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This article refers to the streetcars that existed in Washington prior to 1962. For information on the proposed new streetcar lines, see Washington Metro.

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15th Street in the early 20th century

For just under 100 years, between 1862 and 1962, Washington, D.C. streetcars transported people across the city and region. The first streetcars in 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. A number of the District's streetcar lines were extended into Maryland, and two Virginia lines crossed into the District. For a brief time the city also experimented with cable cars, but by the beginning of the 20th century, the streetcar system was fully electrified. At the turn of the century, the "Great Streetcar Consolidation" resulted in extensive mergers leaving 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 buses. 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. Car barns, trackage, stations and right-of way of the system still exists in various states of usage.

History

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 operation from Bridge and High Streets (now Wisconsin and M Street) in Georgetown by way of M Street and Pennsylvania Avenue to William Tunnicliff's Tavern at the site now occupied by the Supreme Court Building. They ran twice a day, but service ended soon after it began.

Not until the spring of 1830, was another attempt made at public transit. Gilbert Vanderwerken's Omnibuses, horse-drawn wagons, began running from Georgetown to the Navy Yard. The company maintained stables on M Street. These lines were later extended down 11th St SE to the waterfront and up 7th to L St. Other omnibus lines were added under different companies, 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 Gilbert Vanderwerken and continued to operate until they were run out of business by the new technology - streetcars.

Horse Drawn Streetcars

Washington and Georgetown

Horsecars on Pennsylvania Avenue

Streetcars began operation in New York City along the Bowery in 1832 and in 1835 in New Orleans, but the technology did not really become popular until 1852, when a French engineer working in New York, Alphonse Loubat, invented a side-bearing rail that could be laid flush with the street surface, allowing the first independent horse-drawn streetcar lines. The technology began to spread and as early as 1858 an effort was made by New York City businessmen to open a streetcar in Washington, D.C. Despite this, it was not until May 17, 1862 that the first streetcar company, the Washington and Georgetown Railroad Company was incorporated. It was authorized to build three street horsecar lines using the standard track gauge of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad.

The first streetcar ran from the Navy Yard to Georgetown on Pennsylvania Avenue. It began full operation on October 2, 1862, but partial operations from the Capitol to the State Department began on July 29, 1862. Another line, opened on November 15, 1862, was built along 7th Street 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 from Boundary Street to the Treasury Building. In 1863 the 7th Street line was extended north to Boundary Street (now Florida Avenue). The stables owned by the omnibus line were eventually purchased by the Washington & Georgetown line to be used as a car barn and, much later, as machine shops.

When the Washington and Georgetown opened, the owners planned for it to be a segregated system, but users ignored the signs designating which race was allowed. When the Metropolitan opened, it was forbidden from using segregated cars and on March 3, 1865 the practice was outlawed district-wide. Even after Plessy v. Ferguson made segregation on public transit legal, the system in Washington was never segregated again.

In 1877, the company built a car barn at 13th and Florida. From 1877-92, the company expanded the facility several times, adding a blacksmith shop in 1878.

Metropolitan

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Washington & Georgetown Horsecar crossing Rock Creek on the M Street Bridge

The Washington and Georgetown's monopoly didn't last long as on July 1, 1864 a second streetcar company, the Metropolitan Railroad Company, was incorporated. It opened lines from the Capitol to the War Department at 14th and I NW and along H Street from Massachusetts Avenue to 17th Street NW. When it started, it used two-horse cars, but in 1865 it switched to smaller cars pulled by one horse. In 1872, it began operations on a 9th Street line with a terminus on M Street NW. By 1888 it had built additional lines down 4th Street to P Street SW, into Georgetown on O and P Streets NW and on East Capitol Street to 9th Street.

The Metropolitan continued to expand by acquiring other companies. The first of these was the Connecticut Avenue and Park Railway which was chartered on July 13, 1868. This line started at the terminus of the Metropolitan Railroad Company at 17th and H Streets and ran north up Connecticut Avenue to Boundary Street. The streetcar line did not continue up Connecticut Avenue from this point as the grade was too steep for the horse-drawn cars. Operation of this line began in April 1873. It continued to be operated by the Connecticut Avenue and Park Railway Company until June 1874 when it was absorbed by the Metropolitan Railroad Company. Though tracks were laid on Connecticut north of P Street, cars did not run on this portion until 1883 when local residents petitioned Metropolitan to begin a shuttle service.

