Miscellaneous Newspaper Articles
Regarding Cable Cars
Collected by Joe Thompson

I transcribed these articles, which were published in various newspapers, from microfilm. The original publishers retain all copyrights.

First Street Railroad in Brooklyn (1)

From the Brooklyn Daily Eagle / Sunday, June 3, 1854. Page 3.

Before it was famous for trolleys, Brooklyn was famous for horsecars.

The work upon the Court street railroad was suspended for a day or two this week, for want of Iron. On Fulton street, near the ‘ferry, we see that the Company are making arrangements to lay down the track.

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First Street Railroad in Brooklyn (2)

From the Brooklyn Daily Eagle / Monday, July 3, 1854. Page 2.

Horace Greeley, editor of the New York Tribune, was an abolitionist, who supported the Free Soil movement in Nebraska.

The New Railroads in the City -- Trial Trip.

The Railroad Company placed several of the new cars on the routes on Saturday for a trial trip. The stockholders and a number of other gentlemen were invited to join in the experiment. The cars came down Fulton street about three o’clock in the afternoon, the horses decorated with plumes and the cars shining in all the splendor of a first coat of paint. The young democracy were "tickled to death" at the sight of the new vehicles, and as the cars remained some time at the foot of Fulton street the boys evidently believing in the squatter sovereignity (sic - JT) took possession of the cars as Mr. GREELY’s (sic - JT) troop threatened to do with the soil of Nebraska; The gentlemen present entered the cars and the whole number of vehicles, some six or seven, whirled along through Fulton street and Myrtle avenue as far as the track is laid. It will soon extend to Division avenue where the new plank road to Jamaica commences. The people everywhere seemed to regard the cars with wonder and delight; in fact they exhibited as much animation and excitement in crowding the sidewalks and store doors as if they had never seen anything on wheels before, beyond the structure of a wheelbarrow.

A smile was on every face, and the babies crowed lustily in the nurses’ arms. The trip established the success of all the arrangements and the adaptation of the cars to the rails. The Company proceeded over the Fulton avenue track, the Court street track, Sands street, &c. In some places the gravel lodged around the rails had not been cleared away sufficiently to make the movement perfectly smooth, but a few runs will remedy all that. Never was any public improvement inaugurated amid a more universal feeling of favor than these railroads. Every citizen regards their introduction, the low fare and superior accommodations with marked approbation; and the entire success of the undertaking, in every point of view, is absolutely certain. Every thing seemed to work in favor of the railroads from their commencement; no injunctions, no delays in procuring materials for the work, no rival interest; nothing was to be encountered that tended to thwart the prosecution of the enterprise. The vigor manifested by the Company, and their punctuality in having the work so far completed at the expected time, affords the proof that the interests of the community will never suffer in their hands.

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West Side and Yonkers/1

From the Brooklyn Eagle / Thursday, October 10, 1867. Page 2.

The West Side and Yonkers Patent Railway was the first elevated railway in America.

The experimental elevated railway on Greenwich street, New York, will soon be in operation. But a quarter of a mile will be laid at first, but if successful the road will be extended the length of the island. It is expected to carry passengers from one end of the City to the other in half an hour, at a charge of five cents. The experiment will be regarded with interest in this City as well as in New York. At no distant day the rapidly augmenting population of Brooklyn will demand improved travelling facilities, and whatever transportation system proves successful in New York is likely to be adopted here.

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West Side and Yonkers/2

From the Brooklyn Eagle / Saturday, October 19, 1867. Page 2.

The experiment of an elevated railroad is to be tried in New York, the work on the line in Greenwich street, which appeared to have been abandoned has been resumed, and is being pushed forward very rapidly. If the road, which is to run from the Battery to Yonkers shall be successful, two other parallel lines will be built through New York, which will open steam communication between all parts of the city. The interest of Brooklyn requires that we keep pace with New York in providing the best traveling facilities. We therefore watch the experiment with much interest, though doubtful of the advantages of an elevated line over an underground railroad.

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West Side and Yonkers/3

From the Brooklyn Eagle / Monday, October 21, 1867, Page 2.

From TOPICS OF TO DAY.

The first mile of the elevated railway in Greenwich street, New York, will be completed in three weeks, or about a month from the beginning of the work. If the experiment is successful, the road will be extended to Yonkers, the other terminus being the Battery. The road runs upon a series of columns eighteen feet above the sidewalk; and is by this means removed from all interference with the ordinary traffic of the streets. Upon a foundation of solid brick, six feet square, eight feet deep, and two feet below the surface, is fixed a cast iron pier, to which the base of the column is securely rivited. The columns are formed of pieces of wrought iron. They are placed at distances varying from 25 to 85 feet apart. At the top of evey column there is a cross piece with four ams, upon which the beams are extended from column to column. The bearers are made of wrought iron casings rivetted around a core of solid wood to resist the contractile force of cold upon the iron work, and on this is fixed a rail similar to those in ordinary use. The motive force of an endless chain or wire rope, moved by a stationary engine, and running along the center of the road, a few inches above the surface; certain protruberances are placed along this chain or rope at distances of about two hundred feet apart, and to one of these a car attaches itself by means of a simple leverage fixed underneath between the wheels; of course when it is desired to stop the car the same leverage can be worked to release it by the conductor.

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West Side and Yonkers/4

From the Brooklyn Eagle / Saturday, November 16, 1867, Page 2.

From TOPICS OF TO DAY.

A few nights ago the engine was tried on the elevated railroad in Greenwich street, now completed from the Battery to Rector street. The result was not wholly satisfactory. The speed was not so great as expected, and the cable when passing over the drum was bent and subsequently broken, so that further operations had to be suspended. Another trial will be made in a few days.

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West Side and Yonkers/5

From the Brooklyn Eagle / Saturday, December 7, 1867. Page 2.

From TOPICS OF TO DAY.

Peter Stuyvesant was the Dutch West India Company's Director-General of the colony of New Netherland (now New York) from 1647 to 1664.

The latest newspaper sensation is the discovery, by workmen laying the foundation of the Greenwich street elevated railway, of vaults and passageways running towards the river. They supposed to have led to a cove near Peter Stuyvessant's (sic - JT) house, and to have been used by smugglers and pirates.

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West Side and Yonkers/6

From the Brooklyn Eagle / Saturday, December 28, 1867. Page 2.

From TOPICS OF TO DAY.

The elevated railroad in Greenwich street will soon be ready for another trial. The success of the former experiment was interfered with by the breaking of the running gear. Somebody's new corrugated iron plan is to be tried on another road.

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West Side and Yonkers/7

From the Brooklyn Eagle / Thursday, May 7, 1868. Page 2.

From TOPICS OF TO DAY.

Hope deferred will make the public heartily sick of the Greenwich street elevated railroad. A practical test of the work has been again and again promised the last year or two and as often postponed. It is again announced to take place "soon." Unless the promoters of the aerial plan develop increased activity the underground companies will tunnel roads to Harlem before the elevated cars runs as far as Courtlandt street.

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West Side and Yonkers/8

From the Brooklyn Eagle / Friday, June 26, 1868. Page 2.

From TOPICS OF TO DAY.

The time for a trial trip on the elevated street railway in Greenwich street is again fixed. Monday next is the day now mentioned. The Broadway bridge has been declared a nuisance because it interferes with the public use of the sidewalks. Whether the approaches to the elevated track are so arranged as to leave it free from this objection is yet to be seen.

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West Side and Yonkers/8

From the Brooklyn Eagle / Wednesday, July 1, 1868. Page 2.

From TOPICS OF TO DAY.

Yesterday was the time appointed for the trial of the elevated railway on Greenwich street, New York, and, although reporters of the press were not permitted to join in the novel excursion, it is stated that Mayor Hoffman and a number of Aldermen traveled from the Battery to Courtlandt street and back at a rate of twelve miles an hour, and pronounced the experiment a success. The safety of the road being assured it is said Governor Fenton will take a ride to-day. The machinery has been removed from the cellar of the school house, where it occasioned a sort of perpetual panic, to a vault made for it.

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West Side and Yonkers/9

From the Brooklyn Eagle / Wednesday, July 8, 1868. Page 2.

From TOPICS OF TO DAY.

The long deferred trial of the elevated road on Greenwich street was made the other day, and was pronounced satisfactory, but has not awakened any faith in that plan, the dangers and drawbacks of which wil only be exemplified when the line goes into practical operation, -- if it ever does, but at the present rate of process it will take until the close of the present century to complete it.

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West Side and Yonkers/10

From the Brooklyn Eagle / Tuesday, July 14, 1868. Page 2.

From TOPICS OF TO DAY.

The Greenwich street elevated railway company had an election of directors yesterday, and resolved to push the work on the road. It is expected to be finished as far as Thirtieth street by September next, and will be extended to Yonkers in about two years.

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West Side and Yonkers/11

From the Brooklyn Eagle / Wednesday, August 25, 1868. Page 2.

..the elevated road in Greenwich street has been pronounced a perfect success once a month for the past two years, the only trouble is that there seems to be no prospect of its ever being finished. They are building it at the rate of a block every three months, and have got, altogether, about a dozen of bloacks of the elevated track finished. On this a trial-trip was made in July last, which was such a perfect success that the company have retired on it, and nothing has been done since.

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West Side and Yonkers/12

From the Brooklyn Eagle / Wednesday, September 29, 1868. Page 2.

From TOPICS OF TO DAY.

The Greenwich street elevated railway, the completed section of which has received the approval of Governor Fenton and sundry examining commissioners, but the practical operation of which is very obscurely revealed to the general eye, is regarded by the New York Common Council as a public nuisance, and measure have been adopted to recover damages for the obstruction of the highway.

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West Side and Yonkers/13

From the Brooklyn Eagle / Sunday, October 2, 1868. Page 2.

From TOPICS OF TO DAY.

The commissioners appointed by the Legislature have re-approved the elevated railway, and it is claimed that this action removes the enterprise beyond the jurisdiction of the New York Common Council. The people, who are only interested in improved facilities for city travel, care nothing for the quarrel between the commissioners and the Aldermen. The general conclusion, hower, is that if the elevated railway is practicable, the delay in its construction is inexplicable, except on the theory that the jobbery which forms the basis of public administration underlies the track in Greenwich street. Is the elevated railway a failure, or is it kept back to promote other interests?

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West Side and Yonkers/14

From the Brooklyn Eagle / Wednesday, December 8, 1868. Page 2.

The Elevated Railroad.

