Discuss “Streetcars define Pittsburgh’s transportation history”

Before cars, buses, and bicycles but after feet and horses, the main modes of transportation were the streetcar and trolley.

Pittsburgh once had hundreds of trolleys — electric-powered vehicles that run on tracks — and even though they have mostly disappeared from the city, their effects and physical artifacts still linger.

Pittsburgh, at the confluence of three rivers, was a flourishing trade city in 1850. In an essay written in 1978 for the Public Works Historical Society titled Transportation Innovation and Changing Spatial Patterns in Pittsburgh, 1850-1934, Carnegie Mellon professor of history and policy Joel Tarr wrote that “[Pittsburgh’s] 46,601 people lived in an area of 1130 acres. Densities ranged from 66.9 persons per acre...