A Streetcar Timeline
1872 - St. Paul Street Railway Co. begins horse car service
1873 Minneapolis Street Railway begins horse car service
- Andrew S. Hallidie begins cable car service in San Francisco
1879 - Thomas Edison sells first commercial incandescent lamp; Werner Siemens' electric trolley carries awestruck passengers at Berlin Industrial Exhibition
1884 - Charles Van Depoeleí's electric car pulls three trailers, carries 50,000 excited guests at the Chicago Industrial Exposition; James Starly invents the bicycle
1885 - Karl Benz builds the first auto
1886 - U.S. has 525 horse railways in 300 cities and towns, with 100,000 horses and mules
1887 - St. Paul's Selby Avenue cable car begins operation
1889 - St. Paul's East 7th St. cable car begins operation; Minneapolis Street Railway begins electric operation
1890 - St. Paul cars go electric
1891 - Thomas Lowry forms Twin City Rapid Transit (TCRT)
1898 - TCRT begins building its own electric streetcars in St. Paul
1899 - TCRT begins service to Stillwater
1900 - First baseball cards include one for the Brooklyn Trolley Dodgers (their original full name)
1902 - U.S. streetcars carry 5.8 billion passengers
1905 - Streetcar service to Lake Minnetonka begins
1906 - Ferry boats take visitors to Big Island Amusement Park on Lake Minnetonka
1908 - Henry Ford mass-produces the Model T automobile
1911 - Big Island Park closes
1912 - Titanic sinks on first voyage
1914 - University of Minnesota inter-campus streetcar service begins
- First red and green traffic light appears in Cleveland
1916 - TCRT has 437 miles of track, is largest employer in area
1925 - Basic fare jumps to 8 cents
1930 - Fare increases to 10 cents
1943 - TCRT hires female streetcar drivers, calls them "motorettes"
1945 - TCRT hires female "conductorettes'"
1946 - PCC cars begin running
1948 - Basic fare increases to 11 cents, TCRT begins to reduce streetcar service
1949 - A hostile takeover causes TCRT legal problems
1950 - Basic fare jumps to 15 cents, TCRT accelerates streetcar service closures
1953 - Basic fare increases to 20 cents
- First color television shows
1954 - Last TCRT streetcar ride
- U.S. Navy launches first nuclear submarine, the Nautilus
1955 - Christopher Cockerell invents the hovercraft
1962 - Minnesota Transportation Museum formed
- Unimation markets the first industrial robot
1964 - High speed 'bullet' train races between Tokyo and Osaka
1971 - Minnesota Transportation Museum opens and runs restored streetcar 1300
1990 - Restoration begins on TCRT steamboat Minnehaha
1991- Restoration begins on PCC streetcar #322
1996 - The ferry boat Minnehaha resumes passenger service on Lake Minnetonka
2000 - Restored PCC car #322 begins operation at Lake Harriet
2002 - Streetcar 78 delivers passengers to the Lake Minnetonka dock to ride the restored Minnehaha
2004 - After 50 years, streetcars ("Light Rail Vehicles") return to service. The Hiawatha Line (later the Blue Line) connects downtown Minneapolis to the airport and the Mall of America
2014 - The Green Line begins LRV service between Minneapolis and St. Paul
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