The Elevated Railroad experiment in Greenwich street, New York, is evidently a failure. The Company have been working at it for three years, and have got about a mile of single track built. The work has been going on spasmodically during that time, and once in a while the concern would figure in the papers, and flourishes would be made over tests and experimental trips, which were always postponed. Now we hear of a meeting of property owners on the line, to protest agains the construction of the road as injurious to property interests in the vicinity. It has taken the property holders so long to discover this that there is a suspicion, strengthened by the peculiar method of the proceedings, that the Elevated Railroad Company are anxious to get rid of the undertaking and want some pretext for abandoning it. This aerial scheme of itself never amounted to much; it never could have supplied the great want of the cities, a road on which steam could be used for travel through their crowded precincts. But it has done much injury in retarding the Underground Railroad movement. There are prejudices against underground railroads, and doubts of their practicability, notwithstanding the complete success of the Metropolitan Underground Railroad in London. Some people think that if the streets are tunnelled, the houses above will be endangered, that the water, sewer and gas pipes will be interfered with, or other damages or annoyances will be inevitable, so they readily listen to other projects, like this Elevated Railroad which promised to supply the need by means not open to these objections. The failure of this Elevated Railroad, which must now be conceded, will convince the public and the representatives at Albany that the only practical plan for steam travel through the large cities in the Underground Railroad. We must have it, and the sooner the better.

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West Side and Yonkers/15

From the Brooklyn Eagle / Wednesday, May 12, 1869. Page 2.

From TOPICS OF TO DAY.

Reports of the affairs of the elevated street railway in Greenwich street, New York, are inconsistent. One day it is said that the work has been stopped by an injunction, and the next day it is announced that the work is pushing so rapidly that factories run continuously to provide the needed iron rails. The road, from its origin, has been a mystery of management and a phenomenon of delay. Between the obstruction of one enterprise in its progress on the streets, and the suppression of others in the Legislature, the people are likely to crawl up town in cars and omnibuses for an indefinite time to come.

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West Side and Yonkers/16

From the Brooklyn Eagle / Monday, July 26, 1869. Page 2.

That elevated street railway in Greenwich street is again "approaching completion" -- in the newspapers. The Company, after "dispelling all doubts as to the utility of the plan," will "push" the work. The mysterious delay which attends this elevated enterprise is similar to that which obstructs underground roads and postpones all improved methods of New York city travel. As a consequence the peoople are driven in increasing numbers to Brooklyn, which fortunately has accomodation for all who come.

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West Side and Yonkers/17

From the Brooklyn Eagle / Saturday, December 18, 1869. Page 4.

The Elevated Railway Purchased by Commodore Vanderbilt.

Commodore Vanderbilt, it is reported, has purchased the Greenwich street Elevated Railway for $700,000, the transfer to be made on the 1st of January. Cars will soon be running.

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West Side and Yonkers/18

From the Brooklyn Eagle / Friday, February 11, 1870. Page 2.

While the elevated railway on Greenwich street is making its way patiently and cautiously from the Battery to Courtlandt street, another aerial road is projecting on Third avenue...

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Beach Pneumatic Subway/1

From the Brooklyn Eagle / Tuesday, March 15, 1870. Page 7.

THE BROADWAY TUNNEL

The Beach Pneumatic Tunnel under Broadway is still open for exhibition for the benefit of the Soldiers' and Sailors' Orphans. It has netted some three thousand dollars already for this charity, which very good, and about the only profitable use the tunnel will ever serve.

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West Side and Yonkers/19

From the Brooklyn Eagle / Tuesday, May 17, 1870. Page 2.

THE NEWS

Two experimental cars on the Elevated Railroad, in Greenwich street, New York, one loaded with about 20,000 pounds of pig-iron and the other with fifteen passengers, smashed through the track, and fell to the pavement with a terrible crash yesterday afternoon. Several persons were injured.

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West Side and Yonkers/20

From the Brooklyn Eagle / Wednesday, May 18, 1870. Page 4.

THE ELEVATED RAILROAD DOWNFALL

The Elevated Railroad has met the fate of Humpty Dumpty. A trial train broke it down near Houston street yesterday. The general public have never had much faith in this Greenwich street project and now will have less than ever …

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West Side and Yonkers/21

From the Brooklyn Eagle / Wednesday, June 15, 1870. Page 2.

... the only scheme permitted realization is what is called variously the elevated railway, the "one-legged" road, and the "railroad on stilts," in Greenwich street. It is simply impossible to secure for this dizzy and dangerous road the confidence of the public. Before it was opened, an accident frightful in its suggestions warned the people of the perils of the passage, and yesterday two accidents, happily not fatal, strengthened the warning. In one case, the horses of a truck were frightened by a passing car, and in the other case a collision on the road just missed precipitating cars and passengers to the street. The public will submit to the annoyances of stages and horse cars rather than incur the diversified dangers of the elevated railway.

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West Side and Yonkers/22

From the Brooklyn Eagle / Wednesday, July 16, 1872. Page 3.

Excerpt from RAPID TRANSIT

Quoting James A Whitney, mechanical engineer:

"It is acknowledged that horsepower is already inadequate to the needs of New York city street railways; the tranmission of power by wire ropes, as illustrated in the elevated railway in Greenwich street, has proved a mediocre and insufficient method of propulsion; and in pneumatic power alone does there appear to be promise sufficient to justify the outlay that will be required in thoroughly testing any improved system of propulsion"

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West Side and Yonkers/23

From the Brooklyn Eagle / Wednesday, July 26, 1872. Page 4.

Excerpt from ELEVATED RAILWAYS

"This body (A State Senate commission formed in 1866 to study rapid transit options - JT), after examining some forty plans of construction, finally agreed upon one presented by Mr. C. T. Harvey, C. E., as one meeting their approbation, and reported to the Senate accordingly. Soon after, this report was made several well known citizens of New York formed themselves into an Association to give the plan an experimental test, and they were the originators of the corporation entitled the West Side Elevated Railway Company. The construction of an elevated railway was commenced by this Company on Greenwich street, at the Battery, on the 7th of October, 1867. On the 10th day of May, 1868, the first car was propelled over the railway by means of an endless cable and stationary engine. The Chief Engineer estimated the cost of several miles of double track, at $300,000 per mile. The railway as yet consists of but a single track. No accident has occurred since the change in motive power, and but one prior to it, which was occasioned by the overloading of a car with iron, while the strength of the track was being tested."

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West Side and Yonkers/24

From the Brooklyn Eagle / Friday, April 4, 1873. Page 4.

Excerpt from RAPID TRANSIT

Among plans of rapid transit elevated railways -- at least of the kind in Greenwich street, New York -- find little favor. But that one evidently does not consider itself dead yet. It has just received two cars of a capacity midway between the ordinary steam railroad car and a street car, but of a peculiar construction, fitting them specially for hugging the track on which they are to run. So much to the disturbance, otherwise, of weak nerves belonging to frequenters of Greenwich street.

The central and main portion of the car is built nearly down to the track, only the ends being of the ordinary height, sufficient, that is, to give room to the wheels, which are under them and are eight in number. Entering the car from the platform at either end, the passenger may take a seat, if unoccupied, on the raised space on which he finds himself, just within the door, or advancing two or three steps he can descend a short stairway fitted with mahogany rails into the central and longer section of the car. Here his humbler position relatively is compensated by having not only a window at his back, but a row of them above him in the clerestory -- which the ordinary range of car windows becomes to him in his somewhat depressed situation as compared with that of his fellow passengers at either end. The arrangement is an ingenious one for overcoming the top-heavy effect that attaches to a car of the size of those new ones, and is carried out in a style of neatness and taste that may commend it to popularity elsewhere, if the event shall decide that this road, itself built on a single row of pillars, is impracticable in the long run.

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Clay Street Line Tested

From the San Francisco Chronicle / Sunday, August 3, 1873. Page 1.

The Chronicle reported on the first test of the Clay Street Hill Railroad, which was the first Hallidie-type cable car line. An article on the same page described a fire that destroyed much of Portland, Oregon.

THE UP-HILL ROAD

The First Car Run Over the Clay-Street Track, Yesterday

Successful experiments were made yesterday in running cars on the Clay-street railroad. At 6 o'clock in the morning, the first car was sent down the hill and back again by means of the wire rope. No difficulty was experienced in stopping at any point desired, and the success of the experiment fully realized the anticipations of the projectors. The car was run from one extremity of the line to the other in order to comply with the terms of the contract, the time it specified for the completion of the track having expired yesterday. It was ascertained that the fastener can be made to cling to the cable with the greatest of ease, and that there is none of the jerking anticipated, owing to the gradual tightening of the clamp. When not screwed tight the small wheels at the extremity of the arm of attachment slip along the cable, and, when tightened the start instead of being sudden, is graduated according the force applied. There will be less use for the springs between the dummy and the cars than was anticipated, owing to the ease with which the dummy may be started. Some days will yet elapse before regular travel will be conducted on the road.

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Andrew S Hallidie Attacked/1

From the San Francisco Chronicle / Saturday, August 30, 1873. Page 2.

Two days before the Clay Street Hill Railroad started revenue service, the Chronicle, a Republican newspaper, attacked Hallidie's run for the State Senate. William H Webb was a ship-builder and owner from New York. The meeting referred to took place in April, 1871. Hallidie ran on a ticket opposed to subsidies for the Central Pacific and other business interests; the Republican Party, at the time, believed that subsidies were needed to build up American industry. He was accused of being a cat's paw for the Atlantic and Pacific (Santa Fe) interests, who wanted to break the Central Pacific's monopoly of access to San Francisco Bay and other parts of California. Dolly Varden was a character in Dickens' novel Barnaby Rudge, who was known as a fickle coquette. This ill-feeling may be the reason the Chronicle did not cover the railroad's start of revenue service on 01-September-1873.

Subsidy Hallidie

ANDREW SMITH HALLIDIE is an Englishman by birth. His true name -- the one he inherited from his parents, and the one for which his godfather and godmother stood sponsors -- was plain, honest ANDREW SMITH. He received a subsidy from a relative, in consideration of which he changed his name from ANDREW SMITH to ANDREW SMITH HALLIDIE. As President of the Mechanics' Institute he called and presided over a meeting which was addressed by Wm. H. Webb, of the proposed Australian Mail Steamship line, and the object of the meeting was to secure a subsidy from Congress in favor of the Webb line of steamers. He promoted the Clay-street endless-chain, stationary-engine, up-hill railroad, and it was built by subsidies and loans based on subsidies. Every man, woman and child living along or owning property along the street was asked to donate. HALLIDIE's whole career has been grounded upon subsidy; on it he has lived and fattened. Now he is suddenly brought forward as an anti-subsidy man, and the people are asked to accept him as, par excellance, a representative of the growing feeling of opposition to the giving of subsidies to bolster up private business enterprises. And this bold attempt at deception, as to HALLIDIE, is a fair specimen of the Dolly Varden effort to hoodwink the public for the benefit of those concerned in the Atlantic and Pacific grab.

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Andrew S Hallidie's Ticket

From the San Francisco Chronicle / Saturday, August 30, 1873. Page 2.

This is an advertisement for the "Dolly Varden" ticket attacked by the Chronicle. In 1887, Washington Bartlett became California's only Jewish governor to date; he died in office.

PEOPLE'S UNION
Independent Anti-Monopoly
LEGISLATIVE
TICKET

For State Senators,
A. S. HALLIDIE,
WASHINGTON BARTLETT

For Assemblymen,
M. M. ESTEE,
DANIEL ROGERS,
JOHN F. SWIFT,
JOHN HAMMILL,
W. A. ALDRICH,
C. C. TERRILL,
JAMES PATTERSON,
B. C. VANDALL,
W. D. DELANEY,
GEORGE C. WICKWARE,
D. FREIDENRICH,
J. F. COWDERY

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Andrew S Hallidie Attacked/2

From the San Francisco Chronicle / Wednesday, September 3, 1873. Page 1.

