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{{dablink|This article refers to the streetcars that existed in Washington prior to 1962. For information on the proposed new streetcar lines, see [[Washington Metro]].}}
[[Image:Streetcars at Treasury.jpg|thumb|right|350px|15th Street in the early 20th century]]For just under 100 years, between 1862 and 1962, [[Washington, D.C.]] [[tram|streetcars]] transported people across the [[city]] and region. The first streetcars in D.C. were drawn by [[horse]]s and carried people short distances on flat terrain; but the introduction of cleaner and faster electric streetcars, capable of climbing steeper inclines, opened up the hilly suburbs north of the old city and in Anacostia. A number of the District's streetcar lines were extended into [[Maryland]], and two Virginia lines crossed into the District. For a brief time the city also experimented with [[cable car (railway)|cable car]]s, but by the beginning of the [[20th century]], the streetcar system was fully electrified. At the turn of the century, the "Great Streetcar Consolidation" resulted in extensive mergers leaving two major companies. In 1933 all streetcars were brought under one company, Capital Transit. The streetcars began to scale back with the rising popularity of the [[automobile]] and pressure to switch to [[bus]]es. After a strike in 1955, the company changed ownership and became DC Transit, with explicit instructions to switch to buses. The system was dismantled in the early 1960s and the last streetcar ran on January 28, 1962. Car barns, trackage, stations and right-of way of the system still exists in various states of usage.
==History==
===Early Transit in Washington===
[[Public transportation]] began in Washington,
| last = Tindall
| first = Dr. William
| title = Records of the Columbia Historical Society, Washington, D.C.: Beginning of Street Railways in the National Capital
| publisher = Columbia Historical Society
| date = 1918
| ___location = Charlottesville, VA
| pages =
| url =
}}</ref>
Not until the spring of 1830, was another attempt made at public [[transit]]. [[Gilbert Vanderwerken]]'s [[Omnibus
| last = Lee
| first = Virginia C.
| coauthors = Cary Silverman
| title = Shaw on the Move Part II: Milestones in Shaw Transportation
| work = Shaw Main Street News
| pages = 10–14
| language = English
| publisher = Shaw Main Streets
| date = Winter 2005-2006
| url = http://www.shawmainstreets.com/winter_2006.pdf
| accessdate = 2007-01-11 }}</ref>
===Horse Drawn Streetcars===
====Washington and Georgetown====
[[Image:Penn Ave horsecars.jpg|thumb|right|300px|Horsecars on Pennsylvania Avenue]]
Streetcars began operation in [[New York City]] along the Bowery in 1832 and in 1835 in [[New Orleans]],<ref name="History">{{cite web
| last = Bellis
| first = Mary
| title = History of Streetcars and Cable Cars
| url = http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blstreetcars.htm
| accessdate = 2007-01-10 }}</ref> but the technology did not really become popular until 1852, when a French engineer working in New York, [[Alphonse Loubat]], invented a side-bearing rail that could be laid flush with the street surface, allowing the first independent horse-drawn streetcar lines.<ref>{{cite journal
| last = McShane
| first = Clay
| coauthors = Joel Tarr
| title = The decline of the urban horse in American cities
| journal = The Journal of Transport History
| volume = 24
| issue = 2
| pages = 177–198
| publisher = Manchester University Press
| date = September 2003
| url = https://dx.doi.org/10.7227/TJTH.24.2.4
| doi =10.7227/TJTH.24.2.4
| issn = 0022-5266
| accessdate = 2007-01-16 }}</ref> The [[technology]] began to spread and as early as 1858 an effort was made by New York City businessmen to open a streetcar in Washington, D.C. Despite this, it was not until [[May 17]], [[1862]] that the first streetcar company, the '''Washington and Georgetown Railroad Company''' was incorporated.<ref name="CHS"/> It was authorized to build three street [[horsecar]] lines using the [[Standard gauge|standard]] [[track gauge]] of the [[Baltimore and Ohio Railroad]].<ref name="Laws">{{cite book
| title = Laws Relating to Street-railway Franchises in the District of Columbia
| publisher = United States, District of Columbia Board of Commissioners
| date = 1896
| ___location = Washington, DC
| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=lrPplIV1LZEC&pg=RA2-PA200
}}</ref>
The first streetcar
| last = Cohen
| first = Bob
| title = Washington, D.C. Railroad History
| publisher = Washington, D.C. Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society
| url = http://www.dcnrhs.org/dc_rail_history.htm
| accessdate = 2007-01-15 }}</ref> Another line, opened on November 15, 1862, was built along [[7th Street (Washington, D.C.)|7th Street]] from N Street NW to the Potomac River and expanded to the Arsenal (now Fort McNair) in 1875.<ref name="Laws"/><ref>{{cite journal
| author = Paul Kelsey Williams
| title = Historic Survey of Shaw East Washington, DC
| publisher = DC Department of Planning
| date = 2001–2002
| url = http://www.washingtonhistory.com/Surveys/shawreportfinal.pdf
| format = [PDF]
| accessdate = 2007-01-16 }}</ref> A third line ran down [[14th Street (Washington, D.C.)|14th Street]] from Boundary Street to the Treasury Building. In 1863 the 7th Street line was extended north to Boundary Street (now Florida Avenue).<ref name="shaw"/> The stables owned by the omnibus line were eventually purchased by the Washington & Georgetown line to be used as a car barn and, much later, as machine shops.
When the Washington and Georgetown opened, the owners planned for it to be a [[racial segregation|segregated]] system, but users ignored the signs designating which race was allowed. When the Metropolitan opened, it was forbidden from using segregated cars and on March 3, 1865 the practice was outlawed district-wide. Even after [[Plessy v. Ferguson]] made segregation on public transit legal, the system in Washington was never segregated again.<ref name="CHS"/>
In 1877, the company built a car barn at 13th and Florida. From 1877-92, the company expanded the facility several times, adding a blacksmith shop in 1878.<ref name="Manhattan"/>
====Metropolitan====
[[Image:Horsecar on M Street Bridge.gif|thumb|left|350px|Washington & Georgetown Horsecar crossing Rock Creek on the M Street Bridge]]
The Washington and Georgetown's monopoly didn't last long as on July 1, 1864 a second streetcar company, the '''Metropolitan Railroad Company''', was incorporated. It opened lines from the Capitol to the [[United States Department of War|War Department]] at 14th and I NW and along H Street from Massachusetts Avenue to 17th Street NW. When it started, it used two-horse cars, but in 1865 it switched to smaller cars pulled by one horse.<ref name="CHS"/> In 1872, it began operations on a 9th Street line with a terminus on M Street NW.<ref name="shaw"/> By 1888 it had built additional lines down 4th Street to P Street SW, into Georgetown on O and P Streets NW and on East Capitol Street to 9th Street.<ref name="CHS"/>
The Metropolitan continued to expand by acquiring other companies. The first of these was the '''Connecticut Avenue and Park Railway''' which was chartered on July 13, 1868.<ref name="Laws"/> This line started at the terminus of the Metropolitan Railroad Company at 17th and H Streets and ran north up Connecticut Avenue to Boundary Street. The streetcar line did not continue up Connecticut Avenue from this point as the grade was too steep for the horse-drawn cars. Operation of this line began in April 1873. It continued to be operated by the Connecticut Avenue and Park Railway Company until June 1874 when it was absorbed by the Metropolitan Railroad Company.<ref name="WashHigh">{{cite journal
| author = Laura V. Trieschmann, Patti Kuhn, Megan Rispoli, Ellen Jenkins, and Elizabeth Breiseth
| title = Washington Heights National Register of Historical Places Application
| publisher = United States Department of the Interior
| date = July 2006
| url = http://www.kaloramacitizens.org/news/files/Washington%20Heights%20NATIONAL%20REGISTER%20FORM%20HPRB.pdf
| accessdate = 2007-01-19 }}</ref> Though tracks were laid on Connecticut north of P Street, cars did not run on this portion until 1883 when local residents petitioned Metropolitan to begin a shuttle service.<ref name="CHS"/>
On January 19, 1872, both the '''Boundary and Silver Spring Railway Company''' and the '''Union Railroad Company''' were chartered. The Boundary and Silver Spring was to run a streetcar from Boundary Street to the Maryland-DC boundary along the Washington city and Rockville Turnpike (now Georgia Avenue). The Union was to lay track from the Treasury Department at 15th and New York Avenue to Georgetown across the P Street Bridge and then on various streets in Georgetown. Both were promptly absorbed by the Metropolitan Railroad.<ref name="Laws"/> The Boundary and Silver Spring was purchased by 1873, when the Metropolitan began running cars along Georgia Avenue all the way to Rock Creek Church Road. The line was non profitable and the Metropolitan sold it in 1890.<ref name="Petworth">{{cite news
| last = Kraft
| first = Brian
| title = Petworth
| work = DCNorth
| pages =
| language = English
| date = November 2003
| url = http://www.petworthdc.net/petworth_history_resources/petworth_history_dcnorth.htm
| accessdate = 2007-01-24 }}</ref> The Union was absorbed in 1872.<ref name="CHS"/>
====Columbia====
Chartered by Congress on May 24, 1870<ref name="Laws"/> and beginning operations the same year,<ref name="shaw"/> the '''Columbia Railway Company''' was the city’s third horse car operator. Its route began at 15th Street and [[New York Avenue (Washington, D.C.)|New York Avenue NW]], where it intersected the Washington and Georgetown line, and continued east on New York to [[K Street (Washington, D.C.)|K Street NW]] (at that time the ___location of the Northern Liberties Market, Now Mt.Vernon Square). From K, it went south on [[Massachusetts Avenue (Washington, D.C.)|Massachusetts Avenue NW]] to [[H Street (Washington, D.C.)|H Street, NW]] and all the way across H to the city boundary at 15th Street NE, a round trip distance of five miles. The line began as a single track with turnouts for cars to pass, but a double track was added by 1872. The company built a car barn and stable on the east side of 15th Street just south of H Street at the eastern end of the line. By 1883, the company was running 15 cars, each making 11 trips daily. There were 52 horses in the stable and 34 employees. The Columbia originally ran one-man one horse cars called "bobtails" but these were so unpopular that it led to a rider's strike. As a result, Congress banned the short cars in 1892.<ref name="HStreet">{{cite news
| last = Layman
| first = Richard
| title = H Street: A Neighborhood's Story Part II
| work = The Voice of the Hill
| pages = 12–16
| language = English
| date = February 2003
| url = http://www.voiceofthehill.com/HStHistory-2.pdf
| accessdate = 2007-01-19 }}</ref>
====Anacostia and Potomac River====
The first company to serve Anacostia was chartered on May 5, 1870 and was given approval by Congress on February 18, 1875.<ref name="Laws"/> The streetcar line was constructed in 1875 across the Anacostia River by the '''Anacostia and Potomac River Railroad Company'''. The streetcars traveled from the Arsenal, along M and 11th streets, and crossed the Navy Yard Bridge to Uniontown (now Historic Anacostia). The route then led down Nichols Avenue (now Martin Luther King Avenue) to V Street SE where a car barn and stables were maintained by the company.<ref name="Anacostia">{{cite journal
| author = Alan Eckmann, et. al.
