
About 20 streetcars remain of the hundreds that once plied the streets of Washington.
Only one, Capital Transit 1551, is still in daily transit use. One of the 15 sold to Fort Worth, it was repainted and transferred to the McKinney Avenue Transit Authority
McKinney Avenue Transit Authority
The McKinney Avenue Transit Authority , a non-profit organization, operates the M-line Streetcar line in Dallas, Texas . The offices and car barn are located at 3153 Oak Grove, Dallas, TX 75204. It is an example of a heritage streetcar running historic cars...
in 2002 where it provides part-time regular streetcar service along the streets of Dallas.
One other car remains in intermittant use: a Capital Transit PCC car sold to Sarajevo that has been restored and operates in charter service in Sarajevo.
Others serve as museum pieces. The only Washington streetcar still in the District is Capital Traction 303 which serves as an exhibit in the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History
National Museum of American History
The National Museum of American History: Kenneth E. Behring Center collects, preserves and displays the heritage of the United States in the areas of social, political, cultural, scientific and military history. Among the items on display are the original Star-Spangled Banner and Archie Bunker's...
. Washington and Georgetown 212 is also preserved by the Smithsonian, but stored in the Smithsonian's facility in Suitland, Maryland. Seven more, including D.C. Transit 1101 and 1540, Capital Transit 509, 522, 766 and 1430, and Washington Railway 650, are preserved at the National Capital Trolley Museum
National Capital Trolley Museum
The National Capital Trolley Museum is a non-profit organization that operates historic trolleys for the public on a regular schedule. It is located at 1313 Bonifant Road,Colesville, Maryland USA.-History:...
in the Washington suburbs. Three other cars owned by the Trolley Museum were destroyed in a fire on September 28, 2003. Farther from D.C., D.C. Transit 1470 is kept at the Virginia Museum of Transportation
Virginia Museum of Transportation
The Virginia Museum of Transportation is a museum devoted to the topic of transportation located in Downtown Roanoke, Virginia, U.S.A..- History :...
in Roanoke, Virginia
Roanoke, Virginia
Roanoke is an independent city in the Mid-Atlantic U.S. state of Virginia and is the tenth-largest city in the Commonwealth. It is located in the Roanoke Valley of the Roanoke Region of Virginia. The population within the city limits was 97,032 as of 2010...
, Capital Transit 09 is at Rockhill Trolley Museum
Rockhill Trolley Museum
The Rockhill Trolley Museum is located at 430 Meadow Street, Rockhill Furnace, Pennsylvania, north of the Pennsylvania Turnpike and south of US 22, the William Penn Highway....
in Rockhill Furnace, Pennsylvania
Rockhill Furnace, Pennsylvania
Rockhill is a borough in Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 414 at the 2000 census. It is the site of the East Broad Top Railroad....
, Capital Transit 010 is maintained at the Connecticut Trolley Museum
Connecticut Trolley Museum
Founded in 1940, the Connecticut Trolley Museum is the oldest incorporated museum dedicated to electric railroading in the United States.The museum is located in East Windsor, Connecticut, and is open to the public most of the year, featuring static displays and self-guided tours of the state's...
and D.C. Transit 1304 is kept at the Seashore Trolley Museum
Seashore Trolley Museum
The Seashore Trolley Museum, located in Kennebunkport, Maine, United States, is the world's oldest and largest museum of mass transit vehicles....
in Kennebunkport, Maine
Kennebunkport, Maine
Kennebunkport is a town in York County, Maine, United States. The population was 3,720 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Portland–South Portland–Biddeford metropolitan statistical area....
. Three of the Ft. Worth cars are held in storage by North Texas Historic Transportation with plans to place them in a yet-to-be-built museum. Finally, two of the Barcelona cars are privately owned and stored in Madrid, Spain, and Ejea de los Caballeros
Ejea de los Caballeros
Ejea de los Caballeros is a town and municipality in the province of Zaragoza, part of the autonomous community of Aragon, Spain. It is one of the five main towns in the Comarca de las Cinco Villas...
, Spain, and another two are in the Museu del Transport in Castellar de n'Hug
Castellar de n'Hug
Castellar de n'Hug is a municipality in the comarca of the Berguedà inCatalonia. It is situated on the southern slopes of the pyrenean range of the Creueta. TheLlobregat river has its source on the territory of the municipality...
