Pittsburgh history-1908

[John Swindler]

This one had some interesting incline information.

Thus ends the survey of county history books.  Again, as for typos, never 
claimed to be a typist.

John







CENTURY AND A HALF OF PITTSBURGH AND HER PEOPLE, BOUCHER, 1908

Chapter XXXIV, (page 235)

STREET RAILWAYS

	Horse Cars – Cable Cars – Electric Cars

The history of the street railways of Pittsburg, in common with most large 
cities of he country, may well be divided into three periods, and each 
period has employed a different system of surface street railway, the horse 
car, cable car and electric car.  As complete as is the present system, on 
account of the rapid growth of the city and its environments, plans are 
already being made for either overhead or subway lines which shall more 
nearly meet the requirements of the coming years.

Up to the summer of 1859 the only means of going from one part of the city 
to another, was by means of hacks, cabs and omnibus lines, the latter having 
grown to be a very large and lucrative business.  B an act of the 
legislature passed in the winter of 1858-59, a charter was obtained for the 
building of a horse street car line in Pittsburg.  On March 26, 1859, the 
city council passed an ordinance permitting such a line to be laid on the 
streets of the city, under certain restrictions, which have been modified 
from tome to time.  The company organized for this purpose, was known as the 
Citizens’ Passenger Railway Company.  By act of legislature, this road was 
to begin at the intersection of Market and Fifth Streets, thence to Liberty, 
across Liberty to Cecil Alley, thence to Penn Avenue, thence to the 
Greensburg and Pittsburg Turnpike Road, and from that point to the suburbs.  
This company was incorporated with a stock of two thousand shares, each 
valued at fifty dollars.  Among the incorporators were: James Verner, 
Alexander Speer, Richard Hays, William Darlington, Joshua Rhoades and 
Nathaniel Holmes.
Another line was soon opened up from Pittsburg to Birmingham, and still 
another from Pittsburg, through Allegheny City, to Manchester.  To these 
trunk lines were added numerous feeders, or shorter branches, all of which 
provided a good transportation service for passengers from the downtown 
district.

That the horse car system was a great innovation may be seen from the 
following editorial in the Gazette of January, 1859, published while the 
bill for a charter for this street railway was under consideration by the 
state legislature.  By reason of much prejudice, the measure had to be 
encouraged and agitated by the more enterprising newspapers of the city.  
This item reads:

“In a system like this the horses travel slowly and evenly, and as anyone 
knows who has ever ridden upon such cars in Boston, New York or 
Philadelphia, it is hardly necessary to make a stop to permit passengers to 
alight.  The car itself is about the size of an omnibus.  We think, that to 
persons of limited means, who find it too expensive living in the city, this 
convenient mode of travel will give them special advantages, and will allow 
them to live in sunshine and pure air, at the same time get cheaper rents.”

The ordinance under which this system was installed, stipulated that not 
more than five cents fare should be charged from Pittsburg to Lawrenceville. 
  The first car for this line arrived from the factory in Philadelphia 
August 5, 1859, and attracted much local attention.  It was the subject of a 
minute description in the newspapers of the city, and it had its trial trip 
August 6, when about two dozen prominent citizens were invited to ride on it 
and enjoy “rapid transit”(?).  Shortly after it was put in use a newspaper 
of Pittsburg remarked:  “Travel on the new street cars is indeed surprising. 
  The Omnibus lines still run and yet the cars, four in number, are running 
full both ways, usually until ten in the evening.”