| title = Anacostia Corridor Demonstration Project - Environmental Assessment
| version =
| publisher = District of Columbia Department of Transportation
| date = April 2004
| url = http://www.dctransitfuture.com/pubs/chpt_3_3_25_3_52.pdf
| accessdate = 2007-01-24}}</ref> On August 1, 1888 the Anacostia and Potomac River was permitted to expand from the Navy Yard to Congressional Cemetery and past Garfield Park to the Center Market in downtown, both of which it did later that year. It was also permitted to expand in Anacostia past the Government Hospital for the Insane to the District line.<ref name="Laws"/>
====Capitol, North O Street and South Washington====
The last streetcar company to begin operation during the horsecar era was the '''Capitol, North O Street and South Washington Railway Company'''. It was incorporated on March 3, 1875 and began operation later that year. It's circular route went from the Capitol along 1st Street West, south of the Mall on Maryland and Virginia Avenues, north on 12th, the old Ohio Avenue (now obliterated by Federal Triangle) and 14th Street to O NW and then south on 4th, G and 1st streets NW. A P Street track was added in 1876 for westbound [http://www.davesrailpix.com/odds/dc/htm/ctc10.htm cars], leaving O Street for eastbound traffic. In 1881, the route was extended North on 11th to Boundary, south on 11th and Water to the Arsenal and tracks were rerouted across the Mall. It changed its name to the '''Belt Railway Company''' on February 18, 1893.<ref name="CHS"/><ref name="shaw"/><ref name="Laws"/>
[[Image:
====Herdic Phaeton Company====
The development and improvement of streetcars was partly the result of competition from horse-drawn chariots. Starting on March 5, 1877 the date of President Hayes' inauguration, these single horse carriages began running on a route roughly parallel to the Washington and Georgetown's Pennsylvania Avenue route. They were slower but cheaper. To compete, the W&G ran one horse streetcars at a discounted fare. After three years, the chariots were forced out of business. This was followed almost immediately by the Herdic Phaeton Company which ran a plushly upholstered carriages along an expanded route. The company was more successful than the chariot company and continued to expand until 1887. The electric streetcar was too much competition for the company and when it's principal stockholder died in 1896 it ceased operations.<ref name="CHS"/> [http://books.google.com/books?id=7Rb49sa6wogC&pg=RA1-PA127&lpg=RA1-PA127&dq=herdic+phaeton&source=web&ots=PWqwvcuFF4&sig=5sH_magTT-sVHVWXfC9Pksv83Q4#PRA1-PA127,M1 Photo] of a Herdic Omnibus and gingerbread waiting station at Lafayette Square in 1891.
After the Herdic Company went under, the Metropolitan Coach Company began running horse-drawn coaches in conjunction with the Metropolitan Railroad. It began carrying passengers from 16th and T to 22nd and G NW, but the route changed later running from 16th an U to the Treasury Building and then along Pennsylvania Avenue to 9th Street NW. It began operations on May 1, 1897 with a car barn at 1914 E Street NW. In 1904 it became its own corporation.<ref name="CHS"/>
===The Switch to Electric Power===
Horsecars, though an improvement over horse-drawn wagons, were slow, dirty and inefficient. Horses needed to be housed and fed, created large amounts of waste, had difficulty climbing hills and were difficult to dispose of. Almost as soon as they were instituted, companies began looking for alternatives. For example, the Washington and Georgetown experimented with a steam motor car in the 1870s and 1880s which was run on Pennsylvania Avenue near the Capitol several times, but was never placed in permanent use.<ref name="CHS"/>
In 1883, [[Frank Sprague]] an 1878 Naval Academy graduate, resigned from the Navy to work for
[[Thomas Edison]]. He wound up in Richmond, Virginia where, on February 2, 1888 he put into service the first electric-powered streetcar system.<ref>{{cite web
| last = Ward
| first = Mike
| title = Timeless Machines:Trolleys could make a homecoming to Richmond as the city eyes mass transit options
| work = Richmond.com
| date = October 24, 2001
| url = http://www.richmond.com/news/output.aspx?Article_ID=1676211&Vertical_ID=2
| accessdate = 2007-01-29}}</ref> After 1888, many cities, including Washington, turned to electric-powered streetcars. To get electricity to the streetcars from the powerhouse where it was generated, an overhead wire was installed over city streets. A streetcar would touch this electric wire with a long pole on its roof. Back at the powerhouse, big steam engines would turn huge generators to produce the electricity needed to operate the streetcars. A new name was soon developed for streetcars powered by electricity; they were called trolley cars.<ref name="History"/>
====New Electric Streetcar Companies====
=====Eckington and Soldiers' Home=====
[[Image:Eckington_and_Soldiers_Home.jpg|right|thumb|300px|Opening day, Eckington & Soldiers’ Home Railway at the terminus of the line at Seventh Street and New York Avenue, NW]]
| title = Shaw Main Street: Did You Know?
| publisher = Shaw Main Street, Inc.
| date = 2004
| url = http://www.shawmainstreets.com/resources.htm
| accessdate = 2007-01-30}}</ref> In 1889, the line was extended along T, 2nd and V Streets to Glenwood Cemetery, but the extension proved unprofitable and was closed in 1894.<ref>{{cite journal
| author = Melville Fuller
| title = Eckington & Soldiers' Home R CO v. McDevitt, 191 U.S. 103 (1903)
| version = 9
| publisher = The United States Supreme Court
| date = 1903-01-21
| url = http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=US&vol=191&invol=103
| accessdate = 2007-01-31}}</ref> At the same time an extension was built along Michigan Avenue to the B&O railroad tracks. In 1895 the company removed its overhead trolley lines in accordance with its charter and attempted to replace them with batteries. These proved too costly and the company substituted horse power in the central city.<ref name="CHS"/> In 1896 Congress directed the Eckington and Soldier's Home to try out compressed air motors and, if unsuccessful, to substitute underground electric power for all its horse and overhead trolley lines in the city.<ref name="Laws"/> The compressed air motors were a failure and in 1899 the company switched to the standard underground electric power conduit.<ref name="CHS"/>
=====Rock Creek=====
Four days after the Eckington and Soldiers' Home was chartered, the '''Rock Creek Railway''' was incorporated by [[Francis Griffith Newlands]] on June 23, 1888.<ref name="Laws"/> Service began in 1890 and was extended to Washington Heights in September 1892. The route ran north on Florida Avenue from Connecticut Avenue, north along 18th Street and crossed the Rock Creek Valley on what was later Calvert Street (then Cincinnati Street). The iron bridge across Rock Creek at Calvert Street was built by the company and construction completed on July 21, 1891.<ref name="CHS"/> At this point, the streetcar continued northward on [http://americanhistory.si.edu/onthemove/collection/object_414.html Connecticut Avenue] to [[Chevy Chase Lake]], Maryland. The following year, the line was extended east along [[U Street]] through [[Shaw, Washington, DC|Cardoza/Shaw]] to 7th Street, intersecting with several downtown lines and making the Washington Heights neighborhood more readily accessible from downtown.<ref name="WashHigh"/> This track was removed in 1899.<ref name="CHS"/> In 1896, the Rock Creek (then part of Capitol Traction) experimented on U Street NW between 9th and 18th with a new power system. The Love system transmitted electricity through a set of trolley wheels running on underground conduit rails instead of through the sliding shoe used elsewhere. While the system worked it was more expensive to install. In the spring of 1899 it was replaced with the sliding shoe and the line continued to the Calvert Street Loop.<ref name="CHS"/>
=====Georgetown and Tennallytown=====
The third electric streetcar company to incorporate, the '''Georgetown and Tennallytown Railway Company''' was chartered on August 22, 1888.<ref name="Laws"/> In 1890, the railway started operations connecting Georgetown to the extant village of Tennallytown. The line traveled the length of the Georgetown and Rockville Road (now [[Wisconsin Avenue]]), stretching from the Potomac River to the Maryland State line.<ref name="Neighborhoods">{{cite web
| title = Washington Neighborhoods
| publisher = The United States National Parks Service
| date =
| url = http://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/travel/Wash/dcneighbor.htm
| accessdate = 2007-01-31}}</ref> In 1890 it was extended across the Maryland line to Bethesda.<ref name="cleveland">{{cite journal
| author = Kimberly Protho Williams
| title = Cleveland Park Historic District
| publisher = The Cleveland Park Historic District
| date = 2001
| url = http://planning.dc.gov/planning/lib/planning/preservation/brochures/cleve_park_brochure.pdf
| accessdate = 2007-02-05 }}</ref> In 1897, the '''Washington and Rockville Company''' formed to extend the line to Rockville. Though the two companies legally acted as different entities, they traveled identical routes on identical rails and shared a car barn (owned by WRECo) on Wisconsin Avenue NW at the District line.<ref>{{cite court
|litigants= Citizens of Somerset vs. Washington Railway and Electric Company
|court= Interstate Commerce Commission of the United States
|date= January 9, 1912
|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=kdQU97z51EEC&dq=Georgetown+Tennallytown+Rockville&pg=PA187
}}</ref> By 1900, the tracks had extended to Rockville.<ref name="Rockville">{{cite web
| title = The Trolley Era in Rockville 1900-1935
| work = Peerless Places
| publisher = Peerless Rockville
| url = http://www.peerlessrockville.org/peerless_places/peerless_places_trolley_era.htm
| accessdate = 2007-02-28 }}</ref> Map of the Rockville line [http://www.peerlessrockville.org/peerless_places/images/trolley2.jpg].
