Electric Streetcars In Operation 56 Years, Published 2 August 1947 Did
Ottawa have the first electric street cars in the world? Many people
here think we did, and so does Jos. Lacroix, the Sage cf Rockland. Sage
Jos. writes to show me a copy of News Week for January 27, where under
the heading of Rapid Transit, it says that an electric car at the
exhibition in Toronto in 1885 stimulated James A, Gaboury "who owned
controlling interest in a horsecar system at Montgomery, Alabama" to
start one."He saw it and worked out a plan for electrifying his railway. Thus Montgomery became first city in the world to have a trolley car system." I checked with David Gill and he says we had electric cars running in Ottawa in 1891. I know that experts from New York came to Ottawa to see the electric cars, back about then. They were reputed the wonder of the world. Whether or not we beat Montgomery I cannot say; I am writing away for the information. Certainly we were the first in Canada. But I ain't a-goin' a-feudin with the Capital of the Confederacy, suh,. till I hear from the gentlemen down yondah. You-all. |