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News & ArtsWednesday, July 18, 2012
Transportation Urban Archeology
Posted by Charles Mudede on Wed, Jul 18, 2012 at 3:39 PM
On April 13, 1941, the last streetcar in Seattle did its rounds, pulled into a barn in Fremont (the current location of the Theo Chocolate factory), stopped, and that was that—a system of over 400 electric cars and nearly 250 miles of track vanished like nothing more than the stuff in a dream.
I woke up this morning, popped some pills, drank lots of coffee, washed, walked to work, and came across a scene on Yesler that looked very much like an archeological site.
3
When I lived in San Jose, I used to bike through a couple of intersections in which the remnants of the old streetcar tracks were visible peeping through the asphalt. This was around the time they started rebuilding their streetcar system -- most hilariously with a line that literally ended in the middle of an empty field, a mile from the nearest building.
4
...and 8 months later tires and gasoline were being rationed and private automobile manufacturing was on the brink of being discontinued.
There's a polyana-ish bent to these war-on-bikes anti-transit suburban conservative fucks. Nothing bad could ever happen to our beloved car-centric transportation "system", right?
There's a polyana-ish bent to these war-on-bikes anti-transit suburban conservative fucks. Nothing bad could ever happen to our beloved car-centric transportation "system", right?
5
There were track remnants by my old pad in Venice in the early-90s. And now LA has a subway!
(This photo sucks, by the way.)
(This photo sucks, by the way.)
7
Hopefully all these obsolete rail systems won't be too hard to dig up again once we all get Google cars.
8
@2: If you right click on the post's photo and open it in a new tab, you should see a larger image.
9
Actually those streetcars still live on -- in a way. Almost all our trolley buses follow the original street car routes. The #12 is a classic example.
I can't believe the short sighted County Council members that want to end the trolley buses. Buses that run off of power that we own? Not like there is any possibility of oil disruptions in our future...
I can't believe the short sighted County Council members that want to end the trolley buses. Buses that run off of power that we own? Not like there is any possibility of oil disruptions in our future...
10
Both BART in the Bay Area and some of LA's recent light rail lines follow old electric railway rights of way. In the East Bay, a woman I used to know lived on Key System Route Blvd. and the elevated BART tracks in her back yard followed an old Key System line.
In LA both the Blue line and the new Expo line follow old rights of way of the Pacific Electric lines which at one time extended all the way to San Bernardino and Newport Beach and blanketed the LA area with its "Big Red Cars."
In LA both the Blue line and the new Expo line follow old rights of way of the Pacific Electric lines which at one time extended all the way to San Bernardino and Newport Beach and blanketed the LA area with its "Big Red Cars."
11
@8 so now we have to right click on the image?
Why doesn't it pinch adjust like the Washington Post pics do on my iPad?
Why doesn't it pinch adjust like the Washington Post pics do on my iPad?
12
It's lovely that everything old may be new again. We mustn't forget that we damn well refused to pay to fix the last streetcar system, which was in rotten shape, super dangerous. We dismantled it instead. I'm very glad we've begun to make some progress with a few lines here and there, but we have to keep them up this time.
13
@11, because Charles, like everyone else in the world, is trying to make you go away.
@5, it's not a terrible photo; it just meets Charles's requirement that all photos include 50% or more of street pavement in the foreground -- a requirement I agree with, since it reflects the real reality of Seattle's streets. Too far away to see? That's our city.
@5, it's not a terrible photo; it just meets Charles's requirement that all photos include 50% or more of street pavement in the foreground -- a requirement I agree with, since it reflects the real reality of Seattle's streets. Too far away to see? That's our city.
14
Fnarf, you must have lived in San Jose 50 years ago, the last time an empty field existed within 10 miles of city limits. There were orchards then. Sigh.
15
Chuck,
I think it may be all the pills you're popping that are warping your mind. Please stop.
Think of the children...
I think it may be all the pills you're popping that are warping your mind. Please stop.
Think of the children...
17
Why is it that we always have to do things at least twice before we can get it right? We had street cars and then ripped them out. Likely we'll rip out electric trolley bus lines as well. They built a tunnel under 3rd Avenue downtown thinking that "some day" they would put in a rail system only to find out that they fucked up the first time and had to rip the whole damned thing out and re-do what should have been done right in the first place.
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