=====Washington and Great Falls - Maryland and Washington=====
Two more companies stretching into Maryland were incorporated by Acts of Congress in the summer of 1892. The '''Washington and Great Falls Electric Company''' was approved on July 28, 1892 to build an electric streetcar line from the Aqueduct Bridge to Cabin John Creek. It completed its track in August 1895. Because the railroad never reached Great Falls, but instead terminated at Cabin John, it was often referred to as the "Cabin John Trolley." The '''Maryland and Washington Railway Company''' was approved a few days later on August 1, 1892. In ran on Rhode Island Avenue from 4th Street NE reaching what is now [[Mount Rainier, Maryland|Mount Rainier]] on the Maryland line in 1897.<ref>{{cite web
| title = Historical Overview Of Mount Rainier, Maryland
| work = Historic Mount Rainier, Maryland
| publisher = City of Mount Rainier
| url = http://www.mountrainiermd.org/history/
| accessdate = 2007-03-01 }}</ref> At its southern terminus it connected to the Eckington and Soldier's Home.<ref name="CHS"/>
=====Capital Railway=====
The first electric streetcar to operate in Anacostia was the '''Capital Railway Company'''. It was incorporated by Colonel Arthur Emmett Randle on March 2, 1895 to serve Congress Heights. It was to run from Shepherds Ferry along the Potomac and across the Navy Yard Bridge to M Street. A second line would run along Good Hope Road to the District Line.<ref name="Laws"/> The line was built during the [[Panic of 1896]] despite 18 months of opposition from the Anacostia and Potomac.<ref>{{cite news
| title = This Is His Birthday
| work = The Evening Star
| pages = 3
| language = English
| date = 1908-01-17
| url = http://www.congressionalcemetery.org/PDF/Obits/R/Obits_Randle.pdf
| accessdate = 2007-02-28 }}</ref> In 1897 it experimented with the "Brown System", which used magnets in boxes to relay power instead of overhead or underground lines, and with double trolley lines over the Navy Yard Bridge. Both were failures.<ref name="CHS"/> By 1898, the streetcar line ran along Nichols Avenue (now Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue) to Congress Heights, ending at Upsal Street.<ref name="Anacostia"/> At the same time the Capital Railway was incorporated, the '''Washington and Marlboro Electric Railway''' was chartered to run trains across the Anacostia through SE Anacostia to the District Line at Suitland Road and from there to Upper Marlboro, but it never laid any track.<ref name="Laws"/>
=====Baltimore and Washington=====
The '''Baltimore and Washington Transit Company''' was incorporated prior to 1894, with authorization to run from the District of Columbia, across Maryland to the Pennsylvania border.<ref>{{cite web
| title = Session Laws of Maryland 1894
| date = 1894
| url = http://www.msa.md.gov/megafile/msa/speccol/sc2900/sc2908/000001/000480/html/am480--493.html
| accessdate = 2007-02-26}}</ref> On June 8, 1896 it was given permission to enter the District of Columbia to a connection with the Brightwood, eventually running on 3rd Street NW, Kennedy Street and Colorado Avenue.<ref name="CHS"/><ref name="Laws"/> In 1897, it began construction on a line, known locally as the [[Dinky Line]], that began at 4th and Butternut Streets, NE, traveled south on 4th to Aspen Street and then east on Laurel Street into Maryland.<ref>{{cite news
| last = Bentley
| first = Elizabeth Marple
| title = The District's Frontier in 1884: Tradesmen Join Visionary to Shape Washington's First True Suburb
| work = Takoma Voice
| language = English
| date = May 1999
| url = http://www.historictakoma.org/takoma/voice/199905history.html
| accessdate = 2007-03-01}}</ref> On March 14, 1914, it changed its name to the '''Washington and Maryland Railway Company'''.<ref name="CHS"/>
=====East Washington Heights=====
The '''East Washington Heights Traction Railroad Company''' was incorporated on June 18, 1898.<ref name="CHS"/> It ran from the Capitol along Pennsylvania Avenue across the bridge to Randle Highlands (now known as Twining).<ref name="McGraw">{{cite book
| title = Directory of Electric Railway Companies in United States, Canada and Mexico
| publisher = McGraw Hill Company Inc.
| date = 1920
| ___location = New York
| pages = 22
| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=1BvW7ax1FAEC&dq=%22East+Washington+Heights+Traction%22&pg=PA22}}</ref>
=====Washington, Spa Spring and Gretta=====
The last new streetcar company to form was the '''Washington, Spa Spring and Gretta Railroad Company'''. It was chartered by the state of Maryland on February 13, 1905 and authorized to enter the district on February 18, 1907.<ref name="CHS"/> In 1910, it began running cars along a single track from a modest waiting station and car barn near 15th and H along Bladensburg Road to [[Bladensburg]]. [On July 5, 1892 the '''District of Columbia Suburban Railway''' was incorporated to run streetcars along the same route - on Bladensburg Road from the Columbia tracks on H Street to the Maryland line and from Brookland to Florida Avenue, but it was never constructed]. Although initially planned to go as far as [[Gettysburg]], [[Pennsylvania]], the line never ran further than an extension to [[Berwyn Heights, Maryland|Berwyn Heights]]. The route was planned to promote development of land owned by the company adjacent to the tracks, but it never successfully competed with established rail lines in the same area.<ref name="HStreet"/> Noting it's diminished ambitions, it became the '''Washington Interurban Railway Company''' on October 12, 1912<ref name="CHS"/> and changed the Railway to Railroad in 1919.
====Conversion of Horse Cars to Mechanical and Electrical Power====
On March 2, 1889 the District authorized every streetcar company in Washington to switch from horse power to underground cable or to electricity provided by battery or underground wire and in 1890 companies were authorized to sell stock to pay for the upgrades - provided they did not involve overhead wires. In 1892, one horse cars were banned within the city, and by 1894 Congress began requiring companies to switch to something other than horse power while continuing to disallow overhead lines within the city.
