Metropolitan Railways: Rapid Transit in AmericaEarly in the 19th century, growing American cities began to experience transportation problems. One solution was the horse-drawn streetcar, developed in 1832, but it soon proved inadequate. The first elevated train was transporting passengers above the streets of Manhattan by 1871; the first subway opened 25 years later in Boston; and similar systems soon followed in Philadelphia and Chicago. Rapid transit was confined to these few cities until after World War II, when a new generation of systems began to appear. In the 1970s, light rail became an economical alternative to conventional rapid transit. By century's end, some three dozen cities in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico operated metropolitan rapid transit or light rail systems that transported five billion urban passengers annually, and still more were under construction or planned. |
Contents
New Life for an Old Technology | 145 |
The Cars We Rode | 163 |
A Metropolitan Railways Renaissance | 205 |
Copyright | |
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References to this book
Train Time: Railroads and the Imminent Reshaping of the United States Landscape John R. Stilgoe No preview available - 2007 |