Baltimore Trolley Map

Ahh... the days of public transportation...

In 1910, there were an estimated 500,000 cars in the United States for the 9.2 million people in the country. In 2015, there are over 250 million cars for an estimated 320 million people. 

Cities were king, and public transportation was a necessity. Unlike New York and Boston, Baltimore was not developing a system of subways that would never interfere with that car traffic (and therefore never disappear). Instead, we had the trolley/ streetcar/ street railway. This map shows the trolley for the United Railways and Electric Company, which doesn't include any larger railways that had multiple stops within the city and suburbs. 

The closest thing we have to the streetcar today is the light-rail, which kind of follows the Halethrope Line into the city and then the Mt. Washington Line out. The light-rail then keeps going north past Lake Roland to Timonium and Cockeysville, while the old Mt. Washington Line went to Pikesville. 

Some close-ups are below, and click here for the full version from Johns Hopkins University Libraries. 

The trolley itself... Not bad.

North Central Baltimore, my favorite parts of town.

Interesting you hear about Highlandtown, Bayview, and Canton... but Rangeville?

Where the lightrail keeps going north from Mt. Washington.

Hamilton and Overlea are now the edge of the city line. Then, a far off place at the end of line.

Reisterstown and Towson were far-off towns of their own, not suburbs. 

I love the map because, well, I love maps. So much information! I'll stare at them all day. 

But this map is also so nicely rendered. Check out how creepy the cemeteries are drawn...faint shadows in the distance.