=====Washington and Georgetown=====
Immediately after the March 2, 1889 law was passed, the Washington and Georgetown began installing an underground cable system. Their 7th Street line was operating as a cable car system by April 12, 1890. Sixteen cars traveled on the route at 6 mph at three minute intervals, from 5am to 1am daily. The rest of the system was in operation by August 18, 1892.<ref name="CHS"/><ref name="Shaw"/> Two cables pulled the cars up and down Pennsylvania Avenue between the Navy Yard and Georgetown. The company built five new facilities to handle the cable car operations. In 1892, they extended their track along 14th to Mount Pleasant Ave (now Park Street) and built a new barn there. They moved the cars from the barn at 13th and Florida to the new one and sold the older facility which was converted into a printing plant.<ref name="Manhattan"/> In 1893 the company built the Navy Yard Car Barn (now known as the Blue Castle) across from the Navy Yard to service the new cars.<ref name="CapHill">{{cite journal
| author = Kimberly Protho Williams
| title = Capitol Hill Historic District
| publisher = The Capitol Hill Historic District
| date = 2003
| url = http://planning.dc.gov/planning/lib/planning/preservation/brochures/capitolhillbroch.hi.pdf
| accessdate = 2007-02-06 }}</ref>
The company built two powerhouses to provide energy for the system, one at 14th and E Streets NW and the other at 7th and P Streets SW. In the middle of the intersection of 14th and Pennsylvania a large wheel pit was constructed.<ref name="CHS"/> In addition the company was authorized, on August 23, 1894, to extend its line on M Street to the Aqueduct Bridge, and build a "Union Station" - now the Georgetown Car Barn. In 1895, now part of Capitol Traction, it began construction on the [[Waddy Wood]]-designed car barn. Union Station was designed to serve four streetcar companies: The Washington and Georgetown lines would use the ground floor on M Street while the Washington, Arlington & Falls Church and the projected Great Falls and Old Dominion were to come across the Potomac from Rosslyn entering the second and third floors respectively on steel trestles. The Metropolitan Railroad would use the roof. The Virginia companies never used it and the Metropolitan only sparingly so. The Washington and Great Falls took over the third floor. The station opened on May 27, 1897 and contained Washington's only cable loop, although for less than a year,<ref name="Douglas"/> because on September 29, 1897, the company's powerhouse at 14th and E NW [http://www.davesrailpix.com/odds/dc/htm/ctc33.htm burned down] and the city took the site for its Municipal Building. The company replaced the cable cars with an electric system, using horses in the interim. The electric wire for the cars was placed in the old cable system's underground conduit.<ref>{{cite web
| title = Pennsylvania Avenue Railroads
| publisher = The United States National Parks Service
| url = http://www.nps.gov/archive/paav/railroad.htm
| accessdate = 2007-02-06}}</ref> The 14th Street branch switched to electric power on February 27, 1898, the Pennsylvania Avenue division on April 20, 1898 and the 7th Street branch on May 26, 1898.<ref name="Tindall"/>
=====Metropolitan=====
On October 18, 1888, the day after the Eckington and Soldier's Home began operation, Congress authorized the '''Brightwood Railway Company''' to electrify the Metropolitan's streetcar line on Seventh Street Extended or Brightwood Avenue (now known as [[Georgia Avenue]]) and to extend it to the District line at Silver Spring. In 1890 they bought the former Boundary and Silver Spring line from the Metropolitan, but continued to operate it as a horse line. In 1892 it was ordered by Congress to switch to overhead electrical power and complete the line.<ref name="Laws"/><ref name="Petworth"/> The next year, the streetcar tracks reached Takoma Park along Butternut Street to 4th.<ref name="takoma">{{cite web
| title = Takoma Park Historic District
| url = http://takomadc.info/history-long.htm
| accessdate = 2007-02-15}}</ref> In 1898, the Brightwood was ordered to switch to underground electric power on pain of having its charter revoked.<ref name="Marsh"/>
The remaining Metropolitan company experimented with batteries in 1890 but found them unsatisfactory. On August 2, 1894 Congress ordered the Metropolitan to switch to underground electrical power. It complied, installing the underground sliding shoe on the north-south line in January 1895. It was the first successful installation of such a system in the Western Hemisphere (having previously been installed in [[Budapest, Hungary]]).<ref name="Douglas"/><ref name="Tindall"/> Though mostly a success, the underground power conduits had drawbacks. In the winter, the plow would get jammed by snow and ice and in the summer the conduits swelled shut.<ref name="GSS"/> It switched the rest of the system on July 7, 1896.<ref name="CHS"/> As part of the new construction in 1895, Metropolitan built a massive, Romanesque-style car barn on the corner of 4th and P Streets Southeast.<ref name="SW"/> In the same year, Metropolitan built a loop on 35th and 36th to Prospect Street to connect it to the Georgetown Car Barn.<ref name="CHS"/> In 1896 it built the East Capitol Street Car Barn, and extended service along the road, a [[Romanesque Revival]] style building designed by [[Waddy Wood]], to serve as a car barn, repair shop, and administrative offices.<ref name="eastcap">{{cite web
| last = Ganschinetz
| first = Suzanne
| title = East Capitol Street Car Barn
| work = Washington, D.C. Historic Places Travel Itinerary
| publisher = The United States National Park Service
| url = http://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/travel/wash/dc88.htm
| accessdate = 2007-02-23}}</ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=-OdCaIOXd7oC&pg=PA113&lpg=PA113&dq=east+capital+street+car+barn+condominiums&source=web&ots=Tyvxb8kMvP&sig=_6DYjDjovi6zQ6jCEGQE8_W01dQ#PPA113,M1 photos] In 1896, the company extended its service along Columbia Road and Mt. Pleasant Street as far as Park Road.<ref name="WashHigh"/>
=====Columbia=====
[[Image:Columbia Car barn.jpg|thumb|left|350px|Columbia Railway Company Car Barns aka Trinidad Cable Car Barns, Fifteenth Street & Benning Road Northeast. The barn was built in 1895, converted to electric power in 1899 and to a bus barn in 1942. In 1971 it was demolished.]]
The [http://www.davesrailpix.com/odds/dc/htm/cr01.htm Columbia Railway] installed a cable system with a new cable car barn and began its operation on March 9, 1895. It was the last cable car system built in the United States. The underground electrical system proved superior though, so it switched to that system on July 22, 1899. The last cable car in the city ran the next day.<ref name="CHS"/>
Using electricity from the power plant built to power its cable operation, the Columbia won permission in 1898 to build a line east along Benning Road. Since this route was outside the city, overhead wires could be used to provide electric power. The line split on the east side of the Anacostia. One branch ran to Kenilworth, and the other connected at [[Seat Pleasant, Maryland|Seat Pleasant]] with the terminus of the steam-powered [[Chesapeake Beach Railway]].<ref name="HStreet"/>
=====Belt=====
In 1896 Congress directed the Belt Railway to try out compressed air motors, just as it had the Eckington and Soldier's Home.<ref name="Laws"/> The compressed air motors were a failure, the company went into receivership and in 1899 was equipped with the standard underground power system.<ref name="CHS"/>
=====Anacostia and Potomac River=====
[[File:A&PRR_manhole_cover.jpg|thumb|right|150px|Extant manhole cover from the Anacostia and Potomac River Railroad Company]]
The [http://www.davesrailpix.com/odds/dc/htm/ap01.htm Anacostia and Potomac], which had been extended from F street NW to Florida Avenue along 11th, switched from horses to electric in April 1900. This was the last horse-drawn streetcar to run in the District.<ref name="Tindall"/>
===Virginia Companies Operating in Washington, D.C.===
''Two Virginia based companies eventually extended service into the District and a third was given permission to, but never did.''
The '''Washington and Arlington Railway Company''' was the first Virginia company given permission to operate in Washington. It was incorporated on February 28, 1892 with the right to run a streetcar from the train station at 6th and B Streets NW to Virginia across a new Three Sisters Bridge.<ref name="Laws"/> It was also alloted space in the Georgetown Car Barn.<ref name="Douglas">{{cite web
| title = The Historic Car Barn
| work = Douglas Development
| url = http://www.douglasdevelopment.com/dc03.html
| accessdate = 2007-02-08}}</ref> The company was never able to construct the new bridge, ans so never operated in Washington.
The '''Washington, Alexandria and Mount Vernon Electric Railway Company''' started construction in Virginia in 1892. On August 23, 1894 it was given permission to enter the District of Columbia using a ferry. It completed its tracks in 1896 and began serving a waiting station at 14th and B Streets NW . From there it used the Belt Line's track on 14th Street to reach the Long Bridge (and later the Highway Bridge) never opting to use the ferry system. In 1902 its station was moved to 12th and D Streets NW to make room for the District Building.<ref name="CHS"/><ref name="Laws"/> On October 17, 1910 the Washington and Arlington, by then the Washington, Arlington & Falls Church Railway Company, and the Washington, Alexandria & Mount Vernon merged to form the '''Washington - Virginia Railway Company'''.<ref name="CHS"/> The company had difficulty competing and in 1924 declared [[bankruptcy]]. In 1927, the two companies were split and sold at [[auction]].<ref name="dons">{{cite web
| title = Virginia Trolley Lines
| work = Don's Depot
| url = http://donsdepot.donrossgroup.net/dr350.htm
| accessdate = 2007-02-09}}</ref> The former Washington, Arlington & Falls Church reemerged as the '''Arlington and Fairfax Electric Railway Company'''<ref name="dons"/> and continued to serve the city on the Washington-Virginia route until the new Highway Bridge was built in 1932.<ref name="dcnrhs"/>
The '''Great Falls and Old Dominion Railroad Company''' was chartered January 24, 1900 and authorized to enter the District on January 29, 1903. It crossed over the Aqueduct Bridge and terminated near, but not inside, the Georgetown Car Barn.<ref name="CHS"/> In 1912 it was purchased by the '''Washington and Old Dominion Railroad''' and became the Great Falls Division of that company.
===Streetcar Consolidation===
By the mid-1890s there were numerous streetcar companies operating in the District. Congress tried to deal with this fractured transit system by requiring them to accept transfers, set standard pricing and allow them to use one another's track. But eventually it became clear that consolidation was the best solution.
