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Washington, one of many American cities that built new electric streetcar systems, began converting from horse and cable cars in 1888. Trolley lines created the modern suburb and the commuter, and enabled people to live farther from their jobs in the commercial center of the city. In Washington, the streetcars were privately owned and run. Real estate developers built many lines to promote new neighborhoods. Washington's streetcar companies consolidated into two systems in 1902.
"Jim Crow"
Public transit was a battlefield in race relations, especially in southern cities where "Jim Crow" laws restricted African Americans' access to public transportation. In 1896, Homer Plessy sued to overturn a law that barred him from riding in a "whites only" railroad car. The Supreme Court upheld Louisiana's "separate but equal" accommodations, and other southern cities passed laws segregating transportation systems. While the District did not pass a streetcar Jim Crow law, unwritten social customs segregated blacks and whites on the streetcars and other public places.
Electric streetcar, 1898
The Capital Traction Company streetcar ran along 7th Street from the wharves at the Potomac River to Boundary Street (now known as Florida Avenue), which at the time was the edge of the City of Washington. Washington banned overhead wired, so streetcars used an underground electric conduit within the city and an aboveground wire outside city limits. |