On January 19, 1872, both the Boundary and Silver Spring Railway Company and the Union Railroad Company were chartered. The Boundary and Silver Spring was to run a streetcar from Boundary Street to the Maryland-DC boundary along the Washington city and Rockville Turnpike (now Georgia Avenue). The Union was to lay track from the Treasury Department at 15th and New York Avenue to Georgetown across the P Street Bridge and then on various streets in Georgetown. Both were promptly absorbed by the Metropolitan Railroad. The Boundary and Silver Spring was purchased by 1873, when the Metropolitan began running cars along Georgia Avenue all the way to Rock Creek Church Road. The line was non profitable and the Metropolitan sold it in 1890. The Union was absorbed in 1872.

Columbia

Chartered by Congress on May 24, 1870 and beginning operations the same year, the Columbia Railway Company was the city’s third horse car operator. Its route began at 15th Street and New York Avenue NW, where it intersected the Washington and Georgetown line, and continued east on New York to K Street NW (at that time the location of the Northern Liberties Market, Now Mt.Vernon Square). From K, it went south on Massachusetts Avenue NW to H Street, NW and all the way across H to the city boundary at 15th Street NE, a round trip distance of five miles. The line began as a single track with turnouts for cars to pass, but a double track was added by 1872. 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. By 1883, the company was running 15 cars, each making 11 trips daily. There were 52 horses in the stable and 34 employees. The Columbia originally ran one-man one horse cars called "bobtails" but these were so unpopular that it led to a rider's strike. As a result, Congress banned the short cars in 1892.

Anacostia and Potomac River

The first company to serve Anacostia was chartered on May 5, 1870 and was given approval by Congress on February 18, 1875. The streetcar line was constructed in 1875 across the Anacostia River by the Anacostia and Potomac River Railroad Company. The streetcars traveled from the Arsenal, along M and 11th streets, and crossed the Navy Yard Bridge to Uniontown (now Historic Anacostia). The route then led down Nichols Avenue (now Martin Luther King Avenue) to V Street SE where a car barn and stables were maintained by the company. On August 1, 1888 the Anacostia and Potomac River was permitted to expand from the Navy Yard to Congressional Cemetery and past Garfield Park to the Center Market in downtown, both of which it did later that year. It was also permitted to expand in Anacostia past the Government Hospital for the Insane to the District line.

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 Railway Company. It was incorporated on March 3, 1875 and began operation later that year. It's circular route went from the Capitol along 1st Street West, south of the Mall on Maryland and Virginia Avenues, north on 12th, the old Ohio Avenue (now obliterated by Federal Triangle) and 14th Street to O NW and then south on 4th, G and 1st streets NW. A P Street track was added in 1876 for westbound cars, leaving O Street for eastbound traffic. In 1881, the route was extended North on 11th to Boundary, south on 11th and Water to the Arsenal and tracks were rerouted across the Mall. It changed its name to the Belt Railway Company on February 18, 1893.

Map of the Washington, D.C. Streetcar System at the end of the Horse Car era in 1888

Herdic Phaeton Company

The development and improvement of streetcars was partly the result of competition from horse-drawn chariots. Starting on March 5, 1877 the date of President Hayes' inauguration, these single horse carriages began running on a route roughly parallel to the Washington and Georgetown's Pennsylvania Avenue route. They were slower but cheaper. To compete, the W&G ran one horse streetcars at a discounted fare. After three years, the chariots were forced out of business. This was followed almost immediately by the Herdic Phaeton Company which ran a plushly upholstered carriages along an expanded route. The company was more successful than the chariot company and continued to expand until 1887. The electric streetcar was too much competition for the company and when it's principal stockholder died in 1896 it ceased operations. Photo of a Herdic Omnibus and gingerbread waiting station at Lafayette Square in 1891.

After the Herdic Company went under, the Metropolitan Coach Company began running horse-drawn coaches in conjunction with the Metropolitan Railroad. It began carrying passengers from 16th and T to 22nd and G NW, but the route changed later running from 16th an U to the Treasury Building and then along Pennsylvania Avenue to 9th Street NW. It began operations on May 1, 1897 with a car barn at 1914 E Street NW. In 1904 it became its own corporation.

The Switch to Electric Power

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 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 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; they were called trolley cars.