[[Image:NonFreeImageRemoved.svg|thumb|right|200px|Token]]The first company created during "the great streetcar consolidation" was the '''Capital Traction Company''' which was formed after March 1, 1895, when Congress authorized the Rock Creek Railway to purchase the Washington and Georgetown. In did so on September 21, 1895.<ref name="Tindall">{{cite book
| last = Tindall
| first = William
| title = Standard History of the City of Washington from a Study of the Original Sources
| publisher = H. W. Crew & Co.
| date = 1914
| ___location = Knoxville, TN
| pages = 414–429 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=D_ZJBxoCYeAC&dq=%22Brightwood+Railway+Company%22&pg=RA6-PA427
}}</ref> In 1916 Capital Traction took ownership of the Washington and Maryland Railway Company and its 2.591 miles of track.<ref name="Marsh"/>
A few years later, on June 24, 1898 the Anacostia and Potomac began its expansion by purchasing the Belt Railway and in 1899 it purchased the Capital Railway.
Later that year, the Eckington and Soldier's Home purchased the Maryland and Washington. On June 27, 1898 the new, combined company changed its name to the '''City and Suburban Railway of Washington'''. It purchased the '''Columbia and Maryland''', running from Mount Rainier to Laural, in the same year.<ref name="CHS"/>
Between the years 1896 and 1899, three businessmen purchased controlling interests in the Metropolitan; the Columbia; the Anacostia and Potomac River; the Georgetown and Tennallytown; the Washington, Woodside and Forest Glen; the Washington and Great Falls; and the Washington and Rockville railway companies, in addition to the Potomac Electric Power Company and the United States Electric Lighting Company. They incorporated the '''Washington Traction and Electric Company''' on June 5, 1899 as a holding company for these interests. But the holding company had borrowed too heavily and paid too much for the subsidiaries and was quickly in financial trouble. Because of this Congress, on June 5, 1900, authorized the Washington and Great Falls to acquire the stock of any and all of the railways and power companies owned by Washington Traction and Electric. When Washington Traction and Electric defaulted on its loans on June 1, 1901 Washington and Great Falls moved in to take its place. On February 4, 1902, Washington and Great Falls changed its named to the '''Washington Railway and Electric Company''', reincorporated as a holding company and exchanged stock in Washington Traction and Electric one for one for stock in the new company (at a discounted rate).<ref name="Marsh"/>
Not every company became a part of Washington Railway immediately. The [http://www.davesrailpix.com/odds/dc/htm/csr01.htm City and Suburban] and the Georgetown and Tennallytown operated as subsidiaries of Washington Railway until October 31, 1926 when it purchased the remainder of their stock.<ref name="Marsh"/>
During this time the streetcar companies continued to expand both trackage and service. The '''American Sight-Seeing Car and Coach Company''' started running tourist cars along Washington Railway streetcar tracks in 1902, until it switched to large automobiles in 1904.<ref name="CHS"/> In 1908, their U Street line was extended east down Florida Avenue to 8th Street NE, and from there south down 8th to the Navy Yard.<ref name="HStreet"/> On June 24, 1908 the first streetcars began service to Union Station along Delaware Avenue and by December 6 cars of both Capital Traction and Washington Railway were serving the building along Massachusetts Avenue.<ref name="Union">{{cite book
| last = Wright
| first = William
| title = Now Arriving Washington: Union Station and Life in the Nation's Capital
| date = 2006
| pages = 187
| url = http://www.washingtonunionstation.com/chapters/Chapter4.pdf}}</ref>
In 1908, the [[Washington, Baltimore and Annapolis Electric Railway]] began service from Washington to Baltimore and Annapolis. Though technically an interurban, this railway utilized streetcar tracks from its terminal at 15th and H Streets NE and across the Benning Road Bridge where it switched to its own tracks in Deanwood. It was the main source of transportation to [[Suburban Gardens]], known as "the black [[Glen Echo Park (Maryland)|Glen Echo]]", the first and only major [[amusement park]] within Washington.<ref name="HStreet"/>
[[Image:Georgetown powerplant.jpg|left|thumb|200px|The former Capital Traction Power House on the Georgetown waterfront. Built in 1910-11 it was shut down in 1933, decommissioned in 1943 and demolished in 1968.]] In 1910, Capital Traction began construction on a power house in Georgetown to power its streetcars. The facility opened on the waterfront in 1912.<ref name="powerhouse">{{cite journal
| author = William Gwin & Daniel Reiff
| title = Historical American Building Survey: Capital Traction Company Powerhouse
| publisher = National Park Service: Office of Archeology and Historic Preservation
| date = 1969
| url = http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/hhh.dc0047
| accessdate = 2007-03-13 }}</ref>
The next major consolidation occurred on August 31, 1912 when the Washington Railway purchased the controlling stock of the Anacostia and Potomac. This left only 6 companies operating in Washington - four of which had less than 3 miles of track.<ref name="CHS"/> It also led to Congress passing the "Anti-Merger Act", prohibiting mergers without Congress' approval and establishing the Public Utilities Commission. In 1914 a failed attempt was made to have the Federal Government purchase the all streetcar lines and companies.<ref name="Tindall"/>
Streetcars were unionized in 1916 when local 689 of the Amalgamated Association of Street, Electric Railway and Motor Coach Employees of America won recognition after a three-day strike.<ref name="GSS"/>
Further consolidation came in the form of the [[North American Company]], a transit and utilities holding company. North American began to acquire stock in Washington Railway in 1922, gaining a controlling interest by 1928. by December 31, 1933 it owned 50.016% of the voting stock. North American tried to purchase Capital Traction, but it always remained widely owned by the residents of Washington, without a principle stock holder. North American never owned more than 2.5% of Capital Traction stock.<ref name="Marsh"/>
===Bustitution and Competition===
By 1916, the streetcar was reaching its peak in Washington, D.C. The combined systems had over 200 miles of track<ref name="dcnrhs"/> and almost 100 in the city.<ref name="CHS"/> Passengers could travel to Great Falls, Glen Echo, Rockville, Kensington and [[Laurel, Maryland|Laurel]] in Maryland; and to Mt. Vernon, Alexandria, Vienna, Fairfax, Leesburg, Great Falls and Bluemont. World War I saw further increases in passenger traffic.<ref name="NCTM">{{cite web
| title = Washington Streetcar Collection
| publisher = National Capital Trolley Museum
| url = http://www.dctrolley.org/dccoll.htm
| accessdate = 2007-03-15}}</ref> But the streetcars were also under increasing threat from competition.
The first threat to the streetcars came with the introduction of gasoline powered [[taxicabs]]. The taxi meter, invented in 1891, combined with the combustion engine, let to gasoline powered taxicabs. These were put in service in Paris in 1899, in New York in 1907 and in Washington in 1908. Over the years, their numbers expanded.<ref name="CHS"/>
In 1909, the Metropolitan Coach Company began to switch from horse-drawn coaches to gasoline-powered coaches - replacing its entire system by 1913 and becoming a precursor to the bus companies. It was a financial failure though and on August 13, 1915 the company ceased operations.<ref name="CHS"/>
The gasoline-powered bus was invented in Germany in 1895 and motorized buses were introduced in New York City in 1905. As improvements, such as balloon tires, were made, buses became more popular. The first formal bus company '''The Washington Rapid Transit Company''', was incorporated on January 20, 1921. By 1932 it was carrying 4.5% of transit customers.<ref name="Marsh"/> Two years later, the last streetcar line was built.<ref name="CapTransit"/>
Just as the horse cars had replaced carriages and the electric streetcar replaced horse cars, so too were buses to replace the electric streetcars.
In 1923, the number of streetcar companies operating in Washington cut in half as three of them switched to buses. The East Washington Heights became the first streetcar company to switch to buses,<ref>{{cite book
| title = Street-car Fares in the District of Columbia: Hearings Before a Subcommittee on S. 393, Jan 21, 1924
| publisher = United States Congress. Senate.
