Successful Alternatives in New York, Washington, and Europe

Proponents of the trolley, including most electrical engineers, insisted that the trolley was the only practical system. Yet, two cities in America and many others in Europe, succeeded in electrifying transit lines without using overhead wires in central urban districts. These cities used the underground conduit system, in combination with the trolley for suburban routes.

In New York there was already a history for ten years opposition to overhead wires of telegraph, telephone, lighting and alarm companies. It had just achieved some success in placing them underground. There was intense opposition to overhead wires in Manhattan. It was banned in all of Manhattan in 1894. This happened in Washington also because many congressmen took seriously Washington’s role as a capital city, and overhead wires had no place in their aesthetic vision. In both the cities cable railways continued to operate despite high fixed cost and frequent service interruptions due to a problem with the cables. Both cities stuck to their conduits until they replaced their streetcars with buses after World War II, along with other American cities.

• Whereas in Europe it was the conduit system that was in greater use. In the late 1890s European cities were much less compliant to the wishes of private corporations than American cities. The choice of technology emerged through struggles in the public sphere.