St. Louis streetcar system map, 1897 wisconsin with all of the angular

with all of the angular lines that entails

meaning that three of the cable car lines depicted here were never electrified

None of Shipe's successors could figure out a way to make money from transit

survived until 1940

which built a single subway line in the 1920s

St. Louis streetcar system map, 1897 wisconsin with all of the angularSt. Louis of 1897 was a Gilded Age industrial mess. The average person was working 60 hours a week for miserable wages, the city was overcrowded and polluted, the economy had been in a depression for four years, and unemployment was at 18 percent. In short, the city was a powder keg waiting to explode. These problems came to a head in 1899 when the St. Louis Transit Co. and its president, Edwards Whitaker, bought out most of the citys streetcar lines,