>> join us live for election results, candidate speeches and your reaction. we will look ahead to the fall battleground states. clemson university professor talks about the rise of the interurban electric rail at the end of the 19th century. they were similar to numeral ural trolley. these local systems allowed people to get to city centers in a cheap, reliable way. he talks about them as precursors to the light rail of today. his classes about an hour and 10 minutes. a we are going to begin three-part study.

it is certainly one of the least studied aspects of american transportation history. and one that ime want you to keep in mind is that we can make the argument that trolley is the linkage between's team railroad. perhaps we would not have the interurban area. the we can make a case that interurban is the transition freightsteam railroads and the coming of the motor truck.

to begin, the inner-city road system was awful. it thatalk about continued into the 20th century. we had that national road that was financed by the federal government in the 1840's. it will not be there until the 1890's that there was this bicycle craze. communities were being pressured

to have better roads. only going up into the suburbs. we have places like cleveland and philadelphia. , and alla movement prior to thesystem coming of the automobile which is really from 1900 to 1905. roads were my ands during the wet season extremely dusty during the dry season. only aboutmated that 2.2 milliona's miles of roads were actually all weather. in other words, they were stone or in broken

florida with seashells. to make a long story short, the road system was abysmal. improved or semi-all weather. here is a comment that was made at his time. this week a farmer walked for miles to town. most everyone in town heard of this because it was the only country better received here in the past week. was quiteation

simple. they have cut the country from the town and the town from the country. was a kind of island community. you could have delicious country better. with that in mind, it is quite obvious that we needed some better mouth -- mouse traps. kayak area.the there would be these branch lines and independent lines that were built that needless to say

they are were areas that simply needed something more as in a branch line or passenger and freight train. considering the conditions of the roads, this was one reason have this new replacement technology. you may ask what is an interurban? i know you all took baby latin in high school. perhaps it is time for me to give you some visual images of an interurban.

this is a brochure that was sold to travelers in the greater new england area. this is going to be the ruraland of what we call trolleys. they have extended their lives out into the suburbs and nearby villages are perhaps to an amusement park or to a cemetery. earlys the kind of interurban car that was so the greatest. -- ubiquitous. you have these sweet summer toezes and it is a way certainly see the landscape.

this is the first type of interurban car. and a pollverhead that the traction motors with the power source. there were trolleys constructed mostly in new england but mostly scattered throughout the country. this is the view taken in april of 1925. this was supposedly their routes movement was moving at a rapid pace. car thatave a resembles a real trolley. here is the sense of a typical country road as they said in the 19th century and apparently into

the 20th century. choose it and stay with it. that taking agree because herban car didn't connect the cities that were a dozen miles apart. is we startseeing out small. it is perhaps not that different. 80's somewhat modern. it is one that dates from 19-seven.

we have the motorman. he is certainly well dressed and we have the various passengers gazing out the window and the conductor who is guarding the rear. large railroad a and that isill self-propelled. it is not all that different from some of the electric cars that were being introduced at the same time. cars we have rail diesel that are more modern and more sophisticated. orleansave been to new and wrote on the st. charles or even in charleston with its recent rail system. you can see the similarities.

railroads took their juice from the overhead. have a balanced track where you can go along the western shores. >> here is another typical urban car. georgetownncinnati railway. is where the promoters were hoping to get to portsmouth. they did not go further than georgetown.

this railroad was originally and would be standardized and converted to electricity. car is a somewhat smaller 1910. from have one more urban car and we are operating in multiple sections. railwayon the northern and it was taken not to far. this was built by the duke power interest. it was one of the most profitable of all railroads.

substantial a freight business. .ars can be interchanged with this is a special excursion if you are a railfan, you would notice this immediately. it is somewhat different. it made money and many of them did not. word jim crowate laws are being enforced. the railroad would operate in various colored only excursions.