Upon the opening of the great suspension bridge from the foot of Sixth 
Street, built by the famous Roebling in 1860 (the present “Thaw Bridge”), 
the street cars crossed over to Allegheny City.  While the city was small, 
this mode of travel was adequate to the demands, except on special 
occasions, but as the city increased in size and population, better 
facilities had to be employed.  The building up of numerous suburban towns 
demanded a more rapid way of getting to and from the residence part to the 
business sections of the city.  This primitive car line, an improvement over 
the older bus system, was superseded in many of the more important business 
streets by the cable system, which was first adopted in the early eighties.  
The first of these lines was laid in conduits, along Penn and Fifth Avenues, 
to East Liberty.  The old horse car lines had been operated by various 
companies, at different times in their history.  The first of these 
corporations to adopt the cable system were the Central, Citizens’, 
Pittsburg, Oakland and East Liberty companies.  In 1890 the six car 
companies operating in Pittsburg were:  United Traction, West End Traction, 
Birmingham Traction, Schenley Park, Highland Traction and the Suburban 
Traction, which at that time had all adopted electricity as a motive power 
for propelling their cars.

The cable car system, which was the next in advance of the horse cars, was 
indeed a marked improvement, both in carrying capacity and speed.  The long, 
well built cable cars, or “grip-cars,” as they were sometimes styled, were 
propelled by means of a huge wire endless cable, laid in a channel beneath 
the street surface.  It moved continuously over large pulleys, and to this 
ever-moving, endless wire cable, the car was attached, at the will of the 
operator, by means of a lever which engaged and disengaged the set of 
“grippers” attached to the bottom of the car, and which moved between iron 
plates, forming a slot along the center of the track.  The cable passed over 
the immense wheel which was propelled by means of large steam engines at a 
central power station.
The total capital of the six companies operating street cars in Pittsburg in 
1890 was $47.785 million, with a bonded indebtedness of $16 million.  The 
total number of hand employed was 3,800; miles of trackage, three hundred 
and thirty-seven.

The first electric street cars made their appearance in the United States in 
1886, and by the close of 1888, there had been constructed but another 48 
miles of such car lines.  At the annual convention of the American Street 
car Association, held in Washington, during the year 1888, a member of that 
convention became weary at the reading of a paper on “electric roads,” and 
called a halt on the speaker by remarking:  It is but a waste of time to 
talk of this new-fangled electric system.”

The same gentleman was president of the same association, which held its 
meeting at Minneapolis, in 1890, and there remarked:  This will be the last 
convention at which the question of horse street cars will ever have any 
serious consideration.”

The cable system obtained and did excellent service in Pittsburg until 1890, 
when it was superseded by electric propelled cars.  The cable system did not 
admit of so many changes and sharp turns as was necessary for the multiplied 
branch lines and short feeders.  The matter of switches form one line to 
another, was not practical, and the whole plan was fraught with much 
expense.

The first electric cars were run in Pittsburg in 1890 by the Duquesne 
Traction Company, which was soon followed by all the companies.  The speed 
made by the horse car was rather less than over five miles per hour.  The 
present system readily runs its cars fifteen miles per hour on fairly long 
runs, and twenty miles on the longest runs.

With all that may be said against capital and its greed, the fact still 
remains, had it not been for the large profits to be made by investments in 
street car lines in Pittsburg, as in all other cities, the populace would 
still be making their way about from city to suburb by means of horse cars, 
or wagons.  No sooner did the demand for better and more rapid transit 
present itself, than bankers and other capitalists came to the rescue and 
freely invested large sums for the construction of these surface lines, 
which now cover nearly every part of the city.  While this money (reaching 
into the multiplied millions) was not invested to accommodate the people but 
for the great interest it paid the investor on his capital, on the other 
hand, it was of great service to all, and is generally duly appreciated.  
The noted East End, with its palatial mansions, together with the score and 
more of distant  suburbs, would not be a part of “Greater Pittsburg” were it 
not for this rapid transit system, which affords a car at almost every 
street corner in the incorporation, every few minutes, day and night.
Soon after the introduction of electricity as a propelling power for street 
cars, the various companies either merged with others or disposed of their 
stock, until the organization known as the Pittsburg Railways Company came 
into control of all the street car line interests in the two cities.  At 
present this corporation either owns or leases all the lines of surface road 
within the city, and give a most excellent service, not alone in the city 
proper, but to outside towns and cities, including Avalon, Etna, Bellevue, 
Vernon, (note: probably meant to be Verona) Oakmont, Wilkinsburg, 
Wilmerding, East Pittsburg, McKeesport, Braddock, Homestead and Coraopolis.  
The longest of these lines is the one running up the Monongahela River to a 
point two miles above Allenport, a distance of 44 miles.  The total mileage 
of this company is now about  500, and it has other lines projected which 
will soon be constructed.  The system is operated by electricity, generated 
by steam power, at six immense power plants.  About 1,700 cars are owned, 
fully one–half of which are in daily use.  Over 4,000 men are employed in 
the various departments of this company’s service.  For the year ending 
March 31, 1907. The total number of fares collected was 203 million, as 
against 190 million in 1905.

