One of the most colorful yet neglected eras in American transportation history is re-created in this definitive history of the electric interurbans. Built with the idea of attracting short-distance passenger traffic and light freight, the majority of the interurbans were constructed in the early 1900s. The rise of the automobile and motor transport caused the industry to decline after World War I, and the depression virtually annihilated the industry by the middle 1930s. Part I describes interurban construction, technology, passenger and freight traffic, financial history, and final decline and abandonment. Part II presents individual histories (with route maps) of the more than 300 companies of the interurban industry.
- ISBN10 0804705534
- ISBN13 9780804705530
- Publish Date 12 December 1960
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 1 October 2009
- Publish Country US
- Imprint Stanford University Press
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 472
- Language English