| date = 1924
| ___location = Washington, DC
| pages = 353
| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=P9mEKvI72N8C&q=%22Street-car+Fares+in+the+District+of+Columbia:%22
}}</ref> a small change since it only had two cars running on 1 mile of track.<ref name="McGraw"/> The Washington Interurban Railroad switched next and the tracks it ran on were removed when Bladensburg Road was repaved.<ref name="HStreet"/> Finally in that same year, when the Key Bridge was constructed, the Washington and Old Dominion gave up rail access to D.C. in exchange for a terminal in Rosslyn.<ref>{{cite news
| last = Scheel
| first = Eugene
| title = At the End of the Line, An Opportunity Lost
| newspaper = The Washington Post
| publisher = washigntonpost.com
| url = http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/16/AR2007021602409.html
| accessdate = 2007-02-20}}</ref>
When electric streetcars began, several lines also delivered freight on rail cars running on their lines. Capital Traction abandoned this service in 1931.<ref name="NCTM"/>
In 1932, the '''Arlington & Fairfax Motor Transportation Company''' was established to replace the streetcar service of the Arlington & Fairfax which lost the right to use the Highway Bridge.<ref>{{cite news
| title = New Bus Company Files Entry Plea
| newspaper = The Washington Post
| pages = 11
| date = Apr 8, 1932}}</ref> The last Arlington & Fairfax streetcar departed from 12th & D Streets, NW, on January 17, 1932, abandoning all streetcar service in the city.<ref name="dcnrhs"/>
In the summer of 1935 - after consolidation, several major lines were converted from streetcars to buses. The line from Friendship Heights to Rockville (formerly the Washington and Rockville), the P Street line (Metropolitan), the Anacostia-Congress Heights line (Capital Railway) and the Connecticut Avenue line in Chevy Chase (Rock Creek Railway) were all replaced with buses. At the same time, the [[Chesapeake Beach Railway]] and the [[Washington, Baltimore and Annapolis Electric Railway|Washington, Baltimore and Annapolis interurban]] ceased operations.<ref name="dcnrhs"/> The rail of the WB&A become the property of Capital Transit.<ref>{{cite web| url=http://historical.maptech.com/getImage.cfm?fname=wshe45se.jpg&state=MD|
title= USGS 7.5 Minute Series map of Washington East, MD Quadrangle|
date=1945|
accessdate=2006-11-21|
}}</ref>
The Columbia Railway Company Car barn was converted to a bus barn in 1942.<ref name="columbia car barn">{{cite journal
| author = Druscilla J. Null
| title =Historic American Buildings Survey:Columbia Railway Company Car Barns
| version =
| publisher = United States Department of the Interior
| date = 1983-12-07
| url = http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=pphhdatapage&fileName=dc/dc0200/dc0265/data/hhdatapage.db&recNum=1&itemLink=S?pp/hh:@field(TITLE+@od1(Columbia+Railway+Company+Car+Barns,+Fifteenth+Street+++Benning+Road+Northeast,+Washington,+District+of+Columbia,+DC))
| accessdate = 2007-01-08 }}</ref>
===Single Company Operations===
[[Image:NonFreeImageRemoved.svg|thumb|right|300px|Capital Transit weekly passes]]
On December 1, 1933 the Washington Railway and Electric Company, Capital Traction, and the Washington Rapid Transit Company merged to form the '''Capital Transit Company'''. Washington Railway and Electric Company continued as a holding company, owning 50% of Capital Transit and 100% of PEPCO, but Capital Traction was dissolved.<ref name="Marsh">{{cite journal
| last = March
| first = Charles E.
| title = The Local Transportation Problem in the District of Columbia
| journal = The Journal of Land and Public Utilities Economics
| volume = 10
| issue = 3
| pages = 275–290
| publisher = University of Wisconsin Press
| date = August 1934
| doi = 10.2307/3139173
| jstor = 3139173
| url = http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=1548-9000%28193408%2910%3A3%3C275%3AITLTPI%3E2.0.CO%3B2-9
| accessdate = 2007-01-18 }}</ref> For the first time street railways in Washington were under the management of one company.
Capital Transit made several changes. As part of the merger, the Capital Traction generating plant in Georgetown was closed (and in 1943 decommissioned) and Capital Transit used only conventionally-supplied electric power.<ref>{{cite web
| title = The History of the Georgetown Branch
| work = Coalition for the Capital Crescent Trail website
| url = http://www.cctrail.org/CCT_History.htm
| accessdate = 2007-03-20 }}</ref> In 1935 it closed several lines and replaced them with bus service. Because the Rockville line in Maryland was one of the lines that was closed, a new terminal, the "Capital Transit Community Terminal," opened at Wisconsin and Western Avenues on August 4, 1935.<ref name="Lost">{{cite web
| title = Lost from the Collections
| publisher = National Capital Trolley Museum
| url = http://www.dctrolley.org/lost.htm
| accessdate = 2007-03-21}}</ref> In 1936, the system introduced route numbers.<ref name="Shaw"/> On [[August 28]], [[1937]] the first [[PCC streetcars]] began running on 14th Street and over the next two years, the company would replace all cars with 589 of the streamlined modern PCC model.<ref name="NCTM"/> [http://davesrailpix.com/dct/htm/dct094.htm Click here for a General Electric ad about PCC cars in Washington]
At first, business was good for the new company. During [[World War II]], gasoline rationing limited automobile use, but transit companies were exempt from the rationing. Meanwhile, wage freezes held labor costs in check. With increased revenue and steady costs, Capital Transit conservatively built up a $7 million cash reserve.<ref name="GSS"/> In 1945 Capital Transit had America’s 3rd longest streetcar fleet.<ref name="CapTransit">{{cite web
| title = Capital Traction Company Electric Railway - District of Columbia
| work = scripophily.com
| date = 1996 - 2007
| url = http://www.scripophily.net/captraccomdi.html
| accessdate = 2007-03-22 }}</ref>[http://davesrailpix.com/dct/htm/dct304.htm Click here for a map of the system in 1948]
In 1946, a decision by the [[United States Supreme Court]] in [http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=US&vol=327&invol=686 ''North American Company v. Security and Exchange Commission''], the Supreme Court upheld the [[Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935]] and forced the North American Company, because it also owned the [[Potomac Electric Power Company]], to sell its shares of Capital Transit. Buyers were hard to come by, but on [[September 12]], [[1949]], [[Louis Wolfson]] and his three brothers purchased from North American 46.5% of the company's stock for $20 per share and the Washington Railway was dissolved.<ref>{{cite
| last =
| first =
| coauthors =
| title = Strike Against Wolfson
|
| pages =
| language =
Line 165 ⟶ 449:
| accessdate = 2007-01-04 }}</ref> For $2.2 million they bought a company with $7 million in cash. The Wolfson's began paying themselves huge dividends until in 1955 the war chest was down to $2.7 million. During the same period, transit trips dropped by 40,000 trips per day and automobile ownership doubled.<ref name="GSS"/>
On December 29, 1954 Capital Transit lost one of its last freight customers when the [[East Washington Railway]] took over the delivery of coal from the B&O to the [[PEPCO]] Power plant at Benning. Previously this had been done via Capital Transit Steeple cabs.<ref name="dcnrhs"/>
===DC Transit===
In January
| last = Schrag
| first = Zachery M.
| authorlink = http://www.schrag.info/
| title = The Great Society Subway: A History of the Washington Metro
| publisher = The Johns Hopkins University Press
| date = 2006
| ___location = Baltimore, MD
| pages =
| url = http://www.schrag.info/research/greatsocietysubway.html
| id = }}</ref> sought permission for a fare increase, but was denied. So that spring, when employees asked for a raise, there was no money available and the company refused to increase pay. Frustrated, employees went on strike on July 1, 1955. The strike, only the third in D.C. history and the first since a three
On July 18, 1956, after Wolfson dared the Senate to revoke his [[exclusive right|franchise]] claiming no other entrepreneur would take the company on, the [[Congress of the United States|Congress]] did just that. Months later, the franchise was sold to [[O. Roy Chalk]], a New York financier who owned controlling interest in [[Trans Caribbean Airways]], for $13.5 million.<ref name="GSS"/> The company's name was changed to '''DC Transit''' and Chalk was required to [[Bustitution|replace the system with buses]] by 1963.<ref name="GSS"/> Chalk unsuccessfully fought the retirement of the streetcars.<ref name="GSS"/>
===The End of the Line===
The final abandonment of the streetcar system began on September 7, 1958 with the end of the Eckington to Mt. Rainier line.<ref name="dcnrhs"/> On January 3, 1960, the Glen Echo, Friendship Heights & Georgia Avenue street car lines were abandoned and the Georgia Avenue car barn was closed.<ref name="Shaw"/> This technically ended "trolley" cars in D.C. as only conduit operations remained.<ref name="dcnrhs"/> On December 3, 1961 the streetcar line to Mt. Pleasant was abandoned.<ref name="MountPleasant">{{cite journal
|
| title = Village in the City: Mount Pleasant Heritage Trail Brochure
| publisher = Cultural Tourism DC
| date = 2006
| url = http://www.culturaltourismdc.org/usr_doc/344431_MP_eng_SPRD.pdf
| accessdate = 2007-03-08 }}</ref>
Finally the entire system - including line to the Navy Yard, 14th & Colorado, the Bureau of Engraving, the Calvert Street Loop, Barney Circle & Union Station - was abandoned for buses. Early on the morning of Sunday, January 28, 1962, preceded by cars 1101 and 1053, car 766 entered the Navy Yard Car Barn for the last time, and Washington's streetcars became history.<ref name="DCtrolley">{{cite web
| title = NCTM: Washington, D.C. Street Car Scenes
| url = http://www.dctrolley.org/dcstreet.htm
| accessdate = 2007-01-08 }}</ref>
===Remnants===
====Streetcars====
After the system was abandoned, most of the cars were either destroyed or sold. Several hundred cars were scrapped, cut in half at the center door and junked.<ref>{{cite news
| title = Transit News (Eastern)
| work = Timepoints
| publisher = The Southern California Traction Review
| date = August, 1959
| url = http://www.erha.org/timepoints/v17n8.htm
| accessdate = 2007-03-30 }}</ref> 150 of the streetcars were sold to [[Barcelona]] where they were in service into the 1970s;<ref>{{cite journal
| last = Miklos
| first = Frank
| title = Barcelona
| journal = Headlights: The Magazine of Electric Railways
| volume = 59
| issue =
| pages =
| publisher = Electric Railroaders Association, Inc
| date =
| url = http://www.electricrailroaders.org/headlights/pdf/1997_hdl_2_preview.pdf
| accessdate = 2007-01-06 }}</ref> 200 more were sold to [[Sarajevo]] where they ran until the [[Yugoslav wars|civil war]];<ref>{{cite web
| title = DC Transit Company PCC Streetcar (1945)
| publisher = The Virginia Museum of Transportation Inc.