The changes in local passenger traffic have been great since the first 
electric cars were run, in 1890, over the Duquesne Street Railway Company’s 
lines, which were contracted for 1 April 1890, - a 25 mile lot of trackage – 
which was to be completed by October of that year.  The president of the 
first line to operated the electric system was the late Hon. Christopher L. 
Magee.

But even with all these modern methods of rapid transit, the rapid growth of 
and wonderful extension of greater Pittsburg has almost reached the point 
where another innovation must be inaugurated in order to handle the 
tremendous traffic, both local and suburban.  The surface roads have covered 
almost every street with their net-work of tracks , and the topography of 
the city will scarce admit of more such liens.  The only additional 
facilities which now seem feasible, is that of either a subway or elevated 
railway, which systems are now being agitated with enthusiasm by men who are 
abundantly able to construct and operate either.

Another division of the street passenger service in Pittsburg, is that known 
as the inclined roads, which run from the level of the city proper to the 
numerous high elevations which overlook the city.  The first of these 
inclined roads, over which car were run by means of endless cables, operated 
by stationary engines, was the one built in 1870, and connected West Carson 
Street with grand Avenue on Mount Washington.  Tin 1882 this line was made a 
double track, one for passengers and the other for freight traffic.  Its 
total length is 642 feet.  A second inclined road was constructed in 1871, 
to the top of Mount Oliver; this has two tracks also.  Its total length is 
1,600 feet with a perpendicular height of 377 feet.  The third one of these 
roads was built at Castle Shannon, running 2,112 feet, from Carson Street, 
near Third Avenue, to Bailey Avenue.  This was re-built and greatly improved 
in 1891.  About the same date one was constructed from West Carson Street to 
Duquesne Heights, it being 709 feet long.  In 1882 another was built from 
Liberty Avenue to Cliff Street, this has double trackage.  In 1886 the St. 
Clair Incline from South 22nd Street to Arlington Heights, was built, it 
also having two tracks and is 1,320 feet in length.  In 1887 the Nunnery 
Hill incline was built.  This leads from Federal and Fairmont Streets.  A 
more recent one is the Fort Pitt Incline, from Second Avenue to Bluff 
Street.  This is 2,640 feet long, with a perpendicular height of 375 feet 
and has double trackage, carrying both freight and passengers.  At Eleventh 
and Breed streets, one is operated to Knoxville, and this is 2,000 feet in 
length.  Another extends from Sarah to Taggert Streets in Allegheny, to 
Clinton Park, this being of the double track type, too.  Troy Hill incline 
starts from Butler Plank Road and ascends Troy Hill, a perpendicular height 
of 370 feet.  Still another runs from Seventh Street to Ridge Street.  On 
many of these inclined railways the electric cars are run under a lease, 
thus saving many transfers.

With all of these various lines of surface street car tracks, which diverge 
in all directions from the city, passengers have an excellent service in 
getting to and from all surrounding boroughs and cities.  Connecting as they 
do with other company’s lines, one may easily reach almost any point in 
Western Pennsylvania by electric liens.  By reason of this rapid transit 
system, many additions to Pittsburg and numerous lout-lying boroughs have 
been built to places of much importance.  They have undoubtedly been the 
salvation of the rural districts.

It is safely estimated that the present amount invested in street railway 
property in Pittsburg is $60 million dollars.

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