GGW: "DC's 1st electric streetcar helped build Eckington"

Click on the link to read the entire Greater Greater Washington blog post.

DC's first electric streetcar helped build Eckington

by John DeFerrari   •   February 12, 2016

DC got its first electric streetcar in 1888 when the Eckington & Soldiers Home Railway went into operation. A ban on overhead wires kept it from running downtown, and the company ultimately went out of business because it couldn't find another option.

I recently wrote about the 100-year history of streetcars in the District, from 1862 to 1962 (the span from the first and last times a streetcar carried passengers in DC), in my book, Capital Streetcars: Early Mass Transit in Washington, DC. The following story about the Eckington line has been adapted from the book.

...