| url = http://www.vmt.org/Collections/dc_trolley_1470.htm
| accessdate = 2007-01-07 }}</ref> and 15 more went to Fort Worth, TX for use on the [[Tandy Center Subway]] until it shut down in 2002.<ref>{{cite journal
| last = Post
| first = Robert
| title = Fourteenth and G, Washington, D.C. 1941
| journal = Technology and Culture
| volume = 39
}}</ref>
Of the hundreds of streetcars that once plied the streets of Washington, there are only about 20 remaining. Of these only one, Capital Transit #1551, is still in daily transit use. One of the 15 sold to Fort Worth, it was [http://world.nycsubway.org/perl/show?10955 repainted] and transferred to the McKinney Avenue Transit Authority in 2002 where it provides part-time regular streetcar service along the streets of Dallas. The only other car still in use, a Capital Transit PCC car sold to Sarajevo, has been restored and operates in charter service in Sarajevo.<ref name="preserve">{{cite web
| title = Organizations Preserving North American Railway Cars
| publisher = The Shore Line Trolley Museum
| url = http://www.bera.org/pnaerc-orginfo.html
| accessdate = 2007-04-03 }}</ref>
Others serve as museum pieces. The only Washington streetcar still in the District is [http://www.bera.org/cgi-bin/pnaerc-query.pl?detail=1367 Capital Traction 303] which serves as an exhibit in the Smithsonian's Museum of American History. [http://www.bera.org/cgi-bin/pnaerc-query.pl?detail=1573 Washington & Georgetown 212] is also preserved by the Smithsonian, but stored in the Smithsonian's facility in Suitland, MD. Seven more, including [http://www.dctrolley.org/dccoll.htm D.C. Transit 1101 and 1540, Capital Transit 509, 522, 766 and 1430, and Washington Railway 650], are preserved at the National Capital Trolley Museum in the Washington suburbs. Three other cars owned by the Trolley Museum were lost in a fire on [http://www.dctrolley.org/lost.htm September 28, 2003]. Farther from D.C., [http://abpr.railfan.net/abprphoto.cgi?july00/07-02-00/WRB-VaTM-PCC-backside.jpg D.C. Transit 1470] is kept at the Virginia Museum of Transportation in Roanoke, Virginia, [http://www.bera.org/cgi-bin/pnaerc-query.pl?detail=1139 Capital Transit 09] is at Rockhill Trolley Museum in Rockhill Furnace, Pennsylvania, [http://www.bera.org/cgi-bin/pnaerc-query.pl?detail=1140 Capital Transit 010] is maintained at the Connecticut Trolley Museum and D.C. Transit 1304 is kept at the Seashore Trolley Museum in Kennebunkport, ME. Three of the Ft. Worth cars are held in storage by [http://www.northtexastransport.org/ North Texas Historic Transportation] with plans to place them in yet-to-be-built museum. Finally, two of the Madrid cars are privately owned and stored in [http://lyttonspccs.homestead.com/files/1627.jpg Madrid, Spain] and Ejea de los Caballeros, Spain, and another two are in the Museu del Transport in Castellar de N'Hug, Spain. ([http://perso.wanadoo.es/assotram/1683b.jpg Photo of one])<ref name="preserve"/>
====Tracks====
Much of the track in DC was removed and sold for scrap. In other places, the track was buried under pavement. The only [http://www.clouse.org/dctrans.html|remaining visible tracks and conduit] in the region are in the center of the cobblestone streets of Georgetown, specifically the 3400 through 3800 blocks of P and O Streets, N.W.
====Car Barns and shops====
Some car barns, or car houses as they were later known, survived in part or in whole.
* The Washington and Georgetown car barn (later known as the M Street Shops) at 3222 M Street, NW, which had served as stables for [[Gilbert Vanderwerken]]'s [[bus|omnibus]] line, a streetcar garage and maintenance shop and as a tobacco warehouse was turned into a mall known as [http://www.shopsatgeorgetownpark.com/ The Shops at Georgetown Park] in 1981.<ref>{{cite news
| last = Charnis
| first = Elani
| title = Shopping in Georgetown
| work = Washington Business Journal
| date = 2001-09-07
| url = http://washington.bizjournals.com/washington/stories/2001/09/10/story1.html
| accessdate = 2007-04-18}}</ref> Only the [[facade]] of the original car barn remains.<ref name="McGraw"/>
* The Washington and Georgetown railroad car barn at 1326-46 Florida Avenue, originally built in 1877 and sold in 1892, is known today as the Manhattan Laundry. It serves as home to the Cesar Chavez Public Charter School for Public Policy; and as office space for several nonprofits, including Sarah House and the [[American Friends Service Committee]].<ref name="Manhattan">{{cite news
| last = Livingston
| first = Mike
| coauthors =
| title = D.C.'s first 'flex building' built in 19th century
| work = Washington Business Journal
| date = 2000-12-08
| url = http://washington.bizjournals.com/washington/stories/2000/12/11/focus16.html
| accessdate = 2007-04-05 }}</ref>
* The original Eckington Car Barn at T Street, NE, between 4th and 5th Streets burned down prior to 1920 and a new one was built to replace it.<ref name="hearings">{{cite book
| title = Regulation of Public Utilities in the District of Columbia: Hearing Before the Committee on the District of Columbia
| publisher = Government Printing Office
| date = 1920
| ___location = Washington
| pages = 408
| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=rV0gAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA408
}}</ref> That facility, at 400 T Street NE, is now a [[United States Postal Service|postal]] vehicle maintenance facility.
* The Navy Yard Car Barn (officially the Washington & Georgetown Railroad Car House and colloquially "[http://www.goprea.com/index.php?s=2&fp=141# The Blue Castle]") at 770 M Street, [[Washington DC (southeast)|SE]] is the sole-surviving streetcar resource from the cable car period. It served as a bus garage and now serves as the home to three charter schools: [http://www.keyacademy.org/key/index.asp KEY Academy], [http://www.wmstpchs.org/welcome.html Washington Math Science Technology Public Charter School], and the [http://eagleacademy.info/index.htm Eagle Academy]. In 2005 it was purchased by a developer hoping to turn it into retail space.<ref>{{cite news
| last = Hedgpeth
| first = Dana
| title = Developer Buys 'Blue Castle' in Southeast
| newspaper = The Washington Post
| date = 2005-12-26
| url = http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/25/AR2005122500533.html?nav=rss_realestate
| accessdate = 2007-04-10 }}</ref>
* The Georgetown Car Barn at 3600 M Street, [[Washington DC (northwest)|NW]], with "Capital Traction Company" still written above the main door, now serves as office space for the [[Georgetown University]] School of Business.<ref name="Douglas"/> It includes the famous "[[:Image:Exorcist Steps.jpg|Exorcist Steps]]" which connect Prospect Street to M Street. O. Roy Chalk owned the building until 1992 when the Minneapolis-based Lutheran Brotherhood, which took possession of the property in a foreclosure. It was bought by developer Doug Jemal in May 1997.<ref>{{cite news
| last = Keri
| first = Jonah
| title = Jemal Captures 3 High Profile Tenants in D.C.
| newspaper = The Washington Post
| date = 1998
| url = http://www.douglasdevelopment.com/news/carbarn02.html
| accessdate = 2007-04-12 }}</ref>
* The East Capital Street Car Barn at 1400 [[East Capitol Street]], [[Washington DC (northeast)|NE]] was used as a bus barn from 1962–73 and then sat vacant until it was adapted for re-use as condominiums.<ref name="eastcap"/>
[[File:Decatur Street Car Barn.jpg|thumb|right|300px|The Decatur Street Car Barn, built in 1906, is now a bus barn.]]
*The Decatur Street Car Barn (a.k.a. the at Capital Traction Company Car Barn or Northern Carhouse) at 4615 14th Street, NW was built in 1906 and is now used as a [[Metrobus (Washington, D.C.)|Metrobus]] barn. It's the only car barn still used for transit and one of three designed by [[Waddy Wood]].<ref>{{cite journal
| title = District of Columbia Inventory of Historic Sites
| version = January 2007 update
| date = 2007-01-01
| url = http://www.planning.dc.gov/planning/frames.asp?doc=/planning/lib/planning/Inventory_Update_2007_01.pdf
| accessdate = 2007-04-17 }}</ref>
*The Brightwood Station Car Barn, 5929 Georgia Avenue, NW; was built sometime after 1890 when the tracks were laid, but before 1948.<ref name="map1">{{cite map
|publisher= Electric Railroaders Association
|title= Capital Transit Company, Washington, D.C. Track Map
|url= http://davesrailpix.com/dct/htm/dct304.htm
|edition= December 10, 1948
|section=
|accessdate= 2007-04-18
}}</ref> [http://www.curtischevy.com Curtis Chevrolet] now occupies the building and has modified the facade.
Other car barns were demolished.