New Electric Streetcar Companies

Eckington and Soldiers' Home

Opening day, Eckington & Soldiers’ Home Railway at the terminus of the line at Seventh Street and New York Avenue, NW

By 1888, Washington was expanding north of Boundary Street 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 too difficult for horses, but electric streetcars could do it. So, 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 of that year. Its tracks started at Seventh Street and New York Avenue, NW, east of Mount Vernon Square and traveled a distance of 2 ½ miles to the Eckington Car barn at 4th and T NE via Boundary Street, Eckington Place, R, 3rd and T Streets. Another line ran up 4th Street to Michigan Avenue. A one-week pass cost $1.25. In 1889, the line was extended along T, 2nd and V Streets to Glenwood Cemetery, but the extension proved unprofitable and was closed in 1894. At the same time an extension was built along Michigan Avenue 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 substituted horse power in the central city. In 1896 Congress directed the Eckington and Soldier's Home to try out compressed air motors and, if unsuccessful, 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.

Rock Creek

Four days after the Eckington and Soldiers' Home was chartered, the Rock Creek Railway was incorporated by Francis Griffith Newlands on June 23, 1888. Service began in 1890 and was extended to Washington Heights in September 1892. The route ran north on Florida Avenue from Connecticut Avenue, north along 18th Street and crossed the Rock Creek Valley on what was later Calvert Street (then Cincinnati Street). The iron bridge across Rock Creek at Calvert Street was built by the company and construction completed on July 21, 1891. At this point, the streetcar continued northward on Connecticut Avenue to Chevy Chase Lake, Maryland. The following year, the line was extended east along U Street through Cardoza/Shaw to 7th Street, intersecting with several downtown lines and making the Washington Heights neighborhood more readily accessible from downtown. This track was removed in 1899. In 1896, the Rock Creek (then part of Capitol Traction) experimented on U Street NW between 9th and 18th with a new power system. The Love system transmitted electricity through a set of trolley wheels running on underground conduit rails instead of through the sliding shoe used elsewhere. While the system worked it was more expensive to install. In the spring of 1899 it was replaced with the sliding shoe and the line continued to the Calvert Street Loop.

Georgetown and Tennallytown

The third electric streetcar company to incorporate, the Georgetown and Tennallytown Railway Company was chartered on August 22, 1888. In 1890, the railway started operations connecting Georgetown to the extant village of Tennallytown. The line traveled the length of the Georgetown and Rockville Road (now Wisconsin Avenue), 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 Company 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 line. By 1900, the tracks had extended to Rockville. Map of the Rockville line [1].

Washington and Great Falls - Maryland and Washington

Two more companies stretching into Maryland were incorporated by Acts of Congress in the summer of 1892. The Washington and Great Falls Electric Company 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 Company was approved a few days later on August 1, 1892. In ran on Rhode Island Avenue 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.

Capital Railway

The first electric streetcar to operate in Anacostia was the Capital Railway Company. 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. A second line would run along Good Hope Road to the District Line. The line was built during the Panic of 1896 despite 18 months of opposition from the Anacostia and Potomac. In 1897 it experimented with the "Brown System", which used magnets 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 (now Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue) to Congress Heights, ending at Upsal Street. At the same time the Capital Railway was incorporated, the Washington and Marlboro Electric Railway was chartered to run trains across the Anacostia through SE Anacostia to the District Line at Suitland Road and from there to Upper Marlboro, but it never laid any track.

Baltimore and Washington

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 to a connection with the Brightwood, eventually running on 3rd Street NW, Kennedy Street and Colorado Avenue. In 1897, it began construction on a line, known locally as the Dinky Line, that began at 4th and Butternut Streets, NE, traveled south on 4th to Aspen Street and then east on Laurel Street into Maryland. On March 14, 1914, it changed its name to the Washington and Maryland Railway Company.

East Washington Heights

The East Washington Heights Traction Railroad Company was incorporated on June 18, 1898. It ran from the Capitol along Pennsylvania Avenue across the bridge to Randle Highlands (now known as Twining).

Washington, Spa Spring and Gretta

The last new streetcar company to form was the Washington, Spa Spring and Gretta Railroad Company. It was chartered by the state of Maryland on February 13, 1905 and authorized to enter the district on February 18, 1907. In 1910, it began running cars along a single track from a modest waiting station and car barn near 15th and H along Bladensburg Road to Bladensburg. [On July 5, 1892 the District of Columbia Suburban Railway was incorporated to run streetcars along the same route - on Bladensburg Road from the Columbia tracks on H Street to the Maryland line and from Brookland to Florida Avenue, 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. The route was planned to promote development of land owned by the company adjacent to the tracks, but it never successfully competed with established rail lines in the same area. Noting it's diminished ambitions, it became the Washington Interurban Railway Company 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 horse 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.