Another reference to Dolly Varden. The Daily Evening Bulletin was founded in 1855.

Subsidy Hallidie

ANDREW SMITH, who received a subsidy for changing his name to Andrew S. Hallidie, and who has fattened on subsidies ever since, is held up by the Bulletin as an anti-subsidy man. And such are the Dolly Vardens.

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Andrew S Hallidie Wins

From the San Francisco Chronicle / Sunday, September 7, 1873. Page 1.

It must have been a close election. On this day, the Chronicle announced that Hallidie had won. I'm still trying to figure out all the initials.

Senators

A. S. HALLIDIE, P. U. L. B. & D.
P. A. ROACH, L. B. & D.

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Andrew S Hallidie Loses

From the San Francisco Chronicle / Friday, September 12, 1873. Page 1.

On this day, the Chronicle announced that Hallidie had lost. "D." is "Democrat", "P. U." is "People's Union".

Senators


P. A. ROACH, D.
W. BARTLETT, P. U.

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West Side and Yonkers/25

From the Brooklyn Eagle / Sunday, September 7, 1884. Page 4.

Excerpt from QUESTIONS ANSWERED

The first elevated railroad charter was that of the (New York) West Side Elevated Patent Railway Company in 1868, when the Hon. John T. Hoffman was Governor. The road was a single track from Battery place to Thirtieth street, on Greenwich street and Ninth avenue. The present New York Elevated Railroad Company is the successor of the aforesaid one, by purchase under foreclosure sale, and took possession of the property January 2, 1872.

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Binghamton Experimental Line

From the Brooklyn Daily Eagle / Sunday, November 15, 1885. Page 4.

Despite the optimistic tone of the article, this experimental line was not a success.

IMPROVEMENT ON CABLE ROADS

A New System in Successful Operation at Binghamton

Mr. C. B. Fairchild, a teacher in one of the New York public schools, has invented a new system of cable traction for which he claims superiority over the old grip system. A new street railroad in Binghamton has adopted the Fairchild system and had successfully operated it for the past week. To an EAGLE reporter, Mr. Fairchild thus described this latest improvement:

The cable road which has been built up the hill to the asylum is now in successful operation and is working as smoothly as though it had been running for years. The road is an extension of the Washington street horse railway and is more than three-fourths of a mile long, a greater part of which distance is up a grade of ten to 160 feet. The cable is more than 6,000 feet long and the round trip with a heavily loaded double truck car is made in about seven minutes. The propelling power is a forty-five horse power engine. The road is made to show every possible condition of a street car line. There is single track, double track, level road, different grades and every conceivable turn and curve with the cable running above and below the surface. The track is laid in a loop or circle of sixty feet radius at either terminus of the road so that the car can make the circle and continue on the return trip without stopping. The new features of the system are that it dispenses with "grips" by using a double cable. It consists in the combination with an endless wire rope driven in the customary manner by a stationary engine of a second and smaller cable superimposed upon the driving cable to travel with it over the same pulleys, but having no connection with the prime motor or engine. This admits of its being led continuously over a loose pulley fitted under the platform of the car. When this pulley is left free to rotate the rope will run freely over it while the car remains stationary. If, however, the pulley be retarded in its revolution by a brake so that it may no longer turn, the car will be made fast to the cable and be carried forward with it. To stop the car the brake is lifted and the pulley under the car allowed to revolve. There is no jar or unpleasant motion in starting or stopping the car, and any number of cars can be run on the same line wholly independent of each other. The curves are made at any speed desired and at no additional strain on the cable. It is claimed that this will be an inexpensive system compared with others. The first cost will be much less, as only a shallow tube under the surface will be required to carry the cable. The secondary cable, the small one that imparts the motion to the car, comes up through the slot as the car passes and drops back below the surface. The cable can be run above the ties where the road is built on stringers, thus avoiding gas and water pipes. No more skill is required to run the car than is necessary to turn an ordinary brake lever. The cable will have an indefinite life of many years as there is no additional friction in stopping or starting the car.

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Application to Use Cable

From the Brooklyn Daily Eagle / Saturday, April 3, 1886. Page 6.

The Brooklyn Cable Company would build Brooklyn's first street-running cable car line.

WANTS TO USE THE CABLE

Mr. William Richardson will make an application to the Common Council on Monday for the privilege of applying the cable system on the Prospect Park and Coney Island Railroad. Mr. Richardson, Mayor Whitney and President Olena yesterday inspected the working of the Tenth avenue cable line in New York.

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Inspection Tour

From the Brooklyn Daily Eagle / Wednesday, April 14, 1886. Page 1.

Jay Gould was a railroad robber baron. The "boodle aldermen" attempted to sell street railway franchises in Manhattan in a corrupt fashion. Alexander Hamilton's house still stands, operated by the National Park Service as the Hamilton Grange National Memorial, located at 287 Convent Avenue. Madame Jumel, a fashion designer, lived in the former mansion of British colonel Roger Morris. It is now operated as a museum, the Morris-Jumel House. James Gordon Bennett published the New York Herald. Construction of the New Croton Aquaduct took from 1885 to 1893.

CABLE ROAD

The Aldermen Inspect the New York Variety.

A Pleasant Excursion in Company with the Hon. William Richardson Over the Tenth Avenue Line -- The Plan and Machnery Descried -- Colonel Paine and the Grip -- Some of the Discoveries Made.

The Hon. William Richardson took the biggest part of Brooklyn's Board of Aldermen over to New York yesterday afternoon and showed them the Tenth avenue cable road in a manner pleasing to contemplate. The Hon. William Richardson wants to build a cable road himself along Park avenue and Broadway to Jefferson street, and then to Evergreen Cemetery, and he desired to give the City Fathers an idea as to what an immense thing a cable road was and how greatly one would ornament and profit this city if built according to his wishes; hence the excursion. When the Aldermen were invited they were told to meet Mr. Richardson at the New York end of the South Ferry at 1:30. Love of truth compels the statement that Mr. Richardson met the Aldermen at 1:47 and started them up stairs to one of Mr. Gould's stations thirteen minutes later. The procession moved under particularly striking auspices. Something like forty loud voiced, bare kneed juveniles held wads of pink colored newspapers decorated with pyrotechnical headlines under their noses, and howled a monotonous song, something like this, to accompany the action: "Extry!! Extry!!! Here ye are! All about de juggin' of de boodle Aldermen," coupled with a remark about 2 cents and the lowness of that rate as applied to so much valuable and interesting information. Only two papers were bought and these told a mournful tale of eleven New York Aldermen, arrested like common men for taking too much interest in a local railroad enterprise. Once up the stairs Mr. Richardson pulled out two yards of blue railway tickets from his overcoat pocket and stuffed half of them into the ticket box, while the station men gazed at the file of silk hats with Aldermen under them in awe and admiration. Mr. Richardson wore a silk hat, too, only he had the nap all brushed the wrong way, just to show that he wasn't proud, while all the others were slick and shiny. Treasurer N. H. Frost, went along also, and the Aldermen were Messrs. McCarty, Coffey, Engle, Spitzer, Hirshfield, Birkett, McFarry, Black, Hanley and McGrath, with Sergeant at Arms Van Horan to look out for them. At Record street, the Hon. William Waring boarded the car quite by accident and was properly amazed. He traveled five stations with his eminent fellow townsmen and then got out with a regretful sigh. The cable road begins at One Hundred and Twenty-Fifth street and Tenth Avenue, so the party abandoned the train at the Eighth avenue station and clambered to the street. By a happy coincidence a side door of ground glass stood first before them. Mr. Richardson twisted the door knob, and the ground glass barrier yielded to the twist. Everybody went inside and stayed awhile, admiring the frescoes, and taking something as a safeguard against the changeful weather, in the interests of surface cable navigation.

Here the party was enlarged by the addition of Mayor Whitney, Private Secretary Phillips, Commissioner Conner, Alderman Olena, Supervisor Watson and President Lyon, of the Third avenue Street Railroad Company, which owns the cable line. One of the cars was on hand, ready for the trip. It was a third larger than the ordinary conveyance, holding seats for thirty-two persons, placed like the resting spots in a railway car, only facing each other. There was lots of standing room beside. This big car was built by the company as a model of what it would like, and J. G. Brill, of Philadelphia, has built twenty-five more like it, only prettier, to be ready in a week. The cars in active use are of the common size. A pair of black horses carried the car to the edge of the Ninth avenue curve and dropped it so that the gentlemen might see the cable haul it around the curve. It swung half way and stopped, just to show how easy the thing could be done in a trying situation, and then started it up again. Conquering the curve it rattled up to the big station and engine house where Colonel W. H. Paine, who is the chief engineer of the road, Superintendent Robinson, Assistant Superintendent Lyon, Foreman Evans and Contractor Jonson, who is going to build some more road on One Hundred and Twenty-fifth street, were added to the load. Then the grip grasped the cable and toted the car off to climb up a grade which, Colonel Paine proudly stated, was all of seven feet in 100. A pair of horses would have felt like sitting down before half way up, but the cable didn’t show any emotion. Instead, the car went whizzing along eight miles an hour as calm as a Texas mule, with an electric battery pounding away at a vast gong on forward. An electric button was pinned up by every seat. The Aldermen amused themselves and helped demoralize the driver by squeezing these frequently and listening to the racket. When alderman are not riding one squeeze will stop a car. When once at the top some reckless gentlemen expressed a longing to have the grip released to let the car slide down with gravity. It slid and did it quick. One or two bursts of speed were of a character to make the nervous councilmen wonder how their constituents would get along without them, but the brakes held the craft up without so much as a jarring. It is a long way from One Hundred and Twenty-fifth street to the woods beyond Carmansville and High Bridge, where the cable road comes to an end. The cars run over three and a half miles of conduit and track and accommodate many people. They run by historic spots, too. Alexander Hamilton’s great mansion, fast going to decay, the house where Madame Jumel held sway and James Gordon Bennett’s many columned house, with the slender, and be it said, muddy thread of the Harlem River far away. The country round about looks much like a scene in some mining land. Tall smokestacks abound, shooting out black smoke, all around them in clusters the miners’ shanty homes, while great piles of rock and earth lie about them. These are the shafts of the New York aqueduct. A legion of them giving entrance to tunnels 120 and even 150 feet below, all filled with miners delving away through rock and soil and even under the Harlem. A few shafts lie between the tracks of the cable road and bother it not a little. Once at the end of the line the party disembarked to give the car a chance to get on another track, and to look around a little as well. Colonel Paine pulled the lid off a hole in the ground and invited the crowd to look in; they did, but saw naught but darkness, though there came up a growling sound as of huge wheels grinding. The Colonel said the gentlemen might crawl down a shaky looking ladder if they desired to. Nobody crawled save the reporters -- no one could have; the diameter of the hole did not correspond with that of the Aldermen. It was too slender.