* The Anacostia and Potomac car barn at Martin Luther King Jr. Ave SE and V St SE is gone.
* The Columbia Railway car barn in Trinidad served as a bus barn until it was demolished in 1971 and replaced with apartments.<ref name="columbia car barn"/>
* The Metropolitan Street Railway Car Barn (a.k.a the Seventh Street-Wharves Barn) and the adjacent shops on 4th were torn down in 1962 to make room for the Riverside Condominiums.<ref name="SW">{{cite journal
| author = Jane Freundel Levey
| title = SW Heritage Trail Brochure
| publisher = Cultural Tourism DC
| date = 2004
| url = http://www.culturaltourismdc.org/usr_doc/SW_Heritage_Trail_brochure.pdf
| accessdate = 2007-01-11 }}</ref>
* [http://www.tenleytownhistoricalsociety.org/THS/images/calvert-street-car-barn-190.jpg The Tenleytown Car Barn] (a.k.a. Western Carhouse or Tennally Town Car barn), the first car barn and powerhouse for the Tennallytown line was built around 1897 at what is now the intersection of Wisconsin Avenue and Calvert Street.<ref>{{cite web
| last = Beck Helm
| first = Judith
| title = The Tenleytown Historical Society of Washington, D.C.
| url = http://www.tenleytownhistoricalsociety.org/THS/source.php?SID=1
| accessdate = 2007-04-13}}</ref> It was removed sometime before 1920<ref name="hearings"/> and replaced around 1935. This second structure was removed prior to 1958.<ref name="map2">{{cite map
| publisher= Washington Electric Railway Historical Society
| title= D.C. Transit Map as of August 1958
| url= http://www.dctrolley.org/dcstreet.htm
| edition= 1958
| accessdate= 2007-04-13}}</ref>
* The Capital Traction Company Powerhouse in Georgetown was torn down in 1968 and the land it sat on is now part of the Georgetown Waterfront Park.<ref name="powerhouse"/>
* Falls Barn, near Georgetown University was demolished sometime between 1948 and 1958.<ref name="map1"/><ref name="map2"/>
* The Benning Carhouse, a barn and repair shop on the site of the Benning Road PEPCO plant, was built prior to 1920 <ref name="McGraw"/> and went out of service between 1948 and 1958.<ref name="map1"/><ref name="map2"/> It no longer exists.
* A car barn was built in Mount Pleasant around 1892<ref name="Manhattan"/> but it was gone by 1948.<ref name="map1"/>
* A barn was built at 2411 P Street NW by the Metropolitan around 1870 and served as stables, a power house, car barn and repair shops. Much of the property was destroyed when Q street was extended, but the remainder lasted until at least 1920.<ref name="hearings"/>
====Stations and Loops====
After closing in 1962, the [[Dupont Circle]] streetcar stations were used as a civil defense storage area for a few years and then left empty again. In 1993 one of the stations was opened as a food court called DuPont Down Under, but after only 18 months it closed and the space is again vacant.<ref>{{cite press release
| title = Dupont Circle Advisory Neighborhood Commission Special Meeting
| publisher = ANC 2B
| date = 2003-09-30
| url = http://www.dupontcircleanc.net/Minutes2003/20030930SpecialMinutes.doc
| accessdate = 2007-04-19 }}</ref>
Colorado Avenue Terminal on 14th Street, now a Metrobus stop
There was a [http://www.ddot.dc.gov/ddot/cwp/view,a,1250,q,639698.asp streetcar station] in the center of [[Barney Circle]] but it was removed in the 1970s.
====Tunnels====
The [[Dupont Circle]] streetcar station tunnel entrances, located where the tree-filled medians now stand north of N Street and between R and S Streets, were filled in and paved over in August 1964, leaving only the traffic tunnel.
The C Street tunnel beneath the Capitol grounds remained in use, but since [[9/11]] has been closed.
The Bureau of Engraving Tunnel.
====Right-of-way====
The right-of-way of the Glen Echo line is extant from the Georgetown Car Barn all the way to the Washington Reservoir. It includes an abutment near an entrance to Georgetown University, a [[trestle]] over Foundry Branch in Glover Archibald Park and a bridge over Arizona Avenue, NW, between Dorsett Place and Sherier Place.
The Median on Penn, built in 1903 [http://www.planning.dc.gov/planning/frames.asp?doc=/planning/lib/planning/New_Inventory_Sep_2004.pdf]
====Other Remnants====
Perhaps the most visible remnant of the streetcar system is the '''[[Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority]] (WMATA)''' bus system. On January 14, 1973, WMATA purchased DC Transit and the Washington, Virginia and Maryland Coach Company (followed on February 4 by the purchase of AB&W Transit Company and WMA Trasit Company) unifying all the bus companies in DC.<ref>{{cite web
| last =
| first =
| authorlink =
| title = Metro History
| publisher = WMATA
| date =
Line 262 ⟶ 655:
| format =
| doi =
| accessdate = 2007-01-07 }}</ref>
*[[Potomac Electric Power Company]]
Manhole covers
====Slop====
The Washington & Great Falls Electric Railway More details and photos are available at this [http://www.lostlandmarks.org/searspali.html website].
Offices of East Washington Heights at 2500 Penn Ave SE
Offices of Wash and Mary at 1413 H St. SE
Offices of Washington Interurban & WRECo at 281 & 231 14th St NW & Power Station - Gone, Regan Building
WRECo Power Station at Benning Road PEPCO plant
Hibbs Building at 725 15th Street served as offices for Wash-Virg and Wash and Great Falls
===links===
Line 272 ⟶ 677:
[http://world.nycsubway.org/perl/show?21304]
[http://www.vmt.org/Collections/dc_trolley_1470.htm]
[http://www.erha.org/timepoints/v17n8.htm]
[http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?horyd:3:./temp/~pp_hFde::@@@mdb=fsaall,app,brum,detr,swann,look,gottscho,pan,horyd,genthe,var,cai,cd,hh,yan,bbcards,lomax,ils,prok,brhc,nclc,matpc,iucpub,tgmi,lamb]
== Notes ==
{{Reflist}}
== External links ==
*[http://www.dctrolley.org National Capital Trolley Museum]
*[http://www.davesrailpix.com/dct/dc.htm Extensive Collection of D.C. streetcar photos]
*[http://www.davesrailpix.com/odds/dc/dc.htm Collection of D.C. streetcar photos grouped by company]
*[http://capitaltransit.home.comcast.net/rh/20/index.html Photo Tour of the 20 line]
*[http://capitaltransit.home.comcast.net/rh/50/index.html Photo Tour of the 50 line]
*[http://capitaltransit.home.comcast.net/rh/90/index.html Photo Tour of the 90 line]
*[http://capitaltransit.home.comcast.net/rh/92/index.html Photo Tour of the 92 line]
*[http://www.rypn.org/rypn_files/articles/Articles/021216wreco/default.htm Restoration of WRECo Streetcar 650]
*[http://www.barracksrow.org/public/photo_gallery/histphotos.html Photos of Streetcars on Barracks Row]
*[http://www.mcps.k12.md.us/departments/lansystems/stevetransit.html A memorial site for D.C. Transit]
*[http://www.clouse.org/dctrans.html D.C. Transit page at www.clouse.org]
*[http://americanhistory.si.edu/onthemove/exhibition/exhibition_4_1.html Online exhibit of Washington streetcars] from the [[National Museum of American History]]
*[http://hometown.aol.com/chirailfan/wasmain.html Washington D.C. Transit] by Chicago Rail Fan
*[http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/PCC_Cars/message/6956 Information on the underground conduit system]
*[http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=us&vol=200&invol=480 ''Looney v. Metropolitan Railroad Co''], a 1906 [[United States Supreme Court]] case regarding the death of a pitman
*[http://www.douglasdevelopment.com/dc03.html Article about the history of the Georgetown car barn]
*[http://www.westendguide.us/ttracks.htm Article on the train tracks in Georgetown]
*[http://www.baltimoremd.com/remember/dctransitsnow.html Article on the last days of D.C.'s streetcars]
*[http://www.dcnrhs.org/dc_rail_history.htm Washington, D.C., Railroad History] at the National Railway Historical Society
*[http://world.nycsubway.org/us/washdc/dctrolley.html NYCSubway.org: Washington D.C. Streetcars]
*[http://www.barracksrow.org/public/photo_gallery/histphotos.html Photos of streetcars on Barracks Row in Southeast]
*[http://www.cctrail.org/CCT_History.htm A Brief History of the Georgetown Branch] of the [[Baltimore and Ohio Railroad]]. Contains information on Washington's streetcar system as well.
* [http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/maps/usa/hammonds1910/cities/washington-dc.jpg 1908 streetcar map]
* [http://www.cbrm.org/historicalarticles/nov_2004_caroling_streetcar.pdf Caroling Streetcars]
[[:Category:Street railways]]
[[:Category:Defunct railroad companies of the United States]]
[[:Category:Electric railways]]
[[:Category:History of Washington, D.C.]]
[[:Category:Transportation in Washington, D.C.]]
[[:Category:Interurbans]]
[[:Category:Streetcars in North America]]
[[:Category:1862 establishments]]
[[:Category:1962 disestablishments]]
[[:Category:Washington Metro]]
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