so why didn't you fight to keep this? Boomers took everything from us

@@PH-wc8ll What were they gonna do? Stop all the turmoil of the time on their own???

@@tewam67 what turmoil? They let the city destroy all the public infrastructure because the boomers were led to beleive that highways and cars were the future.

Some of each. Before the 1920s all the track switches had to be turned by hand, either by the crew, or at busy intersection by an assigned switchman. Later, electric switches were installed that were controlled by the motorman as he approached. If the streetcar passed an overhead wire contact with the controller off, the switch didn't change. If the controller was on, it turned the track switch.

To answer part of your question, a lot of the ROWs are still visible. Alleys, back yards etc. If you look close on Google Earth, you will see them. Odd tree lines. Paths. From the barn at Lake Harriet, go SW about half a block and you can see where it turns off to the west. Goes between businesses and looks like an alleyway. At about 44th and Abbott, the line merges with 44th st.

@@karlkissinger5395 You can also see part of the ROW continuing out west through Edina towards Hopkins. If you go on Google Maps satellite view and follow 44th Street until it hits Brookside, imagine the line continuing west and a little north and you will see a line of trees that cuts across the wetlands there south of Meadowbrook Lake. That's the embankment that the streetcars ran on. You can actually explore it on foot until it hits the properties on the other side of the wetlands which must have been built right on top of the old ROW after the streetcars were pulled up. Kind of melancholic for me to see those traces of the extensive public transportation network that we once had in the Twin Cities. Now it takes a decade and a couple billion dollars to build a single line of light rail...feels like we lost our way a bit.

This is why the surviving systems typically had right of ways or tunnels. These were places where buses could not be put in. I would also add, streetcars are very quiet. One can stand in the middle of Market St. in San Francisco and because of the streetcars and trolley buses, it is a very quiet main st.

Also they held more people. In the early forties it was estimated that New York city's trams had about two and a half times the capacity of the buses they were replaced with.

The street running ones maybe, but imagine how useful that grade separated right-of-way running from Uptown down around the lakes and out towards Edina/Hopkins/Minnetonka would have been today if it had been preserved (beyond the short section for the museum, of course). No reason that couldn't have been upgraded to modern light rail standard, especially considering now we're spending billions to send light rail out in essentially the same direction.