Washington and Georgetown

Immediately after the March 2, 1889 law was passed, the Washington and Georgetown began installing an underground cable system. Their 7th Street line was operating as a cable car system by April 12, 1890. Sixteen cars traveled on the route at 6 mph at three minute intervals, from 5am to 1am daily. The rest of the system was in operation by August 18, 1892. Two cables pulled the cars up and down Pennsylvania Avenue between the Navy Yard and Georgetown. The company built five new facilities to handle the cable car operations. In 1892, they extended their track along 14th to Mount Pleasant Ave (now Park Street) and built a new barn there. They moved the cars from the barn at 13th and Florida to the new one and sold the older facility which was converted into a printing plant. In 1893 the company built the Navy Yard Car Barn (now known as the Blue Castle) across from the Navy Yard to service the new cars. The company built two powerhouses to provide energy for the system, one at 14th and E Streets NW and the other at 7th and P Streets SW. In the middle of the intersection of 14th and Pennsylvania a large wheel pit was constructed. In addition the company was authorized, on August 23, 1894, to extend its line on M Street to the Aqueduct Bridge, and build a "Union Station" - now the Georgetown Car Barn. In 1895, now part of Capitol Traction, it began construction on the Waddy Wood-designed car barn. Union Station was designed to serve four streetcar companies: The Washington and Georgetown lines would use the ground floor on M Street while the Washington, Arlington & Falls Church and the projected Great Falls and Old Dominion were to come across the Potomac from Rosslyn entering the second and third floors respectively on steel trestles. The Metropolitan Railroad would use the roof. The Virginia companies never used it and the Metropolitan only sparingly so. The Washington and Great Falls took over the third floor. The station opened on May 27, 1897 and contained Washington's only cable loop, although for less than a year, because on September 29, 1897, the company's powerhouse at 14th and E NW burned down and the city took the site for its Municipal Building. The company replaced the cable cars with an electric system, using horses in the interim. The electric wire for the cars was placed in the old cable system's underground conduit. 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.

Metropolitan

On October 18, 1888, the day after the Eckington and Soldier's Home began operation, Congress authorized the Brightwood Railway Company to electrify the Metropolitan's streetcar line on Seventh Street Extended or Brightwood Avenue (now known as Georgia Avenue) and to extend it to the District line 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 along Butternut Street to 4th. In 1898, the Brightwood was ordered to switch to underground electric power on pain of having its charter revoked.

The remaining Metropolitan company 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. It was the first successful installation of such a system in the Western Hemisphere (having previously been installed in Budapest, Hungary). Though mostly a success, the underground power conduits had drawbacks. In the winter, the plow would get jammed by snow and ice and in the summer the conduits swelled shut. It switched the rest of the system on July 7, 1896. As part of the new construction in 1895, Metropolitan built a massive, Romanesque-style car barn on the corner of 4th and P Streets Southeast. In the same year, Metropolitan built a loop on 35th and 36th to Prospect Street to connect it to the Georgetown Car Barn. In 1896 it built the East Capitol Street Car Barn, and extended service along the road, a Romanesque Revival style building designed by Waddy Wood, to serve as a car barn, repair shop, and administrative offices.photos In 1896, the company extended its service along Columbia Road and Mt. Pleasant Street as far as Park Road.

Columbia

Columbia Railway Company Car Barns aka Trinidad Cable Car Barns, Fifteenth Street & Benning Road Northeast. The barn was built in 1895, converted to electric power in 1899 and to a bus barn in 1942. In 1971 it was demolished.

The Columbia Railway installed a cable system with a new cable car barn and began its operation on March 9, 1895. It was the last cable car system built in the United States. The underground electrical system proved superior though, so it switched to that system 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. Since this route was outside the city, overhead wires could be used to provide electric power. The line split 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.

Belt

In 1896 Congress directed the Belt Railway to try out compressed air motors, just as it had the Eckington and Soldier's Home. The compressed air motors were a failure, the company went into receivership and in 1899 was equipped with the standard underground power system.