A swift but uneventful journey back to the engine house followed, and that structure was visited in turn. It revealed some giant machinery and on the whole was the most gorgeous edifice of the kind yet beheld. Its interior shone with polished brasswork, and mahogany formed the doors and walls. The engines, 300 horse power each, were far down in the earth, working silently along to make the cable spin. The machinery they drive, while little more powerful, occupies much more room than that of the bridge plant, snugly stowed away amid narrow arches. The drums are not so wide on the face, but of a somewhat greater diameter, and the main shaft by which the engines and the twin sets of driving machinery are connected is geared together by friction instead of clamps, as are the bridge engines, and therefore are a little safer in the event of the cables getting caught, for the shaft would cease to revolve even if the engines kept on whirling. In the machine shop a revised grip was made to show what it could do. It is simply a metal frame, joined together by wide, slender bands of steel, between which works the controlling lever moved by a toggle joint, and this by the brakemen’s wheel, just as the bridge grip catches on. The resemblance goes no further, for this grip operates through a half inch slot in the pavement inside a conduit wherein the cable runs, while the bridge device has no space limits to trouble it. When the working chain is relaxed, the grip stands open. Its lower jaw is of steel, lined with brass composition, and two flanged wheels run even with either end. These pick up the cable which runs over them until contact with the upper jaw starts the car along. In the conduit the cable is carried along by big flanged wheels and two of these are placed side by side in such a way as to form an isosceles triangle with the top broken off. Their upper surfaces hang but a few inches apart with a balanced guard between, which the grip strikes going over the wheels and this catches the cable as it drops. The wheels are used so that if one does not get hold of the cable the other will, for the balanced guard is sure to throw it between the flanges of either one or the other. During their contemplation the Aldermen found out that it will cost $80,000 a mile to build a cable road like the one they saw. It is built wholly of iron, stone and cement. The use of wood might have saved $20,000 a mile, enough almost to build a horse car line of like dimensions, but the company built the road for keeps, as the boys say. The rails are of extra weight and beside rest on iron stringers five inches through. This is where wood might have come in. The company, or rather Contractor Jonson, began to-day the work of putting down a line on One Hundred and Twentieth street, from river to river, or rather from Eighth avenue to the Harlem, for the rest is built. It will be operated by the same plant, and Colonel Paine says the expense will be no greater than now. He will need no more engineers, firemen, or engines, and the coal bill won’t be much bigger. It is only about $12 a day now and the cars run from 4 in one morning until 2 the next. This is where the cable gets ahead of steam and horse. People who are not afraid of the first cost and can make the thing run are going to make some money out of it. President Lyon is not afraid. Neither is the Hon. William Richardson. All he wants is a chance. Cable roads easily accommodate a crowd, for when one car is not enough, another is hitched on behind and the little train does the business. Extra cars have to be kept but not extra horses. Extra cars cannot eat. This cable has been running since September. Colonel Paine thinks it ought to go a year. The Philadelphia amateurs used up their first cable in forty-eight days, and cables cost money. Some day the Colonel will make the relations of the grip and cable so kindly that their frequent meeting will be no more than an affectionate hug and both will feel better for it. Then goodness knows how long the big wire will last. The bridge cable has been running two years and eight month under like circumstances and is all right yet.

When all these things had been seen and gloried in the car was filled and the black horse pulled it back to the side door with the ground glass panels again. It was not opened, but another was, and it gave passage to a dining room holding what brought joy and satisfaction into the Aldermanic peepers. The table just fitted the crowd and the viands just suited their taste. Dainty glasses and gilt topped bottles added to the view. The dainty glasses were not commodious enough for all the Aldermanic mouths, but the goblets were, so no one suffered. The Hon. William Richardson sat at the head of his table, and this was his benediction: "Gentlemen, you have viewed the working of the cable grip; this is to give you the opportunity to test your own." The gentlemen tested, and Mr. Richardson was silent thereafter, save for an occasional elaboration of the "If you don’t see what you want ask for it" idea. A rattling thunder storm broke during the dinner, sending the lightning currying among the Harlem Heights and starting the goat from his lair. The streets ran rivers, and brought sorrow without, but peace and joy reigned within. Mr. Lyon made a little speech, and so did some others; then they went out and smoked, waiting for the rain to cease. Rain is death on silk hats unaccompanied by umbrellas. By and by it stopped and a noisy elevated train brought all back to Brooklyn, reached at last with the clouds broken away and with a new moon shining over each Alderman’s right shoulder and adding to the silvery that of the Hon. William Richardson’s hair.

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Petition for Park Avenue Cable Road

From the Brooklyn Daily Eagle / Saturday, June 19, 1886. Page 2.

MR. RICHARDSON'S CABLE ROAD

Mr. William Richardson, president of the Atlantic Avenue Railroad Company, appeared before the Railroad Committee of the Common Council last evening and formally petitioned that body as lessess of the Prospect Park and Coney Island Railroad Co., for permissions to substitute cable for horse power as soon as the consent of the property owners can be obtained in the following streets: From Fulton ferry through Fulton street to Front street to Water street to Washington street to Concord street to Navy street, to Park avenue crossing Broadway and along Park, Locust and Beaver streets; across Belvidere street to and along Bushwick avenue to and through Jefferson street, crossing Evergreen avenue to and along Central avenue to the city line.

Mr. Richardson has already had the consents of a large majority of the property owners along the route and that he had yet to learn of any opposition from any source. There was no opposition to the petition. The committee took the matter under consideration.

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Ladder Cable Adopted

From the Brooklyn Daily Eagle / Wednesday, July 14, 1886. Page 4.

TO ADOPT JOHNSON'S SYSTEM

The Cleveland Cable to be Put on Richardson's Road.

President Johnson, of the Cleveland Cable Company is in town in the interest of his traction system, which the Hon. William Richardson has decided to employ on his Park avenue route. He has established an office at the corner of Park avenue and Ryerson street, and his engineers have already been before the city engineer with their plans. The system has been fully described. It is the same so highly recommended last year by President Hazzard, of the city road, when that company contemplated adopting a cable. Its grip and cable differ from any in common use, the cable consisting of double strands with cross bars, while the grip is simply a big cog wheel. It has worked very successfully in Cleveland, but the Richardson line will give it its first practical trial.

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Widespread Interest in Ladder Cable

From the Brooklyn Daily Eagle / Friday, September 17, 1886. Page 1.

CABLE ROADS.

Universal Interest Excited by the Brooklyn Experiment.

Description of the System to be Tried by President Richardson on Park Avenue. Reasons Why Horse Power Should be Suspended -- The Innovation to be Followed on Other Lines in This Vicinity.

Every street railroad president in this city is anxious to get rid of his horses and apply some other means of hauling cars on his lines. President Hazzard, of the Brooklyn City Company, who is known to be one of the most practical men in his business, has been endeavoring to get his directors to let him try the cable system for several years, and when General Fitzgerald was president of the DeKalb avenue Company he spend a great deal of time and money attempting to substitute the cable for his horses, while for a long time President Richardson of the Altlantic avenue system has been working to the same end. Mr. Richardson has visited the different cable roads now in successful operation in New York, Chicago and other cities, and has examined models and patent specifications innumerable. Both he and Mr. Hazzard found something wanting in all the schemes that have been offerred to them until they independently discovered a system that exactly suited them. Both gentelmen are nationally recognized as the leading street railway managers of the day. They are by far the most prominent officials in the American Street Railway Association, comprising the officers of all important lines in the United States, and that they should unite on a system of car propulsion is significant.

The reasons the railway officials want to do away with horses are chiefly economical ones. The horse is an expensive animal, first cost and for maintenance: he cannot travel up hill at anything approaching desirable speed, and he is made lame in a few years by descending even a slight grade. He needs a great deal of care, takes up a large amount of room for storage when not in use, and is decidedly behind the time in many ways when compared with machinery.

There are also urgent sanitary arguments for his total abolishment. The Atlantic avenue company uses 1,361 horses for their traffic, and from careful estimates these horses contribute 2,200 tons of filth to the already dirty streets -- every year for an average of nearly two tons per horse. The Brooklyn City company furnish a similar estimate for their 3,200 horses, putting the figure at 6,400 tons total, and in addition twice this amount, or 12,800 tons, is removed from their stables annually. According to the report of the State Railroad Commissioners for 1885 there are 8,114 street car horses used in this city, which means the encumbrance of the city's principal thoroughfares with 16,228 tons of deleterious matter. New York City has exactly double Brooklyn's number of car horses, 16,220, and presumably double the accompanying dirt.

The seriousness of this matter is shown from the recent report of an eminent physician, who says: "These voidings are largely ground up into dust that fills the air with poisonous matter which finds its way into the human system. If you will take up some of the dust from the streets of New York, put it into some lukewarm water and let it stand over night, you will find the next day, on placing a drop of this decoction under the lens of a microscope that it contains myriads of bacteria and other zoophytes and phytozoon forma of infinitesimal life that promote zymotic disorders."

No arguments have hitherto been advanced in the horses' favor, except that no practical substitute has been found for them. And even this exception has been annihilated by recent progress of inventive skill. As before stated, two of the most experienced street railway men in this country have decided on a cable system, and one of them has raised the money to have a practical trial of its operation.

Last March President Richardson applied to the Common Council for permission to substitute a cable for his horses on the Park avenue line, part of which is already built and the remainder is being constructed. The permit, after careful investigation, was granted, but upon the advice of the Corporation Counsel it was found that the action was premature, as the law required the change to be advertised for fourteen days. Mr. Richardson therefore concluded to advertise, and not risk any legal delays that might be put upon him by his beginning work at once upon the permit. The Aldermen were all strongly in favor of his cable scheme and he had no doubt they would legally ratify their former permission as soon as they could legally do so, but he kept on the safe side. The Board adjourned for the Summer before the expiration of the required fourteen days of notice, and the work has been delayed several months. However, all preparations have been made to continue the construction of the road at the beginning of next month, as it is believed the permit will be granted at the Board's fist meeting, which takes place on September 30. There is no known reason why this should not be the case, as no protests against the road have been made, and a large majority of the property owner along the line, as required by law, have signed a petition, asking for the Aldermanic permission. Among the prominent names on the petition are included: Mayor D. D. Whitney, estates of Tunis G. Bergen and D. K. Ducker, John F. Owings, Max Erlanger, Hugh McLaughlin, Francis Markey, David Dows, Thomas Browne, estates of James Nesmith and Thomas Messinger, R. Dunlap & Company, Long Island Safe Deposit company, Brooklyn White Lead Company, Campbell & Thayer and many others.

The method of hauling the cars chosen is known as the Johnson system, from its inventor, Tom L. Johnson, who is a prominent member of the American Street Railway Association, and the president of lines in Cleveland, O., and Indianapolis, Ind. His system is radically different from all earlier forms, and is claimed to be a great improvement on them.

