. The street railway review . the heart of the cityby horse power, it is still a fact that the first road whichwas chartered for street railway purposes proper, was theone above mentioned, in the City of New York. Thefirst car was a transition from the then existing stj-le ofcoaches, and was really the union of three old fashionedQuaker coaches, suspended on three short leather thor-ough braces, which afforded an easy motion which was not unpleasant. Cars witli the top seats prevailed for afew years and then were abandoned, and it is a curiousincident in the history of the art to notice that n
. The street railway review . the heart of the cityby horse power, it is still a fact that the first road whichwas chartered for street railway purposes proper, was theone above mentioned, in the City of New York. Thefirst car was a transition from the then existing stj-le ofcoaches, and was really the union of three old fashionedQuaker coaches, suspended on three short leather thor-ough braces, which afforded an easy motion which was not unpleasant. Cars witli the top seats prevailed for afew years and then were abandoned, and it is a curiousincident in the history of the art to notice that now, afteran expiration of some sixty years, cars with overheadoutside seats are again receiving serious consideration,—•not so much as a more pleasant place to ride as was thenbelieved, but rather as a solution of the now vexed ques-tion—how to increase the carr3-ing capacity of the early days the street railway was hard pressed forpassengers. Now the companies are hard pressed toaccommodate all who want to TYPE OF iS6S. That the New York and Harlem R. R. was not afinancial success was in no manner the fault of theinventor of the street car, and in about seven years itwas extended northward as a steam road, ultimatelyreaching Albany. With the displacement of horse carson this road, eight wheeled steam road cars were hauledbjr horses to Tyron Row, at the North end of BrooklynBridge, and it was not until 1845 that the service revived,when a box car was built and put in service, weighingabout four tons. It was in 1833 that the first street car proper can besaid to have been built. It was a car with the bodyentirely above the wheels. The entrance was at theend, it had a center isle and cross seats with reversiblebacks. In 1845 cars went into use with two horses, andconductors were placed upon the short line of theFourth Avenue road. The bodies were hung low as atthe present time, and the car had end platforms and sideseats. Previous to 1852 Fourth Avenue was the
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Keywords: ., book, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectstreetrailroads
