AMERICAN STREET RAILWAYS. The idea of the street railway grew out of the steam railroad agitation when the first steam railroad was built in the United States in 1829. This idea rapidly materialized and the first street railway was built in New York city in 1832, the tracks being laid on the Bowery and Fourth Avenue from Prince Street to Harlem, the rail consisting of strips of flat-iron laid on granite blocks. This railway was put into operation in June 1833, the first cars running from Prince Street to Murray Hill. The cars resembled the stage coach then in use and were mounted on flanged wheels. This road being a financial failure, it was not until 1836 that the next street railway was built in Boston. After this time street railways were built in all large American cities and between 1860 and 1880 the horse railway had become an estab lished institution. As cities grew and dis tances within their limits became longer there was created a need of a motive power to propel the cars faster than horses could draw them. In some cases steam locomotives were used in the suburbs of large cities, but this was con sidered objectionable on account of the noise, dirt and danger.
Numerous systems of propulsion were pro posed and large expenditures were made in tests and trials. The first practicable method found was that of drawing the cars by an end less wire cable and this method was first used in San Francisco in 1873 with much satisfac tion where it was well suited for roads with heavy traffic and steep grades. This system was used in nearly all the large cities during the next 15 years, but as the cost was over $100,000 a mile, only the largest cities could make it profitable. It was soon conceded, however, that the cable system was not the ideal one for moving cars as there were certain mechanical difficulties in its operation which were extremely burdensome, and experiments were continued with other systems between 1880 and 1890, mainly with electric motors. The names of Edison, Field and Thomson are identified with this work. The first electric line in the United States was an exhibit run by Van I)epoele at the Chicago Industrial Ex position in 1882-83. In 1884 Henry in Kansas
City, Mo., and Bentley and Knight in Cleveland, Ohio, constructed and operated electric lines. The first street railway to be entirely equipped with electric cars and successfully and con tinuously operated was a road 12 miles long in Richmond, Va., built in 1888 by Frank I Sprague, called the gather)) of the electric street railway. As soon as this road demon strated that the electric motor could propel street cars reliably and economically, horse roads all over the United States were changed to electric roads, and many new roads and extensions were built into the suburbs of the great cities.
The electric railway, a distinctly American institution, was soon introduced all over the world. In the United States in 1912 there were 41,065 miles of electric railway track, covering an investment of $4,596,563,292, employing 282,461 persons and daily transporting about 33,250,000 people. Besides the 76,162 cars de voted to the transportation of passengers, there were 7,794 express and freight cars, mail cars, parlor cars, and even funeral cars on the street railways of American cities. Interurban elec tric railways have been built in the outskirts of the large cities and between towns on a large scale and there are now very few towns of more than 5,000 inhabitants which are not connected with their neighbors by means of an electric railway. The total car mileage in 1912 was 1,921,620,074, operated by 3,665,051 horse power of which 471,307 horse-power was pro duced by water-power and the remainder most ly by steam. Of the total track mileage, 38,958 miles were operated by overhead trolley; 1,395 miles by third rail; 352 miles (in New York city and Washington) by conduit trolley; 65 miles by storage battery ; 76 miles by steam; 58 miles by horses; and 56 miles by cable. Of the whole mileage, 40,532 were on the surface; 420 miles were elevated; and 113 miles were in subway and tunnel. The gross income for the years 1912 was $585,930,517; the operating ex penses were $332,896,346; and the net income was $61,910,753.