, Spain (Photo of one).
Tracks
Elsewhere, the track was buried under pavement. The loop tracks of the former Capitol Transit connection, behind the closed restaurant on Calvert Street NW, immediately east of the Duke Ellington Bridge
Duke Ellington Bridge
The Duke Ellington Bridge, named after Duke Ellington, carries Calvert Street NW over Rock Creek in Washington, D.C., United States. It connects 18th Street NW in Adams Morgan with Connecticut Avenue NW in Woodley Park, just north of the Taft Bridge....
, are extant under asphalt. The tracks on Florida Avenue also exist under pavement (as shown by the eternal seam above the conduit). Tracks also exist under Ellington Place NE, 3rd Street NE, 8th Street SE, and elsewhere.
The region's only remaining visible tracks and conduit are in the center of the cobblestone
Cobblestone
Cobblestones are stones that were frequently used in the pavement of early streets. "Cobblestone" is derived from the very old English word "cob", which had a wide range of meanings, one of which was "rounded lump" with overtones of large size...
3400 through 3800 blocks of P Street NW and O Street NW in Georgetown.
Car barns and shops
Some car barns, or car houses as they were later known, survived in part or in whole.- The Washington and Georgetown Car Barn (later known as the M Street Shops) at 3222 M Street NW, which had served as stables for Gilbert VanderwerkenGilbert VanderwerkenGilbert Vanderwerken , originally from Albany, New York, was most notably recognized for introducing the omnibus, an urban version of the stagecoach, in Newark, New Jersey, in 1826.-Biography:...
's omnibusBusA bus is a road vehicle designed to carry passengers. Buses can have a capacity as high as 300 passengers. The most common type of bus is the single-decker bus, with larger loads carried by double-decker buses and articulated buses, and smaller loads carried by midibuses and minibuses; coaches are...
line, a streetcar garage and maintenance shop and as a tobacco warehouse, was turned into a mall known as The Shops at Georgetown Park in 1981. Only the facadeFacadeA facade or façade is generally one exterior side of a building, usually, but not always, the front. The word comes from the French language, literally meaning "frontage" or "face"....
of the original car barn remains.
- The Washington and Georgetown Railroad Company Car Barn at 1346 Florida Avenue NW, originally built in 1877 and sold in 1892, is known today as the west building of the Manhattan Laundry. It serves as home to the Booker T. Washington Public Charter School.
- The original Eckington Car Barn at 400 T Street NE burned down before 1920 and a new one was built to replace it. That building is now a postalUnited States Postal ServiceThe United States Postal Service is an independent agency of the United States government responsible for providing postal service in the United States...
vehicle maintenance facility.
- The Navy Yard Car Barn (officially the Washington and Georgetown Railroad Car House and colloquially "The Blue Castle") at 770 M Street SE is the sole surviving artifact of the cable car era. It served as a bus garageBus garageA bus garage or bus depot is a building where buses are stored and maintained. In many conurbations, bus garages are on the site of former car barns or tram sheds, where Streetcars or Trams were stored, and the operation transferred to buses...
and is now home to three charter schools: KEY Academy, Washington Math Science Technology Public Charter School, and the Eagle Academy. In 2005, it was purchased by a developer who hoped to turn it into retail space. In January 2008, it was sold to another developer who aims to turn it into mixed-use development when the current lease expires in 2012.
- The Georgetown Car Barn at 3600 M Street NW, with "Capital Traction Company" still written above the main door, now serves as classroom and administrative space for Georgetown UniversityGeorgetown UniversityGeorgetown University is a private, Jesuit, research university whose main campus is in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded in 1789, it is the oldest Catholic university in the United States...
. It includes the famous "Exorcist Steps" that connect Prospect Street NW to M Street NW. O. Roy Chalk owned the building until 1992 when the Minneapolis-based Lutheran BrotherhoodThrivent Financial for LutheransThrivent Financial for Lutherans is a Fortune 500 financial services organization with dual corporate headquarters based in Minneapolis, Minnesota and Appleton, Wisconsin...
took possession of the property in a foreclosure. Developer Douglas Jemal bought it in May 1997.