The "cable" is composed of two parallel wire ropes placed an inch apart and connected at intervals of six inches by drop forged steel links, forming, in effect, a rack or sprocket chain. This is carried on rollers in a conduit a few inches below the street surface, having a slot three-fourths of an inch wide in the center of its upper surface running the whole length of the line. This chain gears with a toothed wheel carried by the car, which replaces the grip of other systems. This wheel, which is attached below the center of the car, revolves freely on an axis that is elevated or depressed by the operator of the car, raising the wheel from or lowering it into the slot in the conduit. While the car is at rest and the cable running this axis, on being lowered, allows the wheel to gear with the cable and to turn at the same speed as the latter. By a wheel on the front platform the operator is enabled to apply a brake acting on the gear wheel, which retards the latter's action and which completely stops its rotation when sufficiently applied. When this is done the car moves at the speed of the cable, being attached to the cable by the teeth of the stationary wheel. By applying the brake partially the car will always travel inversely as the speed of the wheel, and in this manner any speed may be maintained and the car started gradually without the jerks incidental to other systems. Dangers of accident are this reduced to a minimum, for if anything should break the car comes to a standstill. Cars are stopped quickly by means of the ordinary brake now in use on all cars. The above fully describes the working of the system, and there is little to add, except that it has been found to work with perfect success. No objections have been offered to it save those theoretical ones which have readily been demolished by practical tests. The system is a new one and it is understood has not yet been applied to any city line in regular operation, but a trial line one-tenth of a mile long has been built in Cleveland, and here Messrs. Hazzard and Richardson saw the system. This test line is long enough to show the practical operation of the system and so built as to develop any faults of the principle. There are two short curves in its length as abrupt as any to be met in turning sharp corners in this city, one of them more abrupt than any in general use. The track, also, has a steep grade in it and is so roughly built as to afford a severe test upon the strength of the system. An experimental car, complete with all the attachments, has been run up and down for over a year, starting and stopping with the utmost delicacy, being readily governed at any speed up to that of the cable and both of the Brooklyn railroad men state that there never was a hitch. Sudden stops and starts were repeatedly made and all manner of extraordinary tests were repeatedly made to every one's satisfaction. The trial car and cable have already traveled more and received rougher usage than they would receive on a line in Brooklyn, but so far no appreciable wear has been found and there has never been a failure or delay. Among the objections offered to the ordinary cable system was that the cable conduit and carrying pulleys would be speedily stopped up by the accumulated dirt from the street sweeping into the slot. On the Cleveland trial linesmen were stationed with piles of sand and all kinds of trash and mud which they shoveled into the conduit through an opening. Every bit of it was whisked out and the cable kept conduit clean. Water was similarly thrown out. The system was further said to be noiseless and without possibility of a snow blockade, as it clears itself as fast as the snow falls.

Mr. Johnson and his superintendent, Mr. De Paulsen, with a corps of draughtsmen and engineers have established themselves at 43 Ryerson street, and have about completed all plans to go ahead with the road as soon as the permit is granted. They hope to get the conduit in the ground before the frost comes, and if so promise to have the line in operation during the Winter.

The action of Mr. Richardson in becoming the pioneer of cable railway improvements in this city is warmly commended by all railroad men here, who are universally interested in the success of his trial. President Hazzard said, just before leaving for his vacation, that he had no doubt at all that every one of his cars would be run by the same cable within a reasonable time after the Park avenue road began operation, notwithstanding the great initial expense of changing from horses to machinery. President Partridge is only waiting for the means to convince his directors that they must follow the example of others if they hope to pay any dividends on the DeKalb avenue line.

President Richardson believes that when the great improvement is once successfully seen in operation all the roads will vie with each other in its speedy adoption.

President Foshay of the New York Broadway line, is another man who is an advocate of the system, and although the owners of his road own the Market street cable line in Philadelphia they are waiting to see the result of the Brooklyn experiment before asking the New York Aldermen to allow them to use the cable on Broadway, having an idea that if any system is superior to horses, the Brooklyn railway official will be the first to find it.

Superintendent Martin, of the bridge, when asked what he thought were the prospects of the horse being superseded by cable, said: "I think they are excellent. There is not comparing the comparative value of the cable with any other system of transportation. See our bridge. What would we do with horses or locomotives? Yet horses could better be used here than on the streets."

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Park Avenue Cable Road Being Built

From the Brooklyn Daily Eagle / Tuesday, October 5, 1886. Page 1.

BUILDING THE CABLE ROAD

Taking Early Advantage of the Aldermen’s Permit.

President Richardson has lost no time in making use of the permit granted him on Monday afternoon by the Board of Aldermen to construct the cable road on Park avenue. Early yesterday about fifty laborers were put to work tearing up the street as far as Classon avenue and getting ready to lay the conduit. President Tom L. Johnson, who will construct the road for President Richardson, was superintending the work. He said: “We will push forward as rapidly as possible and try to get all work completed before cold weather, but will lay none of the conduit until the Aldermen’s action is approved by the Mayor and the Department of City Works gives us the permit to construct the drainage sewer under the conduit. We hope to get the permit to-day, but if not will wait and put in the conduit after the tracks are laid. The distance between Broadway and Washington avenue is one and three-fourths miles. This makes seven miles of single track. We cross five other railroads in that distance where the Broadway road had only two or three. We will not build as fast as they did for we only intend to work on one side of the street at a time so not to block the traffic.”

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Park Avenue Cable Road Being Built

From the Brooklyn Daily Eagle / Wednesday, October 6, 1886. Page 5.

Excerpt from ALDERMEN

The Cable System Authorized on Park Avenue

To be Abandoned Altogether if it Does Not Prove Successful on that Thoroughfare...

The most important business transacted by the Board of Aldermen yesterday was the adoption of resolutions granting to the Prospect Park and Coney Island Railroad Company permission to apply the cable system to the surface road on Park avenue and other streets. A similar grant was made last Summer, but on account of an informality in the proceedings it amounted to nothing. The fact was that the necessary advertisement of the time and place for a consideration of the application of the companies had not been made; so it became necessary for the Board to vote the permission again. The matter was introduced yesterday by the Railroad Committee, which through Alderman McCarty offered the following:

Whereas, The Prospect Park and Coney Island Railroad Company and the Atlantic Avenue Railroad Company, of Brooklyn, did, on the twelfth day of July, 1886, make application, in writing to the Common Council for the consent of the local authorities of the City of Brooklyn, hereinafter granted; and

Whereas,Fourteen days’ public notice of such application and of the time and place when such application would be first considered by the Common Council has been given by a notice thereof published daily in two daily newspapers of this city, designated by the Mayor of the city; and

Whereas, Such application has been duly considered;

Resolved,That we, the Common Council of the City of Brooklyn, do hereby consent that the Prospect Park and Coney Island Railroad Company and the Atlantic avenue Railroad Company of Brooklyn, its lessees, successors, and assigns, shall and may use cable traction power, with all necessary mechanical contrivances and appliances, for the operation of the street surface railroads now partly constructed and operated by horse power and authorized to be rather constructed and operated between Fulton Ferry and the Cemetery of the Evergreens by the following named and described route and routes, streets, avenues and places, namely: From Fulton Ferry through and along Fulton street to Front street, and also through and along Water street and Front street between Fulton street and Washington street; thence from Water street, through and along Washington street to Concord street, through and along Concord street, Navy street and Park avenue to Broadway; thence through, along and across Broadway to Park street and Locust street, and through and along Park street and Locust street, across Belvedere and Wall streets to Bushwicki avenue; then through, along and across Bushwick avenue to Melrose street and Jefferson street; thence through and along Melrose street and Jefferson street, crossing through and along and along Evergreen avenue, through and along said Melrose and Jefferson streets to Central avenue, and through and along Central avenue the whole length to the City Line, and returning over, along and through the same route and routes, streets and avenues to to the Fulton Ferry, with all the curves, connections, stands, switches, crossovers and crossings and all other mechanical contrivances and appliances for the construction and operation by cable traction power of the railroad herein described and set forth. Provided that this consent is granted upon the express condition that the provisions of chapter 252 of the Laws of 1864 of the State of New York entitled “An Act to provide for the construction, extension, maintenance and operation of street surface railroads and branches thereof in cities, towns, and villages,” pertinent thereto shall be complied with; and shall be filed in the office of County Clerk of the County of Kings. Provided also, that the consent of the Common Council is hereby given up on the following condition, the non compliance with which shall render the consent void: That the Atlantic avenue Railroad Company of Brooklyn , before it, its lessees or contractors, shall enter upon any of the streets or avenues of the City of Brooklyn for the purpose of adapting said road to the motive power cable traction, shall enter into a good and sufficient bond, to be approved by the Corporation Counsel, in the sum of fifty thousand dollars, that it will save and keep harmless the City of Brooklyn from all damages or injury caused by the adaptation or maintenance of said road, caused by any interference of said company, its lessees, contractors, agents or employes (sic - JT), with the streets, water pipes, or sewers of said city.

Resolved,That consent is hereby given for all necessary openings and excavations of the streets and avenues and for connections with the sewers on the routes aforesaid, for the construction and operation of the necessary mechanical and other contrivances and appliances by cable traction power on the route and routes, streets and avenues aforesaid; the work to be done under the supervision of and on plans approved by the Department of City Works.

Ald. Corwin said he should vote against the resolutions. The application of the cable system was to be an experiment and upon the result of the experiment would depend in a measure the question as to whether the cable would be substituted on other horse railroads. While he believed that upon a wide street a surface cable road would probably be beneficial, he thought that upon a narrow street, such as Fulton, it would prove an annoyance, if not a nuisance, by reason of the obstructions it would cause. He therefore contended that this experiment should be made upon a narrow thoroughfare.

Ald. McCarty replied that it ws the intention of the company to first operate the portion of the cable road to be constructed on Park avenue from Vanderbilt avenue to Broadway. If that part should prove a failure then the scheme would be dropped. As to Fulton street it was proposed to run only on the block between Water and Front streets, where the carriageway was over 100 feet wide. The Alderman called attention to the successful operation of a cable system on Tenth avenue, New York, which the Mayor and the Board had inspected some time since. He then announced that the remonstrance from Jefferson street against the application under consideration had been withdrawn.

Ald. Corwin said that the reason he believed the experiment should be tried on narrow streets was that the objections to such a system would be apparent there at once. They should be streets where there is considerable travel. If it were claimed on behalf of the cable road that it would furnish rapid transit, he would object on that account, too; for we now had enough rapid transit on the surface. The surface rapid transit we now had (referring to Atlantic avenue) had spilled enough blood to run a dummy. It was established by a rotten corporation, aided by a rotten city government and a still worse Legislature.

The resolutions reported by the committee were adopted 14 to 3, those in the negative being Corwin, Dijon and Maurer.

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Park Avenue Cable Road Directors Named

From the Brooklyn Daily Eagle / Thursday, November 11, 1886. Page 4.

