[87], The C Street NW/NE tunnel beneath the Upper Senate Park remained in use as a one-way service road adjacent to the Capitol, but since 9/11 it has been closed to the public. Seven more, including D.C. DDOT applied for a $20 million National Infrastructure Investments — Consolidated Appropriations Act grant to assist it in building the extension. A streetcar would touch this electric wire with a long pole mounted on its roof. [7], The last streetcar company to begin operation during the horsecar era was the Capitol, North O Street and South Washington Railway. [59] The delays had caused the warranty on the mothballed Czech-produced streetcars to expire, and storage costs were running $860,000 a year. The Washington and Georgetown Railroad Company was the first streetcar company to operate in Washington, D.C. 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. And like the city today, Congress tried to meddle. ", DeBonis, Mike. "Feds Give District Better Acreage for Walter Reed Redevelopment. Streetcars used to ply DC’s streets until 1962. The last old DC Transit streetcar still in service, in Sarajevo. In Washington, the streetcars were privately owned and run. The last streetcar on the Anacostia-Congress Heights line ran on July 16, 1935. [5] 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. Wants Streetcars to Roll By Mid-2013.'. DDOT opened bids for the now-$45 million contract to construct the Anacostia Line's tracks and infrastructure in August 2008. Previously this had been done using Capital Transit's steeple-cab electric locomotives operating over a remnant of the Benning car line. "D.C. Cancels Proposed Streetcar Deal. [14] At the same time, an extension was built along Michigan Avenue NE to the B&O railroad tracks. 650: The Long Road Home", Articles about street cars in Washington, DC, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Streetcars_in_Washington,_D.C.&oldid=994146066. In 1923, the number of streetcar companies operating in Washington cut in half as three companies switched to buses. 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. [7] In 1890, the railway started operations connecting Georgetown to the extant village of Tenleytown. [30] For the first time, street railways in Washington were under the management of one company. The agency said it would also spend another $16 million to acquire the right-of-way currently owned by railroad company CSX Transportation and $15 million to build a car barn for the line extension. ", Schwartzman, Paul. None remain in active daily use, although one Capital Transit PCC car sold to Sarajevo has been restored and operates occasional special service in Sarajevo. "New Residences, Stores To Transform H Street. [32] In April 2009, DDOT announced that the Anacostia streetcar line would not be complete until at least 2012. We had the Hollywood at Ninth and U, Crystal Caverns across the street, Club Bali at 14th Street. [1], The Rock Creek Railway was the second electric streetcar incorporated in D.C. It also expanded up Nichols Avenue past the Government Hospital for the Insane (now St. Elizabeths Hospital). [36], In 2003, then-Mayor Anthony A. Williams unveiled a draft Strategic Development Plan which proposed redeveloping and revitalizing six blighted areas of the city, including H Street NE and Benning Road. See: Layton, Lyndsey. [9] To help move the K Street line forward, the Downtown D.C. Business Improvement District (Downtown BID) proposed in March 2012 to fund a plan that would lay out how K Street should be reconfigured for streetcars, and how a K Street streetcar line would be planned, constructed, maintained, and serviced. In 1892 it was ordered by Congress to switch to overhead electrical power and complete the line. [1], The first electric streetcar to operate in Anacostia was the Capital Railway. DC Streetcar History Beginning in the 1880s, the District of Columbia had a robust streetcar network with more than 200 miles of track, 16 route lines, and multiple companies providing service. [43] (A map of the system in 1948), In 1946 in a decision by the United States Supreme Court in North American Co. v. Securities and Exchange Commission,[52] the Supreme Court upheld the Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935 and forced North American, because it also owned the Potomac Electric Power Co., to sell its shares of Capital Transit. By 1932 it was carrying 4.5% of transit customers. It changed its name to the Belt Railway on February 18, 1893.[1][2][7]. [36], In 1902, the railroad moved its station, as the Belt Line's tracks were circling the block containing the site of a planned new District Building (now the John A. Wilson Building). [5] On December 3, 1961, the streetcar lines to Mount Pleasant (Routes 40, 42) and 11th Street (Route 60) were abandoned. When Washington Traction defaulted on its loans on June 1, 1901, Washington and Great Falls moved in to take its place. Just as the horse cars had replaced carriages and the electric streetcar replaced horse cars, so too were buses to replace the electric streetcars. "D.C. streetcar makes its first voyages on H Street. [55][56] The city was unwilling to build the project on the CSX tracks, only to have the other owners demand payment in the future. On June 27, 1898, the new, combined company changed its name to the City and Suburban Railway of Washington. [9] On December 17, 2012, DC Streetcar officials said only 20 percent of the H Street line remained to be completed, and that they anticipated streetcars to be rolling in October 2013. Local media reports indicated that the D.C. developers were impressed by the effect streetcars had on Portland's economic development. World War I saw further increases in passenger traffic. The history of streetcars in Washington, D.C. has been approached before, but never in narrative format, and never by a gifted writer. DC’s first streetcar system opened in the middle of the Civil War after taking only six months to build. [50] In 1936, the system introduced route numbers. On August 2, 1894, Congress ordered the Metropolitan to switch to underground electrical power. 