Jump to content

Washington Railway and Electric Company

Add links
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by PRRfan (talk | contribs) at 21:16, 18 August 2023 (→First decade: bridge). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Washington Railway and Electric Company
Bus, between 1910 and 1926
Overview
HeadquartersWashington, D.C.
LocaleWashington, D.C., and its Maryland suburbs
Dates of operationAugust 29, 1892; 132 years ago (1892-08-29)–December 1, 1933 (1933-12-01)
PredecessorWashington and Great Falls Electric Railway Company
SuccessorCapital Transit Company
Technical
Length60.19 miles (96.87 km) (1918)

The Washington Railway and Electric Company (WRECo) was the larger of the two major streetcar companies in Washington, D.C., and its Maryland suburbs in the early decades of the 20th century.

Founded as the Washington and Great Falls Electric Railway Company in 1892, the company was appointed by act of Congress in 1900 to acquire several other streetcar companies that had been swept into a failed conglomerate.[1] Consequent acquisitions transformed the company into the region's largest transit operator. Renamed WRECo in 1902, it controlled lines from Anacostia in Southeast D.C. past the White House and out to various Maryland cities and towns, including Rockville and Cabin John to the northwest and Hyattsville and Laurel to the northeast.

The WRECo operated until 1933, when it was merged with its main competitor, the Capital Traction Company, to form the Capital Transit Company.

History

First decade

On July 29, 1892, the Washington and Great Falls Electric Railway Company received a charter from the U.S. Congress to build a streetcar line from the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C., to Cabin John Creek in Maryland's Montgomery County.[2] Its route would run from a passenger station to be constructed in the block bounded by 35th and 36th Streets and M and Prospect Streets NW, just north of the Aqueduct Bridge in Georgetown, "running thence west over the [Chesapeake and Ohio] Canal road on an elevated railway of iron columns and beams"[3], along the southern side of the Georgetown Reservoir, through the just-conceived neighborhood of The Palisades, and past Chain Bridge. Crossing into Maryland, it would turn northward toward Glen Echo and Cabin John.[4] (An amendment of June 3, 1896, would allow the construction of a branch "to a point on the Georgetown and Tenallytown Railway at or near the junction of the Loughboro road with the River road".[3]) The company was authorized to use purchases and eminent domain to acquire the necessary rights-of-way; it would obtain the final parcel in this manner in August 1895.[4]

Construction began in 1893 on the single-track line, including the erection of a 280-foot steel Pratt truss bridge to cross the Foundry Branch stream in Georgetown.[5][6][7]

Tracks reached the District-Maryland line on September 28, 1895, and Cabin John in 1897.[4] Operations began in 1895, with speeds limited to five miles per hour while running on roads and crossings, and fares capped at 10 cents a ride.[3] "When the line was finished, it was recognized for the scenic views along its route which traveled through neighborhoods and wooded areas interspersed with vistas over the Potomac River. It was also the only streetcar line in the District known to have followed a private right of way for an extensive portion of its route rather than an already established street or road," a 2019 history would report.[4] Washingtonians used the line to reach the International Athletic Park, a sporting field, velodrome, and amusement park on the site of Washington's present-day Sibley Hospital; and further out, the Glen Echo Amusement Park.[4]

The line's success led the railroad to double-track the route by 1899 and replace seven wooden trestles with steel structures. Rolling stock was housed in the Falls Car Barn, a one-story, six-track wood-frame building completed in 1896 (demolished in 1946) at the line's Georgetown terminus.[4]

West Washington and Great Falls Electric Railway Company

On November 1, 1895, a new streetcar company—somewhat confusingly named the West Washington and Great Falls Electric Railway Company—was founded to connect Glen Echo to the new development of Chevy Chase, Maryland.[8] Its line ran from a junction with the Tennallytown and Rockville Railroad at today's Wisconsin Avenue, then westward to Glen Echo, largely along the route of today's Bradley Boulevard. It was acquired by the Washington and Great Falls Electric Railway Company in July 1896.[8]

In 1898, the West Washington tried to keep the Glen Echo Railroad from reaching Cabin John Bridge, forcing the latter to seize land by eminent domain.[9]

The Great Streetcar Consolidation

The stock market crash of 1893 weakened many of Washington, D.C.'s independent streetcar companies, many of whom competed on overlapping routes. From 1896 to 1899, a consortium of three businessmen purchased controlling interests in a half dozen of them, along with a pair of utility companies, and swept them into a holding company named the Washington Traction and Electric Company:

Incorporated in 1899, Washington Traction quickly landed in financial trouble, for the consortium had borrowed too heavily and paid too much for its purchases.[4] To prevent transit disruption, Congress on June 5, 1900, authorized the Washington and Great Falls to acquire the stock of any of the railways and power companies owned by Washington Traction. When the latter defaulted on its loans on June 1, 1901, the former moved in to take its place.

