STREET RAILWAYS. This class of service has been developed since 1850, and up to 1870 was confined chiefly to the United States. Municipal ownership outside of Great Britain is rare, and even there it has sprung up recently. In fact, until 1893 Huddersfield. England, and the rail way on the Brooklyn Bridge were the only ex amples of municipal ownership and operation, the first dating from I882 and the second from 1883. A few British cities constructed rail way tracks and leased them to companies be tween 1870 and 1893. At the close of 1901 there were 40 municipalities in Great Britain that owned and operated horse or electric street rail ways. and 27 (including a few in the other list) that owned railways, but leased them to operat ing companies. Among the 40, such large cities as London, Manchester, and Sheffield are in cluded, but there are also private lines in some of these 40 places. The operation of the railway on the Brooklyn Bridge. New York City, was assumed by a private company in 1898, in con nection with the Brooklyn railway service. In
1901 the small city of Grand Junction, Colo., as sumed the ownership and operation of a short here railway line. In 1902 an electric railway at. Saint Thomas, (Mt., was taken over in like manner. The street railway system of Toronto, (mt., was bought by the city at the expiration of the franchise of a company in 1891. After be ing operated for a few months by the city it was sold to a company, under a eontract providing for conversion, by the purchaser, from horse to electric traction, together with a payment to the city of a percentage of gross receipts increasing with the latter. In other countries than those already named there are a few street railways owned by the city and leased to operating cony panics. A subway to accommodate street rail way traffic in congested districts of Boston has been built by the city and leased to a company, and the same general plan is being carried out on a much more comprehensive scale in New York.