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. One last special trip, carrying organized groups of trolley enthusiasts, set out after that and returned at 4:45 am. 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).[62]. [30], 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. [7] 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. [39] In 1916 Capital Traction took ownership of the Washington and Maryland and its 2.591 miles of track. [34], The railroad completed its tracks in 1896 and began serving a waiting station at 14th Street NW and B Street NW. DC Streetcar runs free, daily trips along the H Street NE Corridor and Benning Road from Union Station to Oklahoma Avenue. [91] In 1980 and 1981, the three other bridges along the right-of-way - Bridge #3 at Clark Place, Bridge #4 next to Reservoir Road, and Bridge #5 over Maddox Branch in Battery Kemble Park - were removed during the construction of the water main. Transit 1304 is kept at the Seashore Trolley Museum in Kennebunkport, Maine. Cemeteries, parks and parkways make up the remainder. On July 1, 1864, a second streetcar company, the Metropolitan Railroad, was incorporated. In the late 1950s and early '60s, as Washington's original streetcar system slowly converted its rail lines to buses, owners sold or gave away nearly 200 of DC's best railcars to any city that would take them. [17] The goal of the project was to bring light rail to Anacostia first (rather than last, as had happened with Metrorail), and to provide a speedier, more cost-effective way to link the neighborhood with the rest of the city. ", Kahn, Michael W. "Streetcars Returning to D.C. in Updated Form. [34][35] This span was removed in 1967. ", "Return of the (modern) streetcar: Portland leads the way", "First of Three American Made DC Streetcar Vehicles to Arrive in District on Tuesday, January 21", Neibauer, Michael. The board of directors of the Downtown BID proposed a self-imposed $258 million tax on hotels and commercial property within the district to fund BID projects, which included the streetcar design proposal. [63] The streetcar line was part of a proposed $500 million, 62-acre (25 ha) mixed-use housing, office, and retail development that would begin construction in 2013. An early streetcar passes the Treasury. The East Washington Heights became the first streetcar company to switch,[44] replacing its two streetcars and one mile of track with a bus line. In November 2002, the same month that the D.C. government agreed to co-fund the streetcar project, Metro formally changed its strategic plan and proposed spending $12 billion over 10 years on rapid bus, light rail, and streetcar projects throughout the D.C. After the March 2, 1889, law passed, the Washington and Georgetown began installing an underground cable system. "Southwest D.C. [13] In January 2002, District of Columbia officials began studying the economic feasibility and costs of constructing a 33-mile (53.1 km) long system of streetcars throughout the city. Although initially planned to go as far as Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, the line never ran further than an extension to Berwyn Heights, Maryland. Later that year, the Eckington and Soldier's Home purchased the Maryland and Washington. [8] The system is owned by the District of Columbia Department of Transportation (DDOT); the RATP Group, a French transportation company, has been chosen as the initial operators. 1835 Long Bridge rebuilt across Potomac River 2) August 25,1835 Washington Branch of the Baltimore & Ohio RR (B&O) opens for service. A one-week pass cost $1.25. One branch ran to Kenilworth, and the other, built in 1900, connected at Seat Pleasant with the terminus of the steam-powered Chesapeake Beach Railway. [20] 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. [7] 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. [1] In 1893, a line was added through Cardozo/Shaw to 7th Street NW. The D.C. government owns six streetcars that serve the system, built by two manufacturers to very similar designs. [1] The Anacostia and Potomac River began expanding on June 24, 1898, by purchasing the Belt Railway; the next year, it bought the Capital Railway. The first streetcar was horse-drawn and ran from the Capitol to the State Department. [54] In the previous summer of 1970 D.C. [22] In order to determine whether the local business community would support the streetcar project, several local real estate and commercial developers visited the Portland Streetcar system which operates in Portland, Oregon. Almost as soon as they were instituted, companies began looking for alternatives. ", Wilgoren, Debbi. RAILROAD HISTORY TIMELINE. area. It began operations on May 1, 1897, with a car barn at 1914 E Street NW. ", Smith, Will and Wellborn, Mark. It was incorporated and started operations in 1862, using horse-drawn cars on tracks between Georgetown and the Navy Yard. [61] In 2014, DDOT said it was planning to spend $64 million to begin construction on the Anacostia Line Extension from the Anacostia Metro station to the 11th Street Bridges. [15], DDOT issued a favorable report, and the D.C. Council approved an expenditure of $310 million for the streetcar project in September 2002. It wasn't given approval by Congress until February 18, 1875, but it was constructed that year. 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. This page was last edited on 14 December 2020, at 08:33. [1][7] 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. But as in most cities, the majority of D.C.