there was a north carolina someion and then we have south carolina operation from spartanburg to greenville and then down to greenwood. somewhat later. this wasn't even helpful 1912. it would last for many years and we will talk later about the twilight.

a good working definition of an is probably appropriated at this time. earlier in the century, a new york investment banker came up with what i consider to be the best definition. he said that a bona fide interurban was one that was more than 15 miles in length and distinguishing it from a roll trolley. ofs had at least two thirds the track outside of municipal limits. it operates cars at a maximum speed of not less than 20 miles an hour. we are talking about an is no longerat than 15 miles.

thoughts be able to operate at 20 miles an hour or faster. the federal government, bless its heart could never come up with a real definition. for a while the department of commerce and labor suggested -- what the government did we sent out this questionnaire. it is up to you to decide. we will make you the ultimate

judge of what you happen to be. of the history of the interurban it was up to a corporate entity. technology.in the , i amhough i wrote a book not unskilled in explaining interurban technology. the earliest urban cars were just somewhat larger -- cityaps small sturdy street cars. it would be operated by the motorman. we are talking about a two-person crew. it comes after the overhead line.

it was a problem in the state of livestock --ere they mostly kill dogs more than anything else. there was a lot of concern about third rail. perhaps you have been in new york city in the subway and you don't want to touch the third rail. it is not a good idea unless you are planning suicide. we find the use of direct current.

earlier in the 20th century they introduced alternating current. be 25 cycle power. arguedhouse engineers have line drop like you did with d.c. current. you had to use a number of substations that added more juice to the current. suggested thatse less copper wire was needed.

quality copper prior -- wire and the that it hadinvolved to be heavier and there were with the motor. you have to use more expensive copper prior. that they line was were hired with ac. ac could not accelerate as fast as those that used d.c.. ande was this conflict there were municipalities that said we did not want these lines in our street.

they would have to then convert when they had street runnings. if we are interested in electricity, we would say that the majority used direct current. beginningsk at the of electric power transportation peoplethat there were that electricity was a kind of magical power and there were a variety of efforts to put it to vehicles.ck inventor ofsingle

the automobile. one individual who gets a high spring.s frank julian he was a graduate of the united states naval academy and after he completed his mandatory tour of duty. he went to work for thomas edison. well working with edison, he became fascinated with the possible application of electricity to transportation. he then left in the early 1880's and created his own manufacturing concern that focused on building electric trolleys. that's a dead end. spring was successful in

honoring a contract with private investors to electrify the richmond union passenger railway. he built or had his company construct 40 motorized cars. what spring did was how to figure out the motor of the car. streets were brought in those

people have used that approach to discover that the motors failed or is there were constant adjustments necessary. spring has a system of reporting springs that are used for the traction motors. the jarring that occurs as a result is no more. also he worked on motor components making them more useful using carbon brushes for example. in other words, spring did not invent the electric streetcar but he certainly sold some of the technical problems. he did well financially. some inventors don't do that

well but he was very cautious about patents. he is friends with legal connections and perhaps pick it up from thomas edison. almost immediately i pointed this out. we find that city street cars that are electrified become all the rage. from cable car to trolley. from 1900, you were hard-pressed to find an animal car line left in the united states. , the electric city.

did have one of the early systems in place. we always have problems that something was the first. i would argue that the prototype would be found in ohio. .his is a great place to build communities were not that far apart. the prototype was an electric toerurban that was built

granville, ohio. it has a regionally famous university. here we have the county and this college community which is seven miles away. they are incredibly profitable.