Anacostia and Potomac River

Extant manhole cover from the Anacostia and Potomac River Railroad Company

The Anacostia and Potomac, which had been extended from F street NW to Florida Avenue along 11th, switched from horses to electric in April 1900. This was the last horse-drawn streetcar to run in the District.

Virginia Companies Operating in Washington, D.C.

Two Virginia based companies eventually extended service into the District and a third was given permission to, but never did.

The Washington and Arlington Railway Company 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 and B Streets NW to Virginia across a new Three Sisters Bridge. It was also alloted space in the Georgetown Car Barn. The company was never able to construct the new bridge, ans so never operated in Washington.

The Washington, Alexandria and Mount Vernon Electric Railway Company 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 and B Streets NW . From there it used the Belt Line's track on 14th Street to reach the Long Bridge (and later the Highway Bridge) never opting to use the ferry system. In 1902 its station was moved to 12th and D Streets NW to make room for the District Building. On October 17, 1910 the Washington and Arlington, by then the Washington, Arlington & Falls Church Railway Company, and the Washington, Alexandria & Mount Vernon merged to form the Washington - Virginia Railway Company. 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 & Falls Church reemerged as the Arlington and Fairfax Electric Railway Company and continued to serve the city on the Washington-Virginia route until the new Highway Bridge was built in 1932.

The Great Falls and Old Dominion Railroad Company was chartered January 24, 1900 and authorized to enter the District on January 29, 1903. It crossed over the Aqueduct Bridge and terminated near, but not inside, the Georgetown Car Barn. In 1912 it was purchased by the Washington and Old Dominion Railroad and became the Great Falls Division of that company.

Streetcar Consolidation

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 allow them to use one another's track. But eventually it became clear that consolidation was the best solution.

Token

The first company created during "the great streetcar consolidation" was the Capital Traction Company which was formed after March 1, 1895, when Congress authorized the Rock Creek Railway to purchase the Washington and Georgetown. In did so on September 21, 1895. In 1916 Capital Traction took ownership of the Washington and Maryland Railway Company and its 2.591 miles of track.

A few years later, on June 24, 1898 the Anacostia and Potomac began its expansion by purchasing the Belt Railway and in 1899 it purchased 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. It purchased the Columbia and Maryland, running from Mount Rainier to Laural, in the same year.

Between the years 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 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 was quickly in financial trouble. Because of this 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 and Electric. When Washington Traction and Electric 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, until it switched to large automobiles in 1904. In 1908, their U Street line was extended east down Florida Avenue to 8th Street NE, and from there south down 8th to the Navy Yard. On June 24, 1908 the first streetcars began service to Union Station along Delaware Avenue and by December 6 cars of both Capital Traction and Washington Railway were serving the building along Massachusetts Avenue.

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 former Capital Traction Power House on the Georgetown waterfront. Built in 1910-11 it was shut down in 1933, decommissioned in 1943 and demolished in 1968.

In 1910, Capital Traction began construction on a power house in Georgetown to power its streetcars. The facility opened on the waterfront in 1912.

The next major consolidation occurred on August 31, 1912 when the Washington Railway purchased the controlling stock of the Anacostia and Potomac. 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 the all 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 it always remained widely owned by the residents of Washington, without a principle stock holder. North American never owned more than 2.5% of Capital Traction stock.

Bustitution and Competition

By 1916, the streetcar was reaching its peak in Washington, D.C. The combined systems had over 200 miles of track and almost 100 in the city. Passengers could travel to Great Falls, Glen Echo, Rockville, Kensington and Laurel in Maryland; and to Mt. Vernon, Alexandria, Vienna, Fairfax, Leesburg, Great Falls and Bluemont. 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 taxi meter, invented in 1891, combined with the combustion engine, let to gasoline powered taxicabs. These were put in 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 and 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 tires, were made, buses became more popular. The first formal bus company 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 of them switched to buses. The East Washington Heights became the first streetcar company to switch to buses, a small change since it only had two cars running on 1 mile of track. The Washington Interurban Railroad switched next and the tracks it ran on were removed when Bladensburg Road was repaved. Finally in that same year, when the Key Bridge was constructed, 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 & Fairfax Motor Transportation Company was established to replace the streetcar service of the Arlington & Fairfax which lost the right to use the Highway Bridge. The last Arlington & Fairfax streetcar departed from 12th & D Streets, 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 Railway) 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.