THE CABLE ROAD

Names of its Seven Directors and its Stockholders

Articles of association of the Brooklyn Cable Company were filed yesterday with the Secretary of State. The company is to continue one hundred years. As described in the EAGLE recently, the road is to be constructed, maintained and operated from Fulton Ferry to the Cemetery of the Evergreens. The amount of capital stock is $500,000, divided into 5,000 shares of $100 each. The directors for the first year are: Tom L. Johnson, Cleveland, Ohio; A, I. du Pont, Wilmington, Delaware; Arthu J. Moxham, Johnstown PA.; L. A. Russell, Cleveland, I.; Philip R Voorhees, New York City; Henry C. Evens, New York City; Albert L. Johnson, Cleveland, O. The stockholders are: Tom L. Johnson, Cleveland O, 929 shares; A. I. DuPont, Wilmington, Del., 929 shares; A. J. Moxham, Johnstown, Pa., 10 shares; L. A. Russel, Cleveland, O., 23 shares; Philip R. Voorhees, New York City, 1 share; Henry C. Evans, New York City, 1 share; Albet L. Johnson, Cleveland, O., 100 shares; Antoine B. DuPont, Louisville, Ky., 2 shares; F. H. Davies, Cleveland, O., 1 share; Claude M. Johnson, Cleveland, O., 1 share; Miller A. Smith, Brooklyn, 1 share; L. C. Murray, New York City, 1 share; John C. Calhoun, New York City, 1 share.

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Park Avenue Cable Road Under Construction

From the Brooklyn Daily Eagle / Monday, January 17, 1887. Page 4.

Brooklyn's first cable car line did not open in February.

THE PARK AVENUE CABLE ROAD

Deacon Richardson Says it Will Be In Operation By Next Month

The proposed cable road of the Atlantic avenue Railroad Company on Park avenue is nearing completion. On Wednesday two immense Corliss engines will be in position on the corner of Grand and Park avenues and will supply the power for the operation of the road. About a week later the cable cars will have been completed and it will be in operation early in February. Mr. William Richardson, the President of the Atlantic avenue Railroad, has been giving the cable project his personal supervision, and expresses himself as highly gratified with the manner in which the work is progressing. This morning he said to an EAGLE reporter: "The company is now asking the consent of property owners on Fifth avenue with the view of operating its line there by cable power. If we get the necessary consents and the cable road on Park avenue proves satisfactory the system will be introduced generally."

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Brooklyn Lease Arrangement

From the Brooklyn Daily Eagle / Friday, January 21, 1887. Page 5.

Tom L Johnson was a politician and street railway executive from Cleveland, Ohio.

LEASED THE CABLE ROAD

The Atlantic Railroad Company to Receive 14 Per Cent. Of the Receipts.

The Atlantic avenue Railroad Company has leased the Park avenue Cable Road to Tom L. Johnson, of Cleveland, and Alexis L. du Pont, of Wilmington, Del. This line is now being constructed, and begins at Washington and Park avenues, and runs through Park avenue, Broadway, Park street, Beaver, Bushwick avenue, Jefferson street and Central avenue to Evergreen Cemetery. Johnson and du Pont were the contractors, and agree to pay the company 14 per cent. of the gross receipts. They have also agreed to have the road finished and in operation March 15, 1887. They will have the use of the company's tracks from Washington Avenue to Fulton Ferry, and will run horse cars thereon until they can build a cable road. The company reserves the right to use these last named tracks for cable cars on the payment of a pro rata of interest on the cost of construction. The lease was signed April 6, but was not filed with the County Clerk until yesterday.

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Brooklyn Line Nearly Ready

From the Brooklyn Daily Eagle / February 8, 1887, Page 4.

THE CABLE ROAD.

Cars to Run From Fulton Ferry to Broadway Next Month.

Mr. Miller A. Smith, Civil Engineer of the Brooklyn Cable Company, said to an EAGLE reporter to-day: "The residents of Central avenue will be much better served by the building of the cable line along their street than they could possibly be by any horse railroad company. The very gest cars obtainable have been ordered from the John Stephenson Company. They are superior to any now in use in this city.

The company expects to begin running cars before the 1st of March from Fulton Ferry to Park avenue and Broadway, using horses temporarily from Fulton Ferry to Grand avenue until the construction of the cable system on that portion of the line.

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Cables Started

See a later item for more about the special horses.

From the Brooklyn Daily Eagle / March 2, 1887, Page 4.

A GOOD START

Made on the Park Avenue Cable Road.

It Works Well, but Cars Will Not be Propelled by It Until the Possibility of a Hitch is Provided For.

Park avenue, between Grand and Broadway, to-day was lined with men, women and children attracted by the hum of the cable between the tracks of the new Park avenue road. Thousands gratified their curiosity by peeping into the narrow slit in the street and catching a glimpse of the first cable laid in Brooklyn as it whizzed along just under the surface. At 10 o'clock steam was first applied to the 250 horse power Corliss engine, at the corner of Grand avenue, and the great train of mechanism, which constitutes the driving plant, began slowly to revolve, increasing its speed until the big flywheel reached a velocity of eighty revolutions a minue, and the cable was traveling eight and one-half miles an hour. President Johnson was very happy when he saw that everything was working to perfection and that the first step had been successful. He said that no cars would be driven by the cable for almost a week yet, as he preferred to go slowly and avoid any possible hitches. Everything would be smoother after a little use and he did not want to be in too much of a hurry as he had to learn a good deal by experimenting. The new cars began running reguar trips on the line yesterday between Broadway and Fulton Ferry making the trips in forty minutes. These cars are the handsomest every built. They are finished throughout in dark polished woods and brass trimmings. The windows are wider than those generally in use and extend all the way to the roof, leaving no place for soap and medicine advertisements. The seats are richly upholstered on springs and the arched floor is covered with perforated rubber. The stove are underneath the seats and attended from without. The chandeliers and end lights are of improved brilliancy. The front platform is a curiosity. Two long levers for operating the grip are in the middle and on each side are brake handles. The cars are examined by crowds on the stand, the ferry and bridge and many persons take a trip to see the road. With the grip arrangement they weigh much more than those on other roads and ordinary car horses could not move them. President Johnson has been compelled to select special horses, and as a result he has one hundred of the finest ever seen in the city. The road is already carrying a large number of persons and seems to have jumped into popularity.

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Pedestrian Injured

From the Brooklyn Daily Eagle / March 20, 1887, Page 1.

A CABLE CAR ACCIDENT

About 7:10 o'clock last evening Matthew O'Brien, of Graham street and Myrtle avenue, whle crossing Park avenue, near Spencer street, caught his right foot in the railroad track, and before he could extricate it car 32, of the cable line, ran over his left foot, fracturing the bones. He was removed to his home.

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Complaint About the Slot

From the Brooklyn Daily Eagle / March 30, 1887, Page 6.

WERE THEY BROUGHT FROM CHICAGO?

Condemned Cable Ways Said to be in Use in Brooklyn.

Lawyer A. P. Hinman has served upon President Johnson, of the Brooklyn Cable Road, the summons and complaint in an action brought in the City Court by Adolph Humbert, an expressman. On the 19th instant Humbert was driving across the track of the cable road at the intersection of Park and Sumner avenues. His horse caught the shoe of his right hind foot in the slot or cable way as it is called. The result was an injury to the fetlock joint so serious that the animal was completely disabled and it was necessary to shoot him. The suit is for $500 the value of the horse. It is claimed that the slot or opening in the cable way is wider than is necessary, and that the company is liable. Lawyer Hinman says it will be claimed in the suit that the cable ways which were condemned in Chicago because the slot was so wide were brought to Brooklyn and put down upon the streets here.

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Too Hard on the Horses

From the Brooklyn Daily Eagle / April 7, 1887, Page 6.

HORSES DYING

The Cable Cars Too Heavy for Them.

They Cannot Stand the Strain of Dragging Seven Thousand Pounds Where the Grade is Streep and the Curves Sharp.

The handsome Park avenue cable cars, that have only been running for five weeks, may be all well enough when propelled by cable, with a steam engine for motive power, but they were not built for horses to haul, as has been clearly demonstrated from the first. They are the handsomest street cars in this part of the country and the heaviest. They are eight inches wider than other street cars, and proportionately heavier in every way. When to this is added the heavy grip mechanism, which extends below the floor of the whole car and is connected with the extra levers and metal work of the front platform, the car complete is said by railroad men to weigh just about twice as much as any other car in the city. Other cars weigh about 5,000 pounds. The Park avenue cars weigh over 7,000 pounds. The cars on Park avenue above Grand are propelled by cable, and as the line there is level the enormous 250 horse power engine has a very easy time of it. But below Grand avenue there are several of the heaviest grades in the city, notably on Concord st, near Bridge and on Washington street, near Sands, beside which thre are many short curves which are as bad as heavy grade. Here where the cable is most needed horses are used. Three weeks ago these cars stopped running to the ferry and turned back at the bridge because the horses could not haul the cars up the hill from the ferry and complete the trips.

For several days it has been noticed that the horses of this company were sufferring with distemper. At the stable no information could be obtained but it has been learned that all of the horses, numbering about 100, have the distemper and that fourteen of them have died.

A well known stable keeper, familiar with horses, accompanied an EAGLE reporter to the corner of Sands and Washington street to-day and looked at the teams hauling the cable cars. He found none thathad not the disease, and said to the reporter: "The ailment is not dangerous and can easily be cured by rest. When green horses are brought to the city and put at work steadily they nearly always get distemper. With such heavy cars as these nothing else could be expected. But it is a shame to drive these horses while sick and Bergh's men ought to sto it. They undoubtedly know of it. Every one who has seen any of these horses knows what is the matter. Horses will seldom eat when they have the distemper and will starve to death if they are driven while sick. The company should be compelled to give these horses a rest. You see how wet they are. That is because they are weak and the heavy load tells on them."

Extra tow horses are used on the heavy grades, but they are not worked so hard and seem to be well. A car came down at noon with two handsome gray horses which the driver said had been laid up in the stable for several days and that was their first trip since they had recovered. The loss of the horses falls entirely on the railroad company, as the disease is neither contagious nor infectious.

To correct a prevailing erroneous opinion it should be stated that President William Richardson has nothing to do with the Park avenue Cable Company, of which Mr. Tom L. Johnson is president.

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First Fatality/1

From the Brooklyn Daily Eagle / April 11, 1887, Page 6.

The child was named after Seth Low, reformer, educator, and mayor of Brooklyn.

THE FIRST VICTIM

Three Year Old Seth Low Fisher Run Over by a Cable Car and Killed.

Eugene Lilliston, a brakeman on Deacon Richardson's cable road, was arraigned before Justice Kenna this morning on a charge of homicide preferred by Policeman George Golden, of the Thirteenth Precinct. Shortly before 6 o'clock last evening, as Lilliston's car was on its way down Park avenue, 3 year old Seth Low Fisher, whose parents live at 62 Delmonico place, suddenly ran out into the street and playfully caught hold of the side of the car and started to run along with it. He slipped and fell under the car, one wheel passing over his body at the waist. Lilliston, who had not see the boy, brought the car to a stop, and picking the lad up in his arms, carried him to his home. After lingering in terrible pain for nearly three hours, the little fellow died. Justice Kenna admitted the brakeman to bail in $1,000, pending examination.

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First Fatality/2

From the Brooklyn Daily Eagle / April 14, 1887, Page 1.

This story disagrees in many details with the initial version.

THE CABLE ROAD CASUALTY.

Nobody to Blame for the Death of Seth Low Fisher.

