My family came to d.c. after the Civil War. My grandfather was a 2nd generation streetcar operator. He told me a few gentlemen didn't make the switch to busses. Because they didn't have drivers license. that's amusing to think about. Washington DC has many interesting stories. Thanks John for the presentation 👍
32:19: This Georgetown car barn also served as a terminus for the Washington & Old Dominion Railroad, which served Northern Virginia, until the old aqueduct bridge was replaced(about 1917) with present day Key Bridge.
56:55. John, being a former D.C. area resident, remember that Connecticut Ave. had streetcar service south from the Chevy Chase Circle area south to near the Taft bridge, where the tracks turned east, about 18th Street NW, crossing the Duke Ellington bridge, over to Columbia Road in Adams-Morgan, where it would join the tracks going back to Connecticut Ave, just north of the Logan underpass. This line was discontinued in about 1960, when bus service took over.
Fifty years ago I worked with the former chief engineer of the DC streetcar system, he said that the primary problem in maintaining streetcar service was the district's desire to build the flyunder traffic circles we still see in the city. Rebuilding the streetcar lines in these circles costs over a million dollars, not much today, but a lot in the 1940s. Track for the DC lines was very expensive due to the underground electric wires that powered the cars (no trolley wire). Since the streetcar operation didn't have the funds to pay for the track replacement the line was replaced with bus operation. At that time so many cities were abandoning streetcar service that lots of used spare parts were available, so keeping the cars running was not an issue, keeping the track was. By the way, the modern streetcars are commonly known as PCC cars after the Presidents' Conference Committee that was a group established by the streetcar operators association to design a modern car. The design was owned by the association so any car builder could use that design although each seemed to make variations in it. Many builders in other countries also used that design or variations on it.
As a youngster I got to ride the DC streetcars during a trip there in the late 40s, before air conditioning. It was a HOT summer. It was my first exposure to the segregation at the time, I think that DC wasn't segregated but when the cars crossed over to VA all of the black passengers had to go to the rear of the car.
While observing a treadmill bus test of my company's diesel exhaust catalyst about 1969 at the Capital Transit garage, I asked my host why buses replaced street cars. He said it was politics. The busmaker (GM?) pushed for it, claiming that streetcars had fixed routes but bus routes were flexible. But, he said the bus routes just ended up following the same routes as the streetcars.
Yes - GM, along with oil and tire companies, spearheaded a movement to convince transit systems that buses were the "wave of the future". They even formed a company called National City Lines that either bought into or took over transit systems so they could replace rails with rubber tires. In the city where I grew up, NCL took over management in the mid-1950s. Within three years they'd converted more than half of the streetcar lines to buses (and yes, following the same routes) as well as completely abandoning other routes. To keep things in perspective, while a lot of people have claimed NCL was solely responsible for the destruction of streetcar systems around the US the trend to "bustification" had actually started back in the early 20th century. What NCL did was to act as the 800-lb gorilla, putting big corporate resources behind plans to exploit existing weaknesses. Arguably they accelerated both the deaths of weaker systems and the decline of stronger ones. You have to wonder what cities might be like if systems had hung on for maybe another decade or so, into the era when people started to realize the need for solid transit options.
The Connecticut av line was abandoned in 1935 1936. That would explain why the 14 and Colorado terminal looks like the conn av bus terminal being built at the same time 1937!
Too many urms, ahs and pauses. Difficult to listen too and follow. Should have written a script and read that. I gave up after 5 minutes on what sounded like a very interesting subject. Sadly.
First time I've seen this. Thanks for putting this together.
My family came to d.c. after the Civil War. My grandfather was a 2nd generation streetcar operator. He told me a few gentlemen didn't make the switch to busses. Because they didn't have drivers license. that's amusing to think about. Washington DC has many interesting stories. Thanks John for the presentation 👍
Great presentation. You don't often find such a deep dive into a single US streetcar system. Well done.