- The East Capitol Street Car Barn, at 1400 East Capitol StreetEast Capitol StreetEast Capitol Street is a major street that divides the northeast and southeast quadrants of Washington, D.C. It runs due east from the United States Capitol to the DC-Maryland border. The street is uninterrupted until Lincoln Park then continues eastward to Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium...
NE, was used as a bus barn from 1962–73 and then sat vacant until it was turned into condominiums.
- The Decatur Street Car Barn (a.k.a. the Capital Traction Company Car Barn or Northern Carhouse), at 4615 14th Street NW, was built in 1906 and is now used as a MetrobusMetrobus (Washington, D.C.)Metrobus is a bus service operated by the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority . Its fleet consists of 1,480 buses covering an area of in Washington, D.C., Maryland, and Virginia. There are over 300 bus routes serving 12,216 stops, including 2,398 bus shelters. In fiscal year 2009,...
barn. One of three designed by Waddy Wood, it is the only car barn still used for transit.
- The Brightwood Car House, at 5929 Georgia Avenue NW, was built sometime after 1890 when the tracks were laid, but before 1948. Curtis Chevrolet occupied the building for decades with a modified facade. Curtis Chevrolet closed on November 30, 2007, and the site will be redeveloped as a mixed-use development. The fate of the car barn is uncertain. The D.C. Historical Preservation Society has asked Foulger-Pratt to reuse, not destroy, the car house. In 2010, Walmart announced that they planned to build a store on the site, to open in 2012. Plans by Walmart to bring the entire structure down were approved and demolition began on September 6, 2011. The bricks are to be included in the Walmart building.
- Benning Car House, the red brick building at the northeast corner of Benning Road & Kenilworth Avenue on the grounds of the Benning Road PEPCO plant, was built in 1941 and went out of service with the conversion of this carline to buses on May 1, 1949. The building has been structurally modified and still stands.
Other car barns were demolished.
- The Anacostia and Potomac River Car Barn at Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue SE and V Street SE is gone.
- The Columbia Railway Car Barn in Trinidad served as a bus barn until it was demolished in 1971 and replaced with apartments.
- The Metropolitan Street Railway Car Barn (a.k.a. the Seventh Street-Wharves Barn) and the adjacent shops on 4th Street SW were torn down in 1962 to make room for the Riverside Condominiums.
- The Tenleytown Car Barn (a.k.a. Western Carhouse or Tennally Town Car Barn), the first car barn and powerhouse for the Tennallytown line, was built around 1897 at what is now the intersection of Wisconsin Avenue NW and Calvert Street NW. It was removed sometime before 1920 and replaced around 1935. This second structure was removed before 1958.
- The Capital Traction Company Powerhouse in Georgetown was torn down in 1968; the land it sat on is now part of the Georgetown Waterfront ParkGeorgetown Waterfront ParkThe Georgetown Waterfront Park is a new national park that is under construction in Washington, D.C. Part of the Georgetown Historic District, the park stretches along the banks of the Potomac River from 31st Street, NW to the Key Bridge. The result of many years of advocacy and fund raising, the...
.
- Falls Barn, near Georgetown University, was demolished between 1948 and 1958.
- A car barn was built in Mount Pleasant around 1892, but it was gone by 1948.
- A barn was built at 2411 P Street NW by the Metropolitan around 1870 and served as stables, a power house, car barn and repair shops. Much of the property was destroyed when Q Street was extended, but the remainder lasted until at least 1920.
Stations and loops
Dupont Circle
Dupont Circle is a traffic circle, park, neighborhood, and historic district in Northwest Washington, D.C. The traffic circle is located at the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue NW, Connecticut Avenue NW, New Hampshire Avenue NW, P Street NW, and 19th Street NW...
streetcar stations were used as a civil defense
Civil defense
Civil defense, civil defence or civil protection is an effort to protect the citizens of a state from military attack. It uses the principles of emergency operations: prevention, mitigation, preparation, response, or emergency evacuation, and recovery...
storage area for a few years and then left empty again. The space was once considered for a columbarium
Columbarium
A columbarium is a place for the respectful and usually public storage of cinerary urns . The term comes from the Latin columba and originally referred to compartmentalized housing for doves and pigeons .The Columbarium of Pomponius Hylas is a particularly fine ancient Roman example, rich in...
