ancient cities

“Elevated car falls to street”—New York City, February 16,
1914
Source: George Grantham Bain Collection, Library of Congress.
also redefined urban political culture, as some of the
most intense local political struggles revolved around
this key public service. Finally, electric streetcars, or
“trolleys,” proved important culturally, emerging as
a main signifier of urban modernity.
Horse- or mule-cars on rail, appearing by the
1850s, but especially the faster and more reliable
trolleys in operation by the 1890s, greatly enlarged
the area accessible on a daily basis to city residents,
who previously either walked or rode horse carriages.
Streetcars thus furthered residential flight toward
peripheral areas, either to new suburbs or to old settlements
now tied to the city. Also, networks of urban
railways (which in some cases also transported freight
goods) promoted the specialization of urban spaces
Streetcars
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according to distinct functions, such that residential,
commercial, industrial, and leisure activities
moved physically apart. This held true especially for
North and South American cities; in contrast,
European cities changed less dramatically either in
terms of size or functional specialization.
How this major transport innovation shaped any
given city had to do with its local politics. Because the
streetcar provided a crucial public service to most city
residents, the question of government regulation
pulled many old and new constituencies, such as
business elites, civic reformers, organized labor, and
residential and consumer groups, into the political
fold and thus invigorated mass-participation in politics.
Equivalent to debates over railroads on the
national level, streetcar politics revolved around the
extent of governmental regulatory powers over private
service providers. In the United States these
remained fairly limited, whereas European and Latin
American cities imposed stringent requirements, such
as fare limits and working conditions for streetcar
employees, or opted, mainly in the European case,
for municipalization altogether.
A visible and omnipresent vehicle in the urban
landscape, the streetcar signified the impact of technology
on what were then rapidly transforming cities.
It figured prominently in newspaper articles and
illustrations, as well as in literary accounts. Streetcars
became the harbingers of progress, but also became
associated with the losses and dangers (such as
deadly accidents) associated with modernity. In
urban literature and film, such as works by Theodore
Dreiser, Henry Roth, and Luis Buñuel, streetcars
figured as the means of getting to know, of physically
experiencing, urban agglomerations, whose
perceived vastness otherwise seemed to escape the
capacity of human imagination; passengers inside
the trolley, meanwhile, formed an observable microcosm
of highly diverse urban societies.
The streetcar era came to an end by the 1930s,
as combustion-engine vehicles, both buses and
automobiles, emerged as the dominant form of
urban transportation. But depending on geography
(the area covered by a given city), politics
(the extent of public sector intervention in an
increasingly unprofitable enterprise), and culture
(residents’ preferences), streetcars continue,
and have recently returned, to shape city life.
Georg Leidenberger