32:19: This Georgetown car barn also served as a terminus for the Washington & Old Dominion Railroad, which served Northern Virginia, until the old aqueduct bridge was replaced(about 1917) with present day Key Bridge.
56:55. John, being a former D.C. area resident, remember that Connecticut Ave. had streetcar service south from the Chevy Chase Circle area south to near the Taft bridge, where the tracks turned east, about 18th Street NW, crossing the Duke Ellington bridge, over to Columbia Road in Adams-Morgan, where it would join the tracks going back to Connecticut Ave, just north of the Logan underpass. This line was discontinued in about 1960, when bus service took over.
Fifty years ago I worked with the former chief engineer of the DC streetcar system, he said that the primary problem in maintaining streetcar service was the district's desire to build the flyunder traffic circles we still see in the city. Rebuilding the streetcar lines in these circles costs over a million dollars, not much today, but a lot in the 1940s. Track for the DC lines was very expensive due to the underground electric wires that powered the cars (no trolley wire). Since the streetcar operation didn't have the funds to pay for the track replacement the line was replaced with bus operation. At that time so many cities were abandoning streetcar service that lots of used spare parts were available, so keeping the cars running was not an issue, keeping the track was. By the way, the modern streetcars are commonly known as PCC cars after the Presidents' Conference Committee that was a group established by the streetcar operators association to design a modern car. The design was owned by the association so any car builder could use that design although each seemed to make variations in it. Many builders in other countries also used that design or variations on it.
As a youngster I got to ride the DC streetcars during a trip there in the late 40s, before air conditioning. It was a HOT summer. It was my first exposure to the segregation at the time, I think that DC wasn't segregated but when the cars crossed over to VA all of the black passengers had to go to the rear of the car.
While observing a treadmill bus test of my company's diesel exhaust catalyst about 1969 at the Capital Transit garage, I asked my host why buses replaced street cars. He said it was politics. The busmaker (GM?) pushed for it, claiming that streetcars had fixed routes but bus routes were flexible. But, he said the bus routes just ended up following the same routes as the streetcars.
Yes - GM, along with oil and tire companies, spearheaded a movement to convince transit systems that buses were the "wave of the future". They even formed a company called National City Lines that either bought into or took over transit systems so they could replace rails with rubber tires. In the city where I grew up, NCL took over management in the mid-1950s. Within three years they'd converted more than half of the streetcar lines to buses (and yes, following the same routes) as well as completely abandoning other routes.
To keep things in perspective, while a lot of people have claimed NCL was solely responsible for the destruction of streetcar systems around the US the trend to "bustification" had actually started back in the early 20th century. What NCL did was to act as the 800-lb gorilla, putting big corporate resources behind plans to exploit existing weaknesses.
Arguably they accelerated both the deaths of weaker systems and the decline of stronger ones. You have to wonder what cities might be like if systems had hung on for maybe another decade or so, into the era when people started to realize the need for solid transit options.
I rode on these same PCC cars in Barcelona in 1967
You can't kill a good streetcar, even the bad ones put up a fight (example the Boston Boeing cars).
Interesting video but why was there no mention of the newest streetcar system that was built a few years ago?
Or the Metro, which likewise rose from the ashes of this once proud system...
My dad remembers the streetcars when he first came to Washington in 1959.
Heck, I remember them from when we moved to DC in 1957. I took a street car to Western High for 2 years until they shifted to busses.
8
This was hard to watch with the constant stream of "uh" and "uhm". Please work on your delivery.
If I'm not mistaken did not the museum have a major fire a few years ago and all the rolling stock was a complete loss ??
The Connecticut av line was abandoned in 1935 1936. That would explain why the 14 and Colorado terminal looks like the conn av bus terminal being built at the same time 1937!
How about the terminal at Western and Wisconsin?
Sorry. Got half way through and finally gave up. Too much "uh" and "uhm".
Too many urms, ahs and pauses. Difficult to listen too and follow. Should have written a script and read that. I gave up after 5 minutes on what sounded like a very interesting subject. Sadly.