First electric streetcars in the US debuted in Baltimore in 1885
With the possible resumption of the eastwest Red Line light rail project that was first proposed by then-Gov. Martin J. O’Malley and backed by federal support that amounted to nearly $1 billion, only to be killed by Gov. Larry Hogan in 2015, who termed it a “boondoggle,” it’s important to note historically that the first electric streetcars in the nation appeared in Baltimore during the summer of 1885.
Baltimore made a grand entrance into the public transit business July 26, 1859, when at 8 a.m., on a warm summer’s morning, a crowd of the curious had gathered at the foot of Broadway in Fells Point to watch the first horse-drawn streetcar pulled by eight stout gray horses, depart on its maiden voyage over rails that connected the maritime neighborhood to the downtown.
This marked a substantial improvement from the era of horse-drawn omnibuses that jarred the bones and souls of passengers as they made their way rattling and bouncing over cobblestone streets.
If the curtain on the omnibus era had been technologically brought down by the arrival of the horsecar gliding over smooth rails, that was about to end when Leo Daft, an English immigrant and founder of the Daft Electric Co. in Greenville, New Jersey, came up with the idea of applying electric motors to power streetcars, rather than Old Dobbin clip-clopping through the streets at a snail’s pace.
Then and now, Hampden was a destination. In 1876, the Baltimore & Hampden began operation with mules pulling their cars on a line that ran from Charles Street and Huntingdon Avenue, today’s 25th Street, to Roland Avenue and 36th Street in Hampden, the reason being the terrain was too hilly for horses, so mules were employed in their stead.
The general manager of the B&H, T.C. Robbins, got to know Daft when he observed an experimental electric railway that was powered by an underground third rail or conduit for power, between the rails, operating at Coney Island.
Robbins was well aware that his line suffered from two challenges: grades that rose 350 feet to the mile, and tight curves. He envisioned that Daft’s system might be the solution to his operating nightmares.
B & H directors were skeptical of Robbins’ embracement of the Daft system, with one reported to have said, “The man who undertakes to operate this section by electricity in the present state of the art is either a knave or a fool.”
By early March 1885, two dynamos that generated the required electricity were installed and in operation in the car barn at Oak Street and Huntingdon Avenue, which is today’s Howard and 25th streets.
Voltage generated by the spinning dynamos traveled through the third rail to motors that had been installed in a small car, like an engine, that towed the larger passenger cars.
A trail trip was made on June 6, 1885. “A good deal of interest is taken in the test of this motor, and the Union Railroad Company are the first to put it to use on a business basis by adapting their line from North Avenue to Hampden, Baltimore County, (about two miles-and-a-half ) for electric railroading,” observed The Sun.
It had rained the night before, and on the morning of the trial run, some of the trackwork had been covered in dirt left by the rains.
“When the motor, in moving along the tracks, struck this debris, the electric contact was broken and the wheels threw off showers of sparks like St. Catherine wheels that lit up the surrounding darkness,” reported the newspaper. “A common sweeping broom cleared away the dirt, and in every instance the motor at once moved on.”
Then and now, money is a powerful economic force in the life of any business, and the newspaper recognized the coming war between “electricity and horses or mules, oats and Cumberland coal,” reported The Sun.
On Aug. 15, 1885, a crowd of 500 in the face of withering heat and the threat of thunderstorms, gathered to ride this latest advance in public transit. The first trip of the day, which hauled 40 paying passengers, set off at 12 miles an hour.
The line operated 20 trips that day with no accidents.
A more than delighted Daft gushed to a Sun reporter, “The first commercial electric railroad in America had now hung up its shingle.”
On a suggestion of John K. Cowen, who would later serve as president of the B&O from 1896 to 1901, the first nickel fare was handed over to Daft as a souvenir of the system’s inaugural run.
Within one year, the line was transporting 29,000 passengers a month.
While there were no incidents of electrocution, horses and livestock were in constant of stepping on the third rail, which resulted in the company placing wooden scantlings around the live rail.
Daft’s dream ended in 1889, when Frank Sprague invented the overhead trolley wire system that is still used today to power streetcars, and earning the title of Father of the Electric Streetcar.
The nickel collected that day now resides in the permanent collection of the Smithsonian Institution.