it had a reputation for solutions and brothels. it was a rough town, a railroad town in it: mining center. free at last. the administration was not happy and wanted to see what these students when the last car brand. .e're not talking dwi rural trolley.--

it does connect two cities and apparently at least two thirds of its mileage was outside of corporate limits. certainly one of the first truly interurban and i would argue the first major interurban also appeared in ohio. it connected that municipality in its corporate name. high-speed, double trap line in 1895. ofwas depression --3-1897 a local syndicate 1897. a local syndicate paid for it and it was a moneymaker. diversefrom akron, a manufacturing center before the

rubber industry took control and cleveland, which was not a mistake on the lake, a lot of smart money and smart people anxious to live there and stay put. and now the craze was on. we will start to see interurban madness. let me add parenthetically, that when we look at the canals, the builtrosperous ones were in the best areas. now the new york area can -- erie canal. and when they were building the canal from lisbon, that was not the best location to have a profitable ditch operation. so, it was realized, certainly some05 or so that maybe in

localities the best routes had interurbansd and built and maybe we cannot build more in that immediate vicinity. the big question, why were they popular? we have an inkling by looking at those god-awful roads. mud.d that much -- interurbans, these are clinking. no sender -- cinder, no dirt, no smoke. when you compare that to the typical steam operated passenger train you look like you had been in a coal mine, perhaps. or perhaps, your hat, whether you are female or male had pock

marks in it, occasions when sparks with -- would that coaches on fire. thattedly, there were some opposed burned coal, as to the high sulfur coal that he would find in illinois. so there was in limited amount of smoke. like the weston, lehigh valley, the erie and several other curious -- and several other carriers, it was expensive. and the company owned a number of minds must other is a vertical integration if you will. but interurbans like to point out that they were clean and if you have your good sunday clothes on, you appreciated

that. the lackawanna in the early part of the century had an advertising campaign that was in some ways remarkably successful. they selected the young woman, a , very sexy for the time. her name was phoebe snow. and there were a number of jingles that the company used in advertisements, newspapers, magazines and public timetables. the most common one says, phoebe snow about to go upon a trip to buffalo, my down -- gown stays white upon the road of after fight -- she had a white hat,

white skirt, and usually had a white parasol. she was white, unlike other people in the room who had all of their colors black, like we have all orange. and they created the traction system, and they thought that phoebe snow would really enjoy writing on one of -- riding on one of that interurban's cars. his later becomes the terminal company. it was long, about 400 miles and it connected places like springfield, decatur, peoria, with st. louis. fact, the company builds a bridge over the mississippi. wasas a moneymaker and it

in some ways, considered to be one of the nations finest interurban. s. so here is the home we have. after a ride of the day and night, over the road of anthracite, phoebe snow and her five sisters scrubbed until they had blisters. team roads are out of date, said they. we will have to travel another way. mildly sprinkled we will go -- tomorrow to sprinkled we will go. so they boarded a car of the interurban traction system. phoebe said, i must confess my heard of this road. it is hard to beat an electric line. the car was claimed, the woodwork right. the porter treated them right. no dust, no dirt, all of which

shows there was not a speck on the sisters' clothes they arrived quite clean, not feeling tired, dirty and mean said phoebe snow, this meets the road of anthracite -- beats the road of anthracite . also, they were very quiet. the steam locomotive makes a lot of sounds, like your stomach before a meal. there is clinking whatever. but with an interurban car, you had the home of the motor -- hum of the motor and every so often a noise from the air pumps. so it is quiet. thinkinghat we are interurban, good news, they are clean. more important than that, from a

public perspective, the fact that they were convenient. interurban companies commonly operated on hourly schedules, sometimes every 30 minutes. it was during the day and into the evening. perhaps the first car would leave at 5:00 a.m., the last around 11:00 p.m. or midnight. railroads, certain companies were very proud of their double daily service, maybe not on sunday, but at least during the weekend, during the weekdays and on saturday. so you know, you have two chances to go east, west, or whatever direction. on these mainlines like the pennsylvania, the new york central, the illinois central, whatever, you may only have 6-7 trains.