. In 1993 one of the stations was opened as a food court called DuPont Down Under, but after only 18 months it closed and the space has been vacant ever since. In 2007, D.C. Council member Jim Graham
Jim Graham
Jim Graham is a U.S. politician and a member of the Council of the District of Columbia. He is a Democrat representing Ward 1 - the most populated and diverse area in Washington, D.C....
began consideration of a suggestion to allow adult-themed clubs to move into the property.
The Colorado Avenue Terminal on 14th Street NW is still in use as a Metrobus stop and the Calvert Street loop just east of the Duke Ellington Bridge
Duke Ellington Bridge
The Duke Ellington Bridge, named after Duke Ellington, carries Calvert Street NW over Rock Creek in Washington, D.C., United States. It connects 18th Street NW in Adams Morgan with Connecticut Avenue NW in Woodley Park, just north of the Taft Bridge....
is still used as a Metrobus turnaround loop.
There was a streetcar station in the center of Barney Circle
Barney Circle, Washington, D.C.
Barney Circle is a small neighborhood located on the western bank of the Anacostia River in southeast Washington, D.C. The "circle" refers to the traffic circle that intersects Pennsylvania Avenue SE as it crosses the Anacostia...
but it was removed in the 1970s.
The streetcar turnaround at 11th and Monroe NW is now the 11th and Monroe Streets Park.
Tunnels
The Dupont CircleDupont Circle
Dupont Circle is a traffic circle, park, neighborhood, and historic district in Northwest Washington, D.C. The traffic circle is located at the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue NW, Connecticut Avenue NW, New Hampshire Avenue NW, P Street NW, and 19th Street NW...
streetcar station tunnel entrances, located where the tree-filled medians of Connecticut Avenue NW now stand north of N Street NW and between R Street NW and S Street NW, were filled in and paved over in August 1964, leaving only the traffic tunnel.
The C Street NW/NE tunnel beneath the Upper Senate Park remained in use as a one-way service road adjacent to the Capital, but since 9/11 it has been closed to the public.
The Bureau of Engraving and Printing
Bureau of Engraving and Printing
The Bureau of Engraving and Printing is a government agency within the United States Department of the Treasury that designs and produces a variety of security products for the United States government, most notable of which is paper currency for the Federal Reserve. The Federal Reserve itself is...
underground loop is now part of a parking structure and storage area that is located directly underneath 14th Street SW. Tracks can still be seen in the floors in some locations of the Bureau.
Right-of-way
Dalecarlia Reservoir
Dalecarlia Reservoir is the primary storage basin for drinking water in Washington, D.C., fed by an underground aqueduct in turn fed by low dams which divert portions of the Potomac River near Great Falls and Little Falls....
filtration plant. It includes an abutment near an entrance to Georgetown University
Georgetown University
Georgetown University is a private, Jesuit, research university whose main campus is in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded in 1789, it is the oldest Catholic university in the United States...
, a trestle
Trestle
A trestle is a rigid frame used as a support, especially referring to a bridge composed of a number of short spans supported by such frames. In the context of trestle bridges, each supporting frame is generally referred to as a bent...
over Foundry Branch in Glover Archibald Park, and the median of Sherier Place NW from Cathedral Avenue NW to Manning Place NW. Part of the right-of-way on the Georgetown campus was removed in the spring of 2007 to create a turning lane off of Canal Road NW. A trestle over Clark Place NW, adjacent to Canal Road, was also removed after the Cabin John line was abandoned.
The wide median of Pennsylvania Avenue SE from the Capitol to Barney Circle was built in 1903 to serve as a streetcar right of way. It now serves as urban greenspace.
Other remnants
Perhaps the most visible remnant of the streetcar system is the MetrobusMetrobus (Washington, D.C.)
Metrobus is a bus service operated by the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority . Its fleet consists of 1,480 buses covering an area of in Washington, D.C., Maryland, and Virginia. There are over 300 bus routes serving 12,216 stops, including 2,398 bus shelters. In fiscal year 2009,...
system, run by the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority
Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority
The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority is a tri-jurisdictional government agency that operates transit service in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area, including the Metrorail, Metrobus and MetroAccess...