The Columbia Railway Company Car barn was converted to a bus barn in 1942.

Single Company Operations

Capital Transit weekly passes

On December 1, 1933 the Washington Railway and Electric Company, Capital Traction, and the Washington Rapid Transit Company merged to form the Capital Transit Company. Washington Railway and Electric Company 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 management 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, a new terminal, the "Capital Transit Community Terminal," opened at Wisconsin and Western Avenues on August 4, 1935. In 1936, the system introduced route numbers. On August 28, 1937 the first PCC streetcars began running on 14th Street and over the next two years, the company would replace all cars with 589 of the streamlined modern PCC model. Click here for a General Electric ad about PCC cars in Washington

During the 1930s, city newspapers began pushing for streetcar tunneling. The Senate Subway was built in 1906 and three years later the Washington Post called for a citywide subway to be built. Nothing happened until after Capital Transit took over. The full $35 million plan to depress streets as trenches for exclusive streetcar use never materialized, but on December 14, 1949, the Connecticut Avenue trolley stop and tunnel were built under Dupont Circle.

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 longest streetcar fleet.Click here for 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 dividends 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 via Capital Transit Steeple cabs.

DC Transit

In January 1955 the Capitol 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 changed to DC Transit and Chalk was required to replace the system with buses by 1963. Chalk unsuccessfully fought the retirement of the streetcars.

The End of the Line

The final abandonment of the streetcar system began on September 7, 1958 with the end of the Eckington to Mt. Rainier line. On January 3, 1960, the Glen Echo, Friendship Heights & Georgia Avenue street car lines were abandoned and the Georgia Avenue car barn was closed. This technically ended "trolley" cars in D.C. as only conduit operations remained. On December 3, 1961 the streetcar line to Mt. Pleasant was abandoned.

Finally the entire system - including line to the Navy Yard, 14th & Colorado, the Bureau of Engraving, the Calvert Street Loop, Barney Circle & Union Station - was abandoned for buses. 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.

Remnants

Streetcars

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.

Of the hundreds of streetcars that once plied the streets of Washington, there are only about 20 remaining. Of these 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. The only other car still in use, a Capital Transit PCC car sold to Sarajevo, 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 Museum of American History. Washington & Georgetown 212 is also preserved by the Smithsonian, but stored in the Smithsonian's facility in Suitland, MD. 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 lost 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, ME. Three of the Ft. Worth cars are held in storage by North Texas Historic Transportation with plans to place them in yet-to-be-built museum. Finally, two of the Madrid 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)

Tracks

Much of the track in DC was removed and sold for scrap. In other places, the track was buried under pavement. The only visible tracks and conduit in the region are in the center of the cobblestone streets of Georgetown, specifically the 3400 through 3800 blocks of P and O Streets, N.W.

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 Vanderwerken's omnibus 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 facade of the original car barn remains.

• The Washington and Georgetown railroad car barn at 1326-46 Florida Avenue, originally built in 1877 and sold in 1892, is known today as the Manhattan Laundry. It serves as home to the Cesar Chavez Public Charter School for Public Policy; and as office space for several nonprofits, including Sarah House and the American Friends Service Committee.

• The original Eckington Car Barn at T Street, NE, between 4th and 5th Streets burned down prior to 1920 and a new one was built to replace it. That facility, at 400 T Street NE, is now a postal vehicle maintenance facility.

• The Navy Yard Car Barn (officially the Washington & Georgetown Railroad Car House and colloquially "The Blue Castle") at 770 M Street, SE is the sole-surviving streetcar resource from the cable car period. It served as a bus garage and now serves as the 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 hoping to turn it into retail space.

• The Georgetown Car Barn at 3600 M Street, NW, with "Capital Traction Company" still written above the main door, now serves as office space for the Georgetown University School of Business. It includes the famous "Exorcist Steps" which connect Prospect Street to M Street. O. Roy Chalk owned the building until 1992 when the Minneapolis-based Lutheran Brotherhood, which took possession of the property in a foreclosure. It was bought by developer Doug Jemal in May 1997.

• The East Capital Street Car Barn at 1400 East Capitol Street, NE was used as a bus barn from 1962–73 and then sat vacant until it was adapted for re-use as condominiums.

The Decatur Street Car Barn, built in 1906, is now a bus barn.