-area residents prefer to drive alone in their cars from their homes to their workplaces. Their 7th Street line switched to cable car on April 12, 1890. Washington Railway continued as a holding company, owning 50% of Capital Transit and 100% of Potomac Electric Power Company (PEPCO), but Capital Traction was dissolved. It was incorporated by Colonel Arthur Emmett Randle on March 2, 1895, to serve Congress Heights. [7][8] The next year, the streetcar tracks reached Takoma Park via a spur along Butternut Street NW to 4th Street NW. Office Hours Monday to Friday, 8:15 am to 4:45 pm Connect With Us 55 M Street, SE, Suite 400, Washington, DC 20003 Phone: (202) 673-6813 Fax: (202) 671-0650 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. Sometime after conversion of the Mt. The tracks on Florida Avenue also exist under pavement (as shown by the eternal seam above the conduit). [42], 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. [67], Another streetcar line was proposed for Maine Avenue SW. Over the next decades, the streetcar system shrank amid the rising popularity of the automobile and pressure to switch to buses. It complied, installing the underground sliding shoe on the north–south line in January 1895. In 1890 they bought the former Boundary and Silver Spring line from the Metropolitan, but continued to operate it as a horse line. 'Is it really happening? [1] Construction began by March 22, 1908. Those cars ran for decades all over the world. Transit "...came under fire from a group of its black drivers for discrimination in promotions and assignments". It completed its track in August 1895. [52][53] He said that none of the reported causes for delay were considered "fatal", but the DDOT had not yet responded to the report with a prediction as to when all the problems would be attended to. [9], By 1888, it had built additional lines down 4th Street NW/SW to P Street SW, and on East Capitol Street to 9th Street. [1], The Anacostia and Potomac River switched from horses to electricity in April 1900. 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. Streetcars in Washington, D.C. transported people across the city and region from 1862 until 1962. The 2.4-mile DC Streetcar line services eight stops from Union Station to Oklahoma Avenue at RFK Stadium’s parking lot. [10] 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. Nearby. Jan 15, 2021 [14][15] The project received Metro's backing. In Washington, D.C., the last streetcar ran in 1962. It was incorporated on March 3, 1875, and began operation later that year. "D.C. By December 31, 1933, it owned 50.016% of the voting stock. [1] The Metropolitan switched the rest of the system to electric power on July 7, 1896[1] In 1895, the Metropolitan built a streetcar barn near the Arsenal and a loop in Georgetown to connect it to the Georgetown Car Barn. [1], Horsecars, though an improvement over horse drawn wagons, were slow, dirty and inefficient. [38] The former Washington, Arlington & Falls Church Railroad reemerged as the Arlington and Fairfax Railway[38] and continued to serve the city on the Washington-Virginia route until January 17, 1932, when the Mt. North American tried to purchase Capital Traction, but never owned more than 2.5% of Capital Traction stock.[30]. A car barn was built in Mount Pleasant around 1892. History of Streetcars in Washington, D.C. Streetcars were a common mode of transportation in the District from 1862 until 1962. Jan 15, 2021 [12] However, state and local governments said they were unable to fund Metro's proposal, and the planned projects died. [41], Further consolidation came in the form of the North American Company, a transit and public utility holding company. "DC's Streetcar Project Halted For Now. A closer look at the railcar that runs along H Street NE, from where to board to how to ride. In 1977, the tracks on M and Pennsylvania in Georgetown were paved over. [1] 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 DC section includes an abutment near an entrance to Georgetown University, a trestle over Foundry Branch in Glover Archibald Park, the median of Sherier Place NW from Cathedral Avenue NW to Manning Place NW and a strip of land along most of the right-or-way. [31] Visually, the United units differ from the Inekon cars in appearance with different fiberglass driver compartments, and cowling, but the overall dimensions are identical. After a strike in 1955, the company changed ownership and became DC Transit, with explicit instructions to switch to buses. [13] On August 28, 1937, the first PCC streetcars began running on 14th Street NW. (Opens in a new window. 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. [42] But the streetcars were also under increasing threat from competition. [5][9][4], The system's H Street/Benning Road Line began public service on February 27, 2016. "On D.C. Streetcar: Possible Fare, Barry's Angst, National Harbor's Joy and More on the Launch Date. 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. A new name was soon developed for streetcars powered by electricity in this manner; they were called trolley cars. The system was developed to provide electric motive power to streetcars via an underground conduit rather than overhead wires, since Congress had prohibited their use. [53] For $2.2 million they bought a company with $7 million in cash. Office Hours Monday to Friday, 8:30 am to 5 pm, except District holidays Connect With Us 1100 4th Street, SW, Suite 650 East, Washington, DC 20024 The complex trackwork on Capitol Plaza in front of Washington Union Station was removed in the mid-1960s. [65] It now serves as urban greenspace. After going electric in the last decade of the 19th century, the streetcars quickly became a crucial part of transportation in the nation's capital, just as they were in other cities across the country. [1], In 1883, Frank Sprague, an 1878 Naval Academy graduate, resigned from the Navy to work for Thomas Edison. 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