Coroner Lindsay and a jury held an inquest last evening at the corner of Park avenue and Delmonico place in the case of Seth Low Fisher, aged 3 years, 5 months and 2 days, stepson of George Weber, of 65 Delmonico place, who was run over and killed last Sunday evening by Car No. 23 of the Park avenue Cable Road.

Bernard Maybeck, of 221 Ellery street, testified that about 5 P.M. on Sunday, standing at the corner of Park avenue and Delmonico place, he saw the car running along Park avenue toward Broadway and the child about two feet ahead of it; saw the car pass over the child; witness picked the child up and carried him home; witness heard no gong sounded before the accident.

Christine Drosser, of 171 Essex street, New York, testified that she was sitting in a window of 765 Park avenue and saw the child when the car was within about two feet of him; heard a gong sounded, but was too excited to notice whether the brakeman attempted to stop the car or not; saw the child carried away, but did not observe from what side of the street he was taken.

Eugene Lilliston, of 515 Flushing avenue, brakeman on car 23, testified that the accident occurred between 5:45 and 5:50 P.M.; he saw no child at the front of the car; heard people shout and heard the conductor's bell ring; witness rang the gong five or six times before reaching the crossing; stopped the car and found the child on the track; had felt no jar of the car; the front wheels are provided with guards and these would have thrown the child off; the child might have got under the wheels without winess noticing him, because the front wheels were about five feet away from where witness stood; if the child was only two feet in front of him there would have been plenty of time to stop, because the cable cars are more easily stopped than horse cars; the car at the time was going at the rate of five miles per hour; the cars slack speed at the crossings.

The autopsy of Dr. Joseph M. Creamer showed that death was caused by internal hemorrhage and collapse, the result of laceration of the intestines.

The jury, after a brief deliberation, rendered the following verdict: We, the undersigned, do find that Seth Low Fisher came to his death by being accidentally run over by car 23 of the Park avenue Cable Railroad. We also find that no blame attaches to the brakeman and conductor of said car.

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Brooklyn Extension

From the Brooklyn Daily Eagle / May 27, 1887, Page 6.

EXTENDING THE CABLE ROAD.

President Howell says the Johnson System Will be Used on the Bridge.

The Park avenue cable road has been extended across Broadway as far as Central avenue, and cars will begin running next week on the extension. This will materially increase the bridge traffic, as residents of that section have no facilities for reaching this part of the city. The new line has four short curves on it, and if it is demonstrated that the cable system works well on the curves the cable will be laid at once to Fulton Ferry. It will probably be a month before the cable is at work upon the extension, owing to some alterations necessary.

President Johnson, of the Cable Company, called on Bridge President Howell to-day and invited him to examine the new system. Mr. Howell told him he had already examined it, and was unstinted in his praise of the system. He assured Mr. Johnson that it was the best, and in fact, the only system that could be used on the bridge carriageways, and that when the time came for further increasing the facilities as proposed he would have the Park avenue system.

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Nuisance to Horses

From the Brooklyn Daily Eagle / June 22, 1887, Page 1.

Attaching tin cans to the cable was a popular trick in San Francisco many years ago.

IT PULLS OFF HORSES' SHOES.

An Effort to Have the Park Avenue Cable Pronounced a Nuisance.

The Brooklyn Cable Company is not finding the citizens living along its route unanimous in its praise. Mr. Edwin Cole, a resident of Park avenue, considers it a nuisance and employed Lawyer John H. Kemble to have a jury determine the question in a suit at law. Mr. Kemble made a motion before Judge Van Wyck on Saturday to have the matter tried before a jury as a matter of right.

Lawyer James C. Church, for the Cable Company, opposed the motion, and Judge Van Wyck intimated that it was a matter for the court to pass upon. Mr. Kemble then withdrew his motion, and will probably apply for an injunction restraining the Cable Companyfrom operating its road on the ground that it is a nuisance.

The principal complaint against the cable is that the slot in which it is worked is just narrow enough to hold the cog of a horse's shoe and wrench it from the foot. The cable men say if they make the slow wide boys will tie tin cans to the cable and thereby make a dangerous nuisance.

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Cable and Conduit Damage

From the Brooklyn Daily Eagle / June 23, 1887, Page 6.

I guess they didn't count the death of Seth Low Fisher as a "serious mishap" since the company was not found liable.

ITS FIRST SMASH.

A Mishap on the Park Avenue Cable Road.

The Error of a Green Hand Parts the Double Wire -- Slight Damage, But a Day's Return to Old Methods Necessitated.

The cable road on Park avenue yesterday encountered its first serious mishap since it was put in operation, four months ago. A green hand clamped the grip down on a pulley and the momentum of the car tore the hook from the pulley. The car dragged along and ripped the hangers or hooks from a dozen or more pulleys. This was at 4 o'clock in the afternoon. The cable was kept running until 6 o'clock, when it parted and finally broke. The latter accident was, in a measure, independent of the first, although the disabled pulleys probably hastened the breaking. The cable was hauled around around, through the duct and into the engine house until the part where the break had occurred was reached. A gang of men was sent out over the road to hunt for the shattered pulleys. It was at first reported that there were at least 100 of them, but the search reduced the actual number to less than twenty. The broken pulleys were taken out, the work requiring several hours. The task was rendered particularly difficult and disagreeable owing to the prevailing heavy rain. None of the pulleys was broken, the damage being confined to the hangars and hooks. The latter are worth 5 cents apiece and the damage on the score of cost was therefore quite insignificant. There were enough duplicate hangars and hooks on hand to take the places of those that had been broken and wrenched off.

The work of repairing the cable was not begun until this morning. President Tom L. Johnson stated that the cable would be in running order again this afternoon and that the accident was only serious in that it involved the stopping of the cable and the substitution of horses as motive power for the cars. He gave an interesting explanation of the cause of the breaking of the cable, took the reporter all over the repair shops and showed him how the process of making the cable was being carried on.

"The principal reason the cable broke," he said, "was this: It consists, as you see, of two cables made of wrapped and very ductile steel wire, riveted together at short intervals. This makes it, practically, a miniature ladder. When it was first made, in Cleveland, the workmen were new to our methods, and one cable may have been drawn a little more than the other. This caused the side that was most taut to curl up a trifle -- just enough for it to rub against the top of the iron plate enclosing it. Thus one side of the cable was gradually worn away so that one of more of the steel wires broke and the cable stuck up. We are well satisfied with the cable so far. This is not a serious accident, and we have been running four months. Three months is usually calculated as the average life of the first cable. We are satisfied that our system is all that is claimed for it. The loss on the cable is small -- only 35 cents per foot -- and we are splicing in a section of neww cable about fifty feet in length. We have the machinery for making the cable right here in the shop; moved it from Cleveland, because we found that it would be cheaper to move the machinery than it would be to transport the cable. We have plenty of new cable on hand and are making it all the time, so as to have a duplicate ready for any emergency."

Five men are constantly at work weaving the cable, with the aid of a ponderous and strange looking machine, forty feet ong. Already over a mile of new cable has been woven and is reeled on a wooden spool that will hold four miles when full.

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Rope Break

From the Brooklyn Daily Eagle / June 24, 1887, Page 4.

The Rope Broke

People along Park avenue were forced to wait a long time before the wire rope snapped. During the twenty-four hours or so of suspension of cable traffic they will have the opportunity to return to their old love, the car horse, and compare the virtues of the two methods of movement. As the comparison can not be injurious to the cable system it is not a misfortune in any sense. In discussing interurban railway reform on June 5 the EAGLE mentioned one by one the advantages of cable over horse flesh as a motor power and also the disadvantages, among which the most conspicuous in other cities has been the slaughter of children. Nothing like this has happened in Brooklyn and now that the cable road is familiar to the public, no individual effort will be made to test its power to kill. This utter absence of mortality is due to the vigilance of the employees of the company, as well as to the prudence of the public. It calls for no little presence of mind and manual dexterity to keep the bit in the mouth of one of these grip cars. Sometimes the iron jaw under ground bites off more machinery than it can masticate and then there is a scattering of steel teeth. Owing to the opaqueness of stone pavement it is a matter of experience to grip the cable every time with easy decision of leverage power, and so long as the engineers spare the spinal cords of the passengers they will be forgiven for occasionally breaking the pliable vertebrate of the road itself.

The Park avenue Company has certainly profited by the mistakes of antecedent ventures in cable transit, for this was their first accident. No one was hurt and the damage was financially unimportant. These steel strands can be spliced as securely and durably as the threads of a ruptured rope. The gripping apparatus is very simple of construction and is attached to the car in such a manner that a collision so violent as to separate one from the other would occasion the passengers only the momentary discomfort of a sudden jar. The car cannot be derailed, and under the most distressing circumstances it will be either the grip or the cable that will give way and not the wheels. In hot weather passengers on the cable road may take these changes with equanimity, for they will suffer no delay from the watering or sudden faintness of horses, from any interference by the force of gravitation on steep grades, or from blockades. It is gratifying to note with what prompt courtesy ugly tempered truck drivers and the like yield the right of way to a train of cable cars.

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Labor Unrest

From the Brooklyn Daily Eagle / July 6, 1887, Page 4.

The Knights of Labor were an early attempt at forming an all-inclusive labor organization.

DISSATISFACTION ON THE CABLE ROAD

But There Will be No Tie Up Until President Johnson Returns.

At the regular weekly meeting of District Assembly 75, Knights of Labor, last night, a complaint was received from the employees of the Park avenue Cable Road setting forth that there are nineteen “runs” on the line, ten of which are “straight,” paying $2 a day, three are “swings” at $2 a day, consisting of about seventeen hours, and six :trippers” at; $1.50 a day. The regular men declare that they have no time at the termini to leave their cars as the return trips begin immediately. Tow boys, it was declared, worked twenty hours one day and sixteen the next. Special complaints were made against Starter George Wohler, who had been promoted from a car, and had made himself very obnoxious to the men, assuming to be superintendent, inspector and detective in addition to his regular position.

President Tom L. Johnson and his brother Albert, who manage the road, are in Indianapolis, but will get back to-morrow night. When they will be seen by the representatives of the men. Mr. F. H. David, a young man who says he is in charge of the road during their absence, said to-day:

”I am unable to alter the time table or make any changes; but Mr. Johnson will undoubtedly correct any grievances as soon as he returns. The table only a temporary one that has been in operation two weeks and was not meant to be permanent.

”The regular men all have four minutes on each end of the road when they are on time. If they do not run on time it is their own fault. None of the tow boys works over fourteen hours, and the longest swing is within fourteen and a half hours, The travel is so poor over the line, and nearly all at the extreme hours of the day on account of the neighborhood it passes through, that the table is hard to improve upon.”

The committee called this afternoon without effecting anything, and will call again on Saturday, when they will see the president. Assemblyman Graham says there will be no tie up.

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Richardson Rooked

From the Brooklyn Daily Eagle / Saturday, July 20, 1887. Page 4.

Albert Barnes describes a "disorderly walk" as "conduct that is in any way contrary to the rules of Christ." The event alluded to here involved laying tracks on a Sunday.