On February 1, 1902, Washington and Great Falls changed its name to the Washington Railway and Electric Company (WRECo) and reincorporated as a holding company.[10] Three days later, it exchanged its stock for shares in Washington Traction and Electric, one for one (at a discounted rate).[11] This transaction turned the WRECo into the region's largest transit company, with some 60 miles of track stretching from the V Street SE in Anacostia, up Pennsylvania Avenue, out to Bethesda and Rockville in Maryland, and to Glen Echo and Great Falls along the Potomac.

It was also one of just two major streetcar operators in the District. It would compete with its rival, the Capital Traction Company—itself the product of an 1895 merger—for the next three decades.[4]

Not every company became a part of the WRECo immediately. The City and Suburban Railway[12] and the Georgetown and Tennallytown Railroad operated as subsidiaries until October 31, 1926, when the WRECo purchased the remainder of their stock.[11]

Operations

In 1911, the WRECo built a trolley park, an amusement park near the end of a line to spur ridership—a practice pioneered by other streetcar companies, including several in the Washington, D.C., area. This was Glen Echo Amusement Park, constructed on the site of an earlier Chautauqua assembly that closed in 1903. The park would remain a fixture of Washington life until closing in the late 1960s; reopened in the 1970s by the National Park Service, the park is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and now operates as an arts and cultural center.[13]

In 1917, the WRECo was running about 140 cars a day, about 20 more than its Capital Traction rival.[14] The following year, the system operated 60.19 miles of track, more than double the length of the Capital Traction system. Overhead electrical wires powered 26.77 miles of double track and 3.99 miles of single track, while underground systems powered 23.09 miles of double track and 6.34 miles of single track. It shared 1.55 miles of underground-powered double track with Capital Traction, and 0.7 miles with the Washington and Virginia Company.[2]

But far more often, portions of the WRECo system competed with Capital Traction on slightly different routes. For example, the main route of the Metropolitan Railroad roughly paralleled that of the Washington and Georgetown Railroad, which ran largely along Pennsylvania Avenue, one of the major diagonal streets in downtown Washington. But the Metropolitan's route was longer, since it had to zigzag on north–south and east–west streets.

From 1913 to 1921, WRECo was paid to operate yet another similarly named streetcar company connecting Wisconsin Avenue with a Potomac River community: the Washington and Great Falls Railway and Power Company.[10] The only streetcar line to actually reach Great Falls, the WGFPC was a project of developers unconnected to the WRECo. They sought merely to increase the value of their land and incipient residential development, and were uninterested in operating a streetcar as a business. So they paid the WRECo—specifically, its Washington and Rockville Railway subsidiary—to furnish, operate, and power the rolling stock.[10][15] The line opened in 1913[16]. It was generally operated as a stub, and often with just a single trolley shuttling back and forth. "However, for at least a while, a through service was operated to downtown Washington, with cars from Great Falls running all the way to 8th Street," the National Capital Trolley Museum wrote in 2012.[15] Some passengers rode to the Great Falls Hotel.[17] The railroad ceased operations in 1921.[16]

New ownership

North American Company began to acquire stock in WRECo in 1922, gaining a controlling interest by 1928.[11] North American had once been one of the original stocks in the Dow Jones Industrial Average.[18]

On December 1, 1933, WRECo, Capital Traction, and Washington Rapid Transit merged to form the Capital Transit Company. WRECo continued as a holding company, owning 50% of Capital Transit and 100% of the Potomac Electric Power Co., but Capital Traction was dissolved.[11]

By December 31, 1933, North American Company owned 50.016% of the voting stock of WRECo. North American also tried to purchase Capital Traction, but never owned more than 2.5% of Capital Traction stock.[11] But for the first time street railways in Washington were under the management of one company.

