Who Tore Up the Tracks? · Episode 2 of 24 · 20 min
Built by Land and Light: The Strange Economics of the Streetcar
The American streetcar was often a real-estate business or an electric utility dressed as a transit company, which made it fragile. Developers laid track to sell the lots beside it, and franchises froze fares at a nickel for decades. By 1918, companies running roughly half the nation's streetcar mileage were in receivership, before the automobile took over.
Who's who
- Henry E. Huntington+1 more episodeBuilt Pacific Electric and Los Angeles Railway to sell land and power
- Charles Tyson YerkesFinancier who assembled Chicago's street railways; archetypal hated traction magnate
- Sam Bass Warner Jr.+1 more episodeHistorian whose Streetcar Suburbs traced Boston's growth
- Woodrow Wilson+9 more episodesPresident who convened a federal commission on the industry's collapse in 1919
- Delos F. WilcoxFranchise expert who dissented in favor of public ownership
- Francis Marion SmithBorax magnate whose Key System in Oakland served his land interests
Where it happens
- Los Angeles, California+13 more episodesHuntington's Red Cars and Yellow Cars network
- Chicago, Illinois+15 more episodesYerkes's street railways and the Loop elevated
- Boston, Massachusetts+11 more episodesRoxbury, West Roxbury and Dorchester, the classic streetcar suburbs
- Oakland, California+2 more episodesHome of the Key System
Timeline
- 1898Huntington acquires the Los Angeles Railway
- 1901Huntington founds the Pacific Electric Railway
- 1910-1911Southern Pacific absorbs Pacific Electric; Huntington keeps the Yellow Cars, land and power
- 1914-1915Jitney craze poaches nickel fares from streetcars
- 1918Companies running about half of streetcar mileage in receivership
- August 1920Federal commission reports the industry is without financial credit
Still debated
The share of streetcar mileage in bankruptcy depends on whether companies, mileage, or capitalization are counted, and on 1918 versus 1919. Yerkes's famous quotes are reported remarks, not documents in his hand.
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The March: The 1913 Suffrage Procession and the Law of CovertureA Woman's Place · Episode 1Also features Woodrow Wilson
How Los Angeles Drained the Owens Valley — and Drowned Hetch HetchyCalifornia and Water · Episode 2Also features Woodrow Wilson
How Eugenics Was Born: Galton, Darwin & the Dream of Breeding Better HumansEugenics: The Well-Born Science · Episode 2Also features Woodrow Wilson
The Second Great Migration: The South to the CoastLiberty Ships, Closed Doors · Episode 3