Episode 1 of 2
Columbia Railway Converts to Electric Power
- When
- July 22, 1899
- Where
- Washington, D.C.
The Columbia Railway Company switched from cable to electric power on July 22, 1899, utilizing its existing power plant.
The Columbia Railway Company abandoned its cable car system on July 22, 1899, switching to electrical power. This transition utilized the power plant originally built for cable operations. The decision reflected the superiority of underground electrical systems over cable technology.
Sources
- Columbia Railway Wikipedia, revision of 2026-03-24
- Streetcars in Washington, D.C. Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-03
Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.