I grew up in the Bronx and well remember the Southern Blvd. trolley line whose run started "around the corner" from my apartment home. It was such fun! I loved watching the conductor walk up the aisle to flip the seats for the start of the reverse route! I am now 87 and still love trolley cars! Thanks for your essay!
Thank you! One of the cars we saw at the museum had the flippable seats. The one we rode had bench seats along the edges. They're very cool vehicles and (and the modern ones today they're a much softer ride too)!
I grew up in Northeast Ohio, hearing stories about the trolley line that once ran down the Main Street of my city (Euclid Ave). It started in Cleveland and ran all the way out to Painesville (about 30 miles). As a kid, our only option to get to Downtown Cleveland via public transit was to take our public bus line in Lake County to a shopping center at the border with Cuyahoga County, where you had to switch buses (and transit agencies) to a Downtown bus. It took more than 90 minutes. I always longed for the days of taking a trolley a few blocks or all the way into the city nonstop.
Exactly. So many places in America, including small cities and towns, had this infrastructure, and they had a level of connectivity that they really don't have today. Sure, the roads go there - but it doesn't feel the same. The roads go everywhere. In my mind, there's something about the trolley (and any comprehensible, reliable transit) that feels like it stitches places together. I really wonder how different my own region would feel if we still had that. We have Metro, but the old trolleys were finer grained than that.
I thought of your blog last year when walking the Gold Mine Spur at Great Falls NP, Maryland side. It was clearly an old small rail bed carved through hills and built up in the valleys. I thought it to do with the mine, but a ranger explained that it was not related to the mine, but was from the old electric trolley system that used to run in the area. Found this article which includes a photo of Glen Echo Park with a trolley in front. http://montgomeryhistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Vol17No2_MCStory.pdf?fbclid=IwAR3pH2DbwL-sRngdv3iTmS8CWa-unaXJB6991f1B1dGcW-zOKr8oDHpV3Fk
I grew up in the Bronx and well remember the Southern Blvd. trolley line whose run started "around the corner" from my apartment home. It was such fun! I loved watching the conductor walk up the aisle to flip the seats for the start of the reverse route! I am now 87 and still love trolley cars! Thanks for your essay!
Thank you! One of the cars we saw at the museum had the flippable seats. The one we rode had bench seats along the edges. They're very cool vehicles and (and the modern ones today they're a much softer ride too)!
I grew up in Northeast Ohio, hearing stories about the trolley line that once ran down the Main Street of my city (Euclid Ave). It started in Cleveland and ran all the way out to Painesville (about 30 miles). As a kid, our only option to get to Downtown Cleveland via public transit was to take our public bus line in Lake County to a shopping center at the border with Cuyahoga County, where you had to switch buses (and transit agencies) to a Downtown bus. It took more than 90 minutes. I always longed for the days of taking a trolley a few blocks or all the way into the city nonstop.
Exactly. So many places in America, including small cities and towns, had this infrastructure, and they had a level of connectivity that they really don't have today. Sure, the roads go there - but it doesn't feel the same. The roads go everywhere. In my mind, there's something about the trolley (and any comprehensible, reliable transit) that feels like it stitches places together. I really wonder how different my own region would feel if we still had that. We have Metro, but the old trolleys were finer grained than that.
Sorry for the late comment, but I'd be interested to know what book on DC trolleys it was that you took home from the museum. :-)
I thought of your blog last year when walking the Gold Mine Spur at Great Falls NP, Maryland side. It was clearly an old small rail bed carved through hills and built up in the valleys. I thought it to do with the mine, but a ranger explained that it was not related to the mine, but was from the old electric trolley system that used to run in the area. Found this article which includes a photo of Glen Echo Park with a trolley in front. http://montgomeryhistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Vol17No2_MCStory.pdf?fbclid=IwAR3pH2DbwL-sRngdv3iTmS8CWa-unaXJB6991f1B1dGcW-zOKr8oDHpV3Fk