• The Decatur Street Car Barn (a.k.a. the at Capital Traction Company Car Barn or Northern Carhouse) at 4615 14th Street, NW was built in 1906 and is now used as a Metrobus barn. It's the only car barn still used for transit and one of three designed by Waddy Wood.

• The Brightwood Station Car Barn, 5929 Georgia Avenue, NW; was built sometime after 1890 when the tracks were laid, but before 1948. Curtis Chevrolet now occupies the building and has modified the facade.

Other car barns were demolished.

• The Anacostia and Potomac car barn at Martin Luther King Jr. Ave SE and V St 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 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 and Calvert Street. It was removed sometime before 1920 and replaced around 1935. This second structure was removed prior to 1958.

• The Capital Traction Company Powerhouse in Georgetown was torn down in 1968 and the land it sat on is now part of the Georgetown Waterfront Park.
• Falls Barn, near Georgetown University was demolished sometime between 1948 and 1958.
• The Benning Carhouse, a barn and repair shop on the site of the Benning Road PEPCO plant, was built prior to 1920 and went out of service between 1948 and 1958. It no longer exists.
• 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

After closing in 1962, the Dupont Circle streetcar stations were used as a civil defense storage area for a few years and then left empty again. 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 is again vacant.

Colorado Avenue Terminal on 14th Street, now a Metrobus stop

There was a streetcar station in the center of Barney Circle but it was removed in the 1970s.

Tunnels

The Dupont Circle streetcar station tunnel entrances, located where the tree-filled medians now stand north of N Street and between R and S Streets, were filled in and paved over in August 1964, leaving only the traffic tunnel. The C Street tunnel beneath the Capitol grounds remained in use, but since 9/11 has been closed.

The Bureau of Engraving Tunnel.

Right-of-way

The right-of-way of the Glen Echo line is extant from the Georgetown Car Barn all the way to the Washington Reservoir. It includes an abutment near an entrance to Georgetown University, a trestle over Foundry Branch in Glover Archibald Park and a bridge over Arizona Avenue, NW, between Dorsett Place and Sherier Place. The Median on Penn, built in 1903 [2]

Other Remnants

Perhaps the most visible remnant of the streetcar system is the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) bus system. 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 Trasit Company) unifying all the bus companies in DC. The backbone of WMATA's existing bus route map remains only marginally changed from the streetcar map it followed. For example, the #30 streetcar route that ran from Barney Circle to Friendship Heights is now the #30 bus line which runs from Anacostia through Barney Circle to Friendship Heights.

• Potomac Electric Power Company

Manhole covers

Slop

The Washington & Great Falls Electric Railway More details and photos are available at this website.

Offices of East Washington Heights at 2500 Penn Ave SE Offices of Wash and Mary at 1413 H St. SE Offices of Washington Interurban & WRECo at 281 & 231 14th St NW & Power Station - Gone, Regan Building

WRECo Power Station at Benning Road PEPCO plant Hibbs Building at 725 15th Street served as offices for Wash-Virg and Wash and Great Falls

links

[3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9]

External links

• National Capital Trolley Museum
• Extensive Collection of D.C. streetcar photos
• Collection of D.C. streetcar photos grouped by company
• Photo Tour of the 20 line
• Photo Tour of the 50 line
• Photo Tour of the 90 line
• Photo Tour of the 92 line
• Restoration of WRECo Streetcar 650
• Photos of Streetcars on Barracks Row
• A memorial site for D.C. Transit
• D.C. Transit page at www.clouse.org
• Online exhibit of Washington streetcars from the National Museum of American History
• Washington D.C. Transit by Chicago Rail Fan
• Information on the underground conduit system
• Looney v. Metropolitan Railroad Co, a 1906 United States Supreme Court case regarding the death of a pitman
• Article about the history of the Georgetown car barn
• Article on the train tracks in Georgetown
• Article on the last days of D.C.'s streetcars
• Washington, D.C., Railroad History at the National Railway Historical Society
• NYCSubway.org: Washington D.C. Streetcars
• Photos of streetcars on Barracks Row in Southeast
• A Brief History of the Georgetown Branch of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. Contains information on Washington's streetcar system as well.
• 1908 streetcar map
• Caroling Streetcars

Category:Street railways Category:Defunct railroad companies of the United States Category:Electric railways Category:History of Washington, D.C. Category:Transportation in Washington, D.C. Category:Interurbans Category:Streetcars in North America Category:1862 establishments Category:1962 disestablishments Category:Washington Metro