admittedly, these were not all local. some of them are expressed trains my like -- express trains. so yeah, if you are in a smaller station, you might only have 3-4 trains from which to choose. think of this, this is like the cap buzz -- cat buzz, it is there when you want. correct? these cars were operating frequently and they would stop virtually anywhere. maybe not everywhere, but out in the rural areas. builtlters that were trackside, or public road crossings. it was easy to get on these cars. you would use a hand signal. during the day. or a lantern or a lighted match

or even burning newspapers at night. and the motorman would stop and pick you up. here is what the lakeshore electric told readers of the public timetables in 1911, and this was one of these well-positioned interurban lines that connected cleveland with toledo, with about 100 plus miles. passengers wishing to stop with cigna with arm extended horizontally across the track by david and -- by day. and a like across the track -- light across the track any distance 100 feet from that 1500 feet -- 50 v from the car. the motor man will answer with two short blasts of the whistle, signifying that he sees you. it is convenient and we will see this next time when we look at

the interurban era. this is particularly kabul -- particularly popular with farmers. a farmer will not have to make arrangements, perhaps, for a family member to get a part for machinery. hour to aon the trackside shelter or a public goingearby, signal a car to town or the hardware store, get the part and come home. it is wonderful. it is not unlike taking the automobile whatever you wish. so convenience is certainly there. and a resident of a northern ohio village, seville, said this about a local interurban. shoppers can take advantage of sales, farmers can't inspect that expect -- expect produce

to arrive in good condition, and everybody can enjoy a show. maybe a silent picture show. attractive aspect would be for the traveling salesman. i want to spend more time talking about them on thursday. but interurbans went from the heart of a community, to the heart of a community. and when steam railroads were built, oftentimes they were forced to build their station on the outskirts or some distance from center city. and if you were a traveling salesperson, you may have to walk to the downtown. if you had a sample case, you needed to make arrangements to ride with it, but the interurban car would likely stop in front

of the hotel. many hotels served as interurban stations. and there would be somebody who would offload the sample case. in the hotels, you had sample rooms where you would show your wares, jewelry, hardware, whatever. how convenient. this is terrific. trafficf the sources of for interurban companies would be the traveling salesman. also, cheap. you do not have to be a marxist to have an economic interpretation of human behavior. in other words, i think that is why people today buy, if they can get it online, the one dollar ticket on mega bus. or maybe they go to spirit airlines, where everything is extra, except using the restroom.

although, transportation is at a low-fare. right? have any of you gone on spirit? well, it is a memorable way to travel. just like make a bus. we will talk about buses later. recently, in the travel section of linear times, they talked about a student on megabus and it caught on fire and the students lost his laptop and books, his life. well, property life. 02 ainterurbans charged $. mile, with the competitors cents a maybe three mile. if you are a salesman, you can buy coupon books, so the cost of fares might be a penny per mile.

say the cost of tickets almost always less. cases, thew interurban could charge more than a steam railroad, but we find that the sales man preferred it because they saved money because they went into the heart of the city. so they were willing to pay perhaps a small premium. also, you may never think of this and it is not that important, but interurban cars that we saw a really benign. by that i mean, what a traveler said in 1903, "there are a good many elderly men and women who are still afraid of the locomotive, compared with an engine and a train of coaches,

the interurban car is an innocent looking a fair." -- aff air." and then we have real estate appreciation. i would argue, if we wanted to construct a statute in the most representative american, maybe it would be a politician, maybe a military leader, i think it would be a real estate promoter. we have been speculating real estate since we first got off of ships in the 1600s. well, you have an electric line that is clean. that is convenient, cheap for passage my right? -- passage, right? and what is he want to live nearby?

here is what in ohio businessman said, "real estate all intertwined in -- electric lines in ohio have nearly doubled in value. a prospective buyer asked, how far is it from a line?" speaking of money, the owners, the promoters of these interurbans saw this as an opportunity to increase wealth and investors believed that these were good investments for them. perhaps to protect the assets of widows and orphans. [laughter] that in time when not be the case. so there is an opportunity to make money, whether you are actually the owners or you are buying stock and bonds.