WON’T BE RASH

Mr. Richardson Will Examine the Facts.

It Looks Very Much as Though a Rival Road Has Triumphed Over the Gentleman Who is Not a Deacon

The friends of Mr. William Richardson, who is not a deacon, will regret to hear that his hair is now whiter than ever. Not that this spoils his appearance by any means. He is still the handsomest of Brooklyn patriarchs. After a lifetime devoted to triumphing over evildoers the ungodly have prevailed against him. The thunder of the chariots and the shoutings of the captains have sounded in his ears and he has been forced to flee from the battle, while the wicked have pursued him with a sharp stick. The Broadway Railroad has mocked him to scorn, the Common Counsel (sic -- JT) has fed him upon husks of franchise, the courts have risen up against him and smitten him hip and thigh and the cousel of the righteous have not prevailed. There is no psalm that exactly describes the case of President Richardson, who so recently slipped up in the race for a deaconship, by reason of a piece of youthful exuberance denominated a "disorderly walk," so it will have to be told in ordinary prose, however inadequate that vehicle may be for use in such a matter.

After assuring himself that he could get a franchise for Central avenue from the Board of Aldermen of Brooklyn, Mr. Richardson made terms with the recently organized Brooklyn Cable Company of which the president was Mr. Thomas L. Johnson and the treasurer Mr. A. J. Dupont, by which he was to give the cable company franchises that would enable them to operate a cable system from Fulton Ferry along Water to Washington to Concord to Navy street to Park avenue to Broadway to Central avenue to Evergreens Cemetery. Part of these franchises Mr. Richardson possessed already, but the franchise for Central avenue he had to get. He has failed to get Central avenue, the courts have rendered two decisions against him and in favor of the Broadway Railroad Company, and he has not, therefore, complied with the terms of his contract with the cable company. More than that, there is no change that he will be able to comply with the terms of that contract, and the lease of ninety-one years which he gave over his tracks to from Fulton Ferry to Broadway served the purpose of tying his hands and leaving the cable company free to despoil him. All this was related in Saturday’s EAGLE. But there was a point not then disclosed, but which is the very sharpest thorn of all. Mr. Richardson gave this valuable lease on condition that it should be used for a cable road, from the operation of which he was to receive 14 per cent. of the gross receipts. No money was paid to him and none is to be paid until he enables the cable road to run over the routes designated to Evergreens Cemetery. The cable road was operated on Park Avenue and was to be extended down to Fulton Ferry and along Central avenue as soon as Mr. Richardson got possession of the latter thoroughfare. Being quite satisfied that he will not be able to do this the Brooklyn Cable Company have sold their cars back to Stephenson, the maker, and their engines and cable apparatus to other firms. That was all right, but they did not stop there. They sold the lease of Mr. Richardson’s tracks, for which they had paid nothing at all to his great South Brooklyn rival, General Slocum, of the Crosstown Railroad Company, for $150,000. The Crosstown Railroad has at last secured the communication with the bridge and Fulton Ferry, from which Mr. Richardson shut them off for so many years, for the depraved jigger cars which utilize his tracks to get to the ferry are now transferring passengers to the regular crosstown lline on Park avenue. From this transfer office the new crosstown line goes up Park avenue to Throop to Union avenue to Greenpoint through a well settled and good paying district. And unless he buys Central avenue from the Broadway Company the Cross Town Railroad will have the use of his tracks from Fulton Ferry to the corner of Park and Throop avenues for ninety-one years without any remuneration, which is thought to make all thoughtful people sad. When asked today whether he had not been the victim of a sharp trick, Mr. Richardson said: "I have not examined the facts and will not say anything yet. I don’t know what there in in the transaction. I will do nothing rash."

To add insult to injury the Cable Company talks seriously of beginning suit against Mr. Richardson for $50,000 for breach of contract.

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Brooklyn Heights Under Construction

From the Brooklyn Daily Eagle / Wednesday, February 25, 1891. Page 1.

The Brooklyn Academy of Music was at 176-194 Montague Street in 1891. That building burned down on 30-November-1903.

TO RUN IN MAY

Cable Cars Will Traverse Montague Street.

A Very Solid Roadbed and Costly Cars. The Power Station and General Equipment of the New Road -- The Enterprise Under Way at Last.

The long talked of railroad on Montague street, from Court to Wall street ferry, gives now promise almost equal to certainty that before the end of the coming spring, it will materialize and carry people up and down the toilsome grade from the water front to the heights and along the smooth pavement of Montague street. President Daniel F. Lewis of the Montague heights railway company, which holds the franchises of the road, said yesterday all the contracts for the constructions had been let. President H. D. Hotchkiss of the Montague construction company, which under a general contract has charge of the building of the road, explained its nature to a reporter yesterday. The road will be a double track cable line extending from the crosswalk at Court and Montague streets to within 8 feet of the Wall street ferry entrance, a distance of 2,600 feet, or a few paces short of half a mile. The power house will be located on what is known as the old glass house property, on State street, near Hicks, which has been acquired by the company for the purpose. The building will be of brick, 70 x 110 feet, and equipped with one 350 horse power tandem condensing engine and two 240 horse power water tube boilers. It will require about 200 horse power to operate the road during the busy hours of traffic. From the power station the cable will run through pipes laid below the surface of the street east on State street to Hicks and thence north through Hicks street to Montague, where it will connect with the railroad. There will, of course, be no tracks on Hicks or State street. At Montague street the cable will split, one strand going up and down on the south track and the other crossing underneath that track to the north track and running up and down it. On Montague street the cable will travel in a conduit made of cement and cast iron, with manholes every thirty-two feet, in which will be the carrying pulleys to support the cale. Every few feet a cast iron yoke weighing about three hundred and fifty pounds will furnish strength to the conduit. On the yokes the rail chairs will be bolted, and to these the rails themselves, the chairs and the rails being supported on all sides by a foundation of rubble. The rails will be of the Lewis & Fowler pattern, which is a modification of what is known as the Liverpool rail, each edge being flush with the pavement and having a groove near the side in which the flange of the car wheel runs. This form of structure of the road, Mr. Hotchkiss says, is the heaviest ever used in cable work and is sufficiently strong to support an 80 ton locomotive The cable will be 1 1/4 inches in diameter, and the ordinary horizontal grip, with the upper part perpendicular, will be used. The slot rail will have an opening 5/8 of an inch in width. In winter this and the track will be kept clear by a sweeper operated by the cable, horse and carts being employed to carry the snow and mud which is thrust aside.

The equipment of cars will at the start be eight in number and they are to be, Mr. Hotchkiss declares, the costliest ever constructed for street railway use. They will be 18 feet long, or 2 feet longer than the ordinary horse car, and will have a solid mahogany trim. There will be three large lights in the roof instead of one, as is customary. The platforms will be half inclosed by a vestibule front like that of a coupe. Owing to the refusal of the Academy of Music people to consent to the construction of the road if cars of the standard width, 7 feet 6 inches, were to be used, which, they claimed, would not leave sufficient space outside the tracks for carriages to stand at the entrance with safety, an agreement was made by the company to use cars not exceeding 6 feet 8 inches in width, or a little less than the width of the Broadway surface cars in New York. Each car will be manned by a conductor and a gripman. The cars will be run at short intervals, it being estimated that it will require between three and a half and four minutes for the trip from the ferry to Court street, including stops, the cable being run at the rate of six miles an hour. The cars will carry fifty persons each. When not in use they will be stored in the arches under the Montague street slope. As a safeguard against accidents on the hill the cars are each supplied with two independent sets of brakes, one set acting on the wheels like ordinary brakes and the other operating so as to lift the car off the track and clog the wheels. This latter style of brake is known as the track brake and was invented for just such places as the Montague street hill. Under the terms of the contracts that have been let all the cast iron work, rails, etc., and everything going into the street part of the construction must be delivered by March 10. The contractors for the construction will begin operations March 15, weather permitting. They are under penalty to have the road completed by May 15. The power plant is to be delivered by April 10, and the power station is to be completed and everything ready for steam by May 15. The contractors are Rinslee, Cochran & Co. of Louisville, cast iron work; National water tube boiler company, boilers; Wm. Wharton company, Philadelphia, slot rail; Lewis & Fowler, train rail, cars and switches; Walker company of Cleveland, rope winding machiner; C. & G. Hooper company of Mount Vernon, O., engine; Christie & Lows of Kansas City, general contractos. The rate of fare, Mr. Hotchkiss says, has not yet been fixed upon, but the company hopes to be able to make to make one fare cover the railroad and ferry. Whether or not transfer arrangements will be made with surface and elevated roads in Brooklyn cannot be determined until the feeling of the road's patrons in the matter can be ascertained.

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Brooklyn Heights -- Threading the Cable

From the Brooklyn Daily Eagle / Saturday, July 11, 1891. Page 6.

Note that the Brooklyn Heights line began by using a cable made up entirely of steel wires, rather than steel wires wrapped around a hemp core. The cable had to be welded rather than spliced. I wish they had reported the name of the poor kid who had to crawl through the blind conduit.

IN THE CONDUIT

Final Preperations for the Montague Street Line.

A Boy Crawling Through the Cable Pipe Like a Rat With the Guide Rope -- Cars to Run Every Two and a Half Minutes to Wall Street Ferry.

Groups of interested people this morning surrounded a handsome new street car on Montague street bearning the inscription, "Brooklyn Heights Railroad Company, Wall Street Ferry and City Hall. No. 1."

It was the first car of the new cable line from city hall to Wall street ferry, but its appearance did not mean that the line would be opened to-day. The car was being used to draw into place in the underground conduit the steel cable which will furnish motive power to the line, and the cars will not be running until some day next week. The preparation attracted much attention. The cable itself is 9,100 feet long, 1 1/8 inches in diameter, and is of solid twisted steel, instead of being wound around a manilla heart, as the bridge and Harlem cables are. It weighs 2 1/2 pounds the foot or something over eleven tons. Getting it into place was an ingenious operation and began yesterday afternoon. The work will occupy all told about twenty-four hours. The conduit in Montague street is connected with the power house of the company in State street, opposite Willow place, by a brick circular conduit running from the corner of Montague and Hicks streets through Hicks to State and down State to the power house where are engine and spool that will keep the cars in motion. The end of the cable was introduced at the power house and it was done in this way: the conduit through State and Hicks street is seventeen inches in diameter and is only connected with the street by a series of iron convers like those over manholes in a sewer. The covers open upon the pulleys which hold the cable up, like the cable pulleys upon the bridge. A boy started through the conduit from the power house dragging the end of a manilla rope. The boy crawled all the way from the power house to Hicks and Montague streets, dragging the rope behind him to the place in which the cable was to go. As the load became too heavy for the lad men would reach down the conduit holes behing shim, catch the rope and pull it from the power house, leaving the line behind the boy slack. Then the rope was spliced to the end of the cable and this was pulled through by a force of men.

When Montague street was reached a different motive power could be used. A slot through the surface of the street connects with the conduit, through which the grip on the cable underneath connects with the brakes on the car. The end of the cable was made fast to this grip and the car was then drawn along the track by horses, st