Horses pulled those Chicago streetcars at first, but soon was replaced with a San Francisco system of cars hooked on an underground cable. In the 1880s, the whole Chicago system was rebuilt and at the time, the city had the world's largest cable car system.
Eastern cities began experimenting with electric streetcars that drew power from a wire strung above the tracks. Chicago began switching over to the new system in the 1890s.
By World War I, Chicago had new things to boast about: more miles of track, more routes and more cars than any other city. "The clang of the trolley bell and the click-clack of wheels bumping over rail joints were the background music of neighborhood life." And, they allowed Chicago to spread out as workers didn't have to live near their jobs.
Drawbacks, of course, included not being able to get off the tracks to skirt accidents. Gas buses began appearing in 1927 and began replacing the streetcars.
After World War II, gas buses began replacing them as well as the superhighways into the city.
And, That Was That. --Cooter
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