(WMATA). On January 14, 1973, WMATA purchased DC Transit and the Washington, Virginia and Maryland Coach Company (followed on February 4 by the purchase of AB&W Transit Company and WMA Transit Company) unifying all the bus companies in D.C.
Still other remnants include the Potomac Electric Power Company
Potomac Electric Power Company
The Potomac Electric Power Company, known as Pepco, is a public utility supplying electric power to the city of Washington, D.C., and to surrounding communities in Maryland...
, the electric portion of Washington Traction and Electric Company, which remains the D.C. area's primary electrical power company; some streetcar-related manhole covers that remain in use around town; and two trolley poles for Capital Traction's overhead wires on the Connecticut Avenue Bridge over Klingle Valley
Connecticut Avenue Bridge over Klingle Valley
The Connecticut Avenue Bridge over Klingle Valley, more commonly known as the Klingle Valley Bridge, is an Art Deco concrete bridge located near the Smithsonian National Zoological Park on Connecticut Avenue, Northwest in Washington, D.C...
in Cleveland Park
Cleveland Park
Cleveland Park is a residential neighborhood in the Northwest quadrant of Washington, D.C.It is located at and bounded approximately by Rock Creek Park to the east, Wisconsin and Idaho Avenues to the west, Klingle and Woodley Roads to the south, and Rodman and Tilden Streets to the north...
. The poles likely date back to the bridge's construction in 1931.
See also
- Washington MetroWashington MetroThe Washington Metro, commonly called Metro, and unofficially Metrorail, is the rapid transit system in Washington, D.C., United States, and its surrounding suburbs. It is administered by the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority , which also operates Metrobus service under the Metro name...
- Urban rail transitUrban rail transitUrban rail transit is an all-encompassing term for various types of local rail systems providing passenger service within and around urban or suburban areas...
- BustitutionBustitutionThe word bustitution is a neologism sometimes used to describe the practice of replacing a passenger train service with a bus service either on a temporary or permanent basis. The word is a portmanteau of the words "bus" and "substitution"...
- Trolley parkTrolley parkIn the United States, trolley parks, which started in the 19th century, were picnic and recreation areas along or at the ends of streetcar lines in most of the larger cities. These were precursors to amusement parks. These trolley parks were created by the streetcar companies to give people a...
- National Capital Trolley MuseumNational Capital Trolley MuseumThe National Capital Trolley Museum is a non-profit organization that operates historic trolleys for the public on a regular schedule. It is located at 1313 Bonifant Road,Colesville, Maryland USA.-History:...
External links
- National Capital Trolley Museum
- Washington, D.C., Railroad History at the National Railway Historical Society
- Online exhibit of Washington streetcars from the National Museum of American HistoryNational Museum of American HistoryThe National Museum of American History: Kenneth E. Behring Center collects, preserves and displays the heritage of the United States in the areas of social, political, cultural, scientific and military history. Among the items on display are the original Star-Spangled Banner and Archie Bunker's...
- Article on the last days of D.C.'s streetcars
- Information on the underground conduit system
- Article about the history of the Georgetown Car Barn
- A Brief History of the Georgetown Branch of the Baltimore and Ohio RailroadBaltimore and Ohio RailroadThe Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was one of the oldest railroads in the United States and the first common carrier railroad. It came into being mostly because the city of Baltimore wanted to compete with the newly constructed Erie Canal and another canal being proposed by Pennsylvania, which...
. Contains information on Washington's streetcar system as well. - Article on the train tracks in Georgetown
- Restoration of WRECo Streetcar 650
- Caroling Streetcars
- Washington D.C. Streetcar Photographs by various photographers
- Washington D.C. Streetcar Photographs by various photographers
- Washington D.C. Streetcar Photographs by R. Hill
- Washington D.C. Streetcar Photographs from the Washington Post
- Photos of Streetcars on Barracks Row
- Washington D.C. Streetcar Photographs from the Smithsonian Collection
- Tenleytown Historical Society Transit page
- 1908 streetcar map
- 1900-35 map of the Rockville Line
- 1948 streetcar map
- 1958 streetcar map