it is also a good job creator. we know that tens of thousands of americans would be employed. not only in the operations, but offices, so on and so forth. and there would be suppliers. we had a supply industry. often, these suppliers are producing parts for city trolleys, but you find different types of headlights that are needed, for instance, on the interurban cars. and then a story of urban growth. tot communities are wanting have greater control over their land. and if you have a community as an interurban hub, you can't expect people from -- can expect people from villages coming to town and spending money.

also, if your community, probably a small community, had been missed by a steam railroad, this is a second chance. just as the building of u.s. highways would be a third chance for communities. of we are talking a variety attractive features and that explains interurban madness. so, when where they built and how many miles? we had several boom. periods. from the end of the 1890's, we have a better power supply for instance. from 1899-1903, there are about 5000 miles of electric interurbans that will be opened. albeit have a nasty,

short recession through 1903-1904, and it will not be until 1905 when there is another boom. and that goes into a time of a more severe wall street disruption, the panic of 1907. and another 3000 miles constructed. that in this time 1908-1909, through the first world war, additional mileage. so the peak comes in 1916 with almost 16,000 miles. that is overshadowed by steam road miles, which is in excess of a quarter of a million miles. peak forthat is the

interurban mileage, the peak for steam mileage, and that is when congress and the president make a model for the first highways and financing program. is kindher words, 1916 of a watershed year, a tipping point, and it will be downhill for interurbans, and especially for steam railroads. -- toerage length of economists -- two economists figured out that it is about 45 miles, the standard. we are not talking long interurbans. in some states they averaged greater length. in texas, about 70 miles.

everything is bigger in texas. and texas is going to be a state that has the second-largest interurban network west of the mississippi. california, more mileage. iowa is a close third. so, just keep in mind that interurbans are not massive in length. the illinois traction system is a long one. and piedmont northern had 127 miles. numerous papera urban -- interurban story. and this in some ways not home thisocks home the point of intensity, this excitement, the interurbans are the wave of the

future. states the heartland, no had more mileage than ohio. it was close to 3000 miles. indiana is the next in terms of greatest mileage, about 2000 miles. seatif you take the county locatedtippin, which is in north-central ohio. there was 11 different interurban projects projected to go to or through the town. , the eastern, was ever completed. so that is not unusual. we have these paper railroads, some of them actually incorporated and in some cases there would be some actual construction.

projects in lot of texas, in the lone star state. when i the early 1980's, had too much time on my hands, i -- an article on unbilled unbuilt railroads in texas and after a lot of work i concluded there were about 22,000 miles of interurbans projected in texas, but only about a hundred of them builds. -- 500 of them built and most of them were in the greater dallas and fort worth area, although there was a high-speed rail connecting houston and galveston. you come up with 500 miles, yet you projected more than 20,000. so there was a lot of paper

interurbans. now, let's deal with the lunatic fringe. ofre are some examples grandiose projects, paper interurbans. although the one i am selecting this morning, the one highlighted, actually did not turn a wheel. not for many miles. and let's look at the chicago-new york airline. i know that you are fascinated with the prosthetics that prospect -- prospect of learning about this extreme example. it is not to say that there were not a number of grandiose schemes. 1895, at the time that the akron-bedford, cleveland was

opening, there is a serious proposal to build a high-speed electric line between chicago and st. louis. but it went nowhere. probably because the technology was still iffy. although, the abc roots -- route did operate successfully. so at the dawn, the very dawn of the interurban era, there were promoters with hunches thinking, let's have a high speed railroad that will be twice as fast as is chicago and alton, which the major steam road connector between chicago and st. louis. about the time the chicago and new york airline was proposed, it is 1906 and there was an

effort to build a long-distance interurban known as the minneapolis-kansas city, between minneapolis, des moines, kansas city, missouri all the way down city, to dallas and then galveston. that is long. we will look at the chicago-you chicago-neww york -- york airline. there is a spark plug