CONTENT WARNING
Materials in the Library of Virginia’s collections contain historical terms, phrases, and images that are offensive to modern readers. These include demeaning and dehumanizing references to race, ethnicity, and nationality; enslaved or free status; physical and mental ability; and gender and sexual orientation.
Context
Trolleys, or electric railway streetcars, were a very popular way for people to travel across cities or towns in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Earlier versions of the trolley, or tram, were drawn by horses. By the late 1800s, however, people began riding in trolleys that were powered by steam, steel cables, or electricity. Richmond was the home of the nation’s first large-scale streetcar system in 1888. Designed by New Yorker Frank Sprague, this system relied on a central power generator that took electricity through cable lines to power the trolleycars.
Streetcars changed America. As trolley systems opened around the country, they enabled the development of suburbs miles from the center of towns and cities. Workers no longer had to live near their places of employment, so long as they could get on a trolley line. In addition, trolley companies developed amusement parks that offered dancing halls and thrill rides for urban dwellers, reachable at the end of their lines.
Trolleys were available to all residents of any city but mirrored the social hierarchies of the cities in which they were located. After the Supreme Court determined in Plessy v Ferguson (1896) that segregation was allowable in railway cars, southern states began passing laws to segregate many public facilities, including streetcars. In 1904, the General Assembly passed a law allowing local streetcar companies to segregate their passengers. In response to several local companies separating their passengers, including the Virginia Passenger and Power Company in Richmond, Black citizens protested and boycotted the trolley lines. The largest protests were in Richmond and Newport News. By 1906, the General Assembly passed a law requiring segregation on all electric trolley cars throughout the state.
This photograph is one of the cars of the Washington, Alexandria, and Mount Vernon Electric Railway, which served the populace of northern Virginia. The trolley line began transporting people in 1892 between Alexandria and Mount Vernon. By 1896, the company had completed its line into Washington, D.C., where it shared the tracks owned by the Belt Line Street Railway Company. Other railways soon began to expand in the region, but patronage declined in the 1920s as buses and personal automobiles became more popular. Eventually, the increasing demand for quicker transportation forced many trolley companies out of business. Streets designed for trolleys are still evident in many cities as they tend to have a wide median in the center where the streetcars would have traveled.
Citation: Washington, Alexandria, and Mount Vernon Electric Railway, n.d., Fairfax County Public Library Historical Photographs Collection, online in the Library of Virginia's Digital Collections Discovery.
For more information about segregated public transportation, see Segregation at Byrd Street Train Station in Richmond, 1914, in Shaping the Constitution.
Streetcars changed America. As trolley systems opened around the country, they enabled the development of suburbs miles from the center of towns and cities. Workers no longer had to live near their places of employment, so long as they could get on a trolley line. In addition, trolley companies developed amusement parks that offered dancing halls and thrill rides for urban dwellers, reachable at the end of their lines.
Trolleys were available to all residents of any city but mirrored the social hierarchies of the cities in which they were located. After the Supreme Court determined in Plessy v Ferguson (1896) that segregation was allowable in railway cars, southern states began passing laws to segregate many public facilities, including streetcars. In 1904, the General Assembly passed a law allowing local streetcar companies to segregate their passengers. In response to several local companies separating their passengers, including the Virginia Passenger and Power Company in Richmond, Black citizens protested and boycotted the trolley lines. The largest protests were in Richmond and Newport News. By 1906, the General Assembly passed a law requiring segregation on all electric trolley cars throughout the state.
This photograph is one of the cars of the Washington, Alexandria, and Mount Vernon Electric Railway, which served the populace of northern Virginia. The trolley line began transporting people in 1892 between Alexandria and Mount Vernon. By 1896, the company had completed its line into Washington, D.C., where it shared the tracks owned by the Belt Line Street Railway Company. Other railways soon began to expand in the region, but patronage declined in the 1920s as buses and personal automobiles became more popular. Eventually, the increasing demand for quicker transportation forced many trolley companies out of business. Streets designed for trolleys are still evident in many cities as they tend to have a wide median in the center where the streetcars would have traveled.
Citation: Washington, Alexandria, and Mount Vernon Electric Railway, n.d., Fairfax County Public Library Historical Photographs Collection, online in the Library of Virginia's Digital Collections Discovery.
For more information about segregated public transportation, see Segregation at Byrd Street Train Station in Richmond, 1914, in Shaping the Constitution.
Standards
History: VS.1, VS.8, USII.1, USII.4, VUS.1, VUS.8, VUS.9
Suggested Questions
Preview Activity
Look at it: Look at the photograph. What do you notice that might indicate the time period in which it was taken and the roles of the men in the photograph?
Post Activities
Analyze: Why do you think people began riding buses as opposed to trolleys? Do you think that they were more reliable or inexpensive, or were there also other reasons?
Food for Thought: What do you think it must have been like for people to have ridden an electric trolley? Write a paragraph from the perspective of someone riding the railway for the first time.
Look at it: Look at the photograph. What do you notice that might indicate the time period in which it was taken and the roles of the men in the photograph?
Post Activities
Analyze: Why do you think people began riding buses as opposed to trolleys? Do you think that they were more reliable or inexpensive, or were there also other reasons?
Food for Thought: What do you think it must have been like for people to have ridden an electric trolley? Write a paragraph from the perspective of someone riding the railway for the first time.