Capital Transit made several changes. As part of the merger, the Capital Traction generating plant in Georgetown was closed (and in 1943 decommissioned) and Capital Transit used only conventionally supplied electric power.[19] In 1935 it closed several lines and replaced them with bus service. Because the Rockville line in Maryland was one of the lines that was closed, a new terminal, the "Capital Transit Community Terminal," opened at Wisconsin Avenue NW and Western Avenue NW on August 4, 1935.[20]

The WRECo remained under the ownership of North American Company for the next decade, as a major subsidiary holding company of other lines.

By 1940, North American had become a US$2.3 billion holding company heading up a pyramid of by then 80 companies. It controlled ten major direct subsidiaries in eight of which it owned at least 79%. The WRECo was by then one of the three major holding companies among the ten direct subsidiaries.[21]

North American Company was broken up by the Securities and Exchange Commission, following the United States Supreme Court decision of April 1, 1946.[21]

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Washington Railway & Electric Company.

References

  1. ^ "Laws relating to street-railway franchises in the District of Columbia. (Including street-railway laws enacted during the First session of the Fifty-fourth ..." HathiTrust. Commissioners of the District of Columbia. July 29, 1892. Retrieved 2023-08-16.
  2. ^ a b Tindall, William (1918). "Beginnings of Street Railways in the National Capital". Records of the Columbia Historical Society, Washington, D.C. 21: 24–86 – via JSTOR.
  3. ^ a b c "Washington and Great Falls Electric Railway Company". Laws Relating to Street-railway Franchises in the District of Columbia (Including Street-Railway Laws Enacted During the First Session of the Fifty-fourth Congress). U.S. Government Printing Office. 1896. pp. 165–184.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h EHT Traceries (December 2019). "Palisades Trolley Trail | Historic Resource Report" (PDF). District Department of Transportation.
  5. ^ "Ruins of a Derelict Trolley Trestle Hidden in D.C." Atlas Obscura. Retrieved 2023-08-18.
  6. ^ "ParkPlanning - Demolition of Foundry Branch Trestle". parkplanning.nps.gov. Retrieved 2023-08-18.
  7. ^ Kittelson & Associates, Jacobs, Traceries, Commun-ET (December 2019). "Feasibility Study: Palisades Trolley Trail and Foundry Branch Trolley Trestle Bridge" (PDF). DC Department of Transportation.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  8. ^ a b "National Register of Historic Places Registration Form: Glover - Archbold Park" (PDF). United States Department of the Interior / National Park Service. September 26, 2006. Retrieved August 17, 2023.
  9. ^ a b "Advertisement: Cabin John and Glen Echo" (PDF). The Morning Times. p. 5.
  10. ^ a b c Moody's Manual of Railroads and Corporation Securities. Moody Manual Company. 1920.
  11. ^ a b c d e March, Charles E. (August 1934). "The Local Transportation Problem in the District of Columbia". The Journal of Land and Public Utilities Economics. 10 (3). University of Wisconsin Press: 275–290. doi:10.2307/3139173. JSTOR 3139173.
  12. ^ City and Suburban Railway
  13. ^ "National Register of Historic Places Inventory Nomination Form: Glen Echo Amusement Park". United States Department of the Interior / National Park Service. April 26, 1984.
  14. ^ Columbia, Public Utilities Commission of the District of (1918). United States Congressional Serial Set. U.S. Government Printing Office. p. 6.
  15. ^ a b "Trolley Trail of the Week #3: Gold Mine Trail, Great Falls, MD unit of C&O Canal National Historic Park--Washington & Great Falls Railway & Power Co". National Capital Trolley Museum. Retrieved 2023-08-18.
  16. ^ a b KCI Technologies, Inc (October 1999). "Community Summary Sheet" (PDF). MARYLAND DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION / STATE HIGHWAY ADMINISTRATION.
  17. ^ Rothrock, Gail (February 1979). "INVENTORY FORM FOR STATE HISTORIC SITES SURVEY: Electric Trolley Substation / Washington & Great Falls Railway & Power Company" (PDF). MARYLAND HISTORICAL TRUST. Retrieved August 17, 2023.
  18. ^ Jeremy J. Siegel, Stocks for the Long Run, McGraw-Hill, Second Edition, 1998, ISBN 0-07-058043-X
  19. ^ "The History of the Georgetown Branch". Coalition for the Capital Crescent Trail. Retrieved 2007-03-20.
  20. ^ "Lost from the Collections". National Capital Trolley Museum. Retrieved 2007-03-21.
  21. ^ a b North American Co. v. Securities and Exchange Commission, 327 U.S. 686 (1946). FindLaw.com
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Washington_Railway_and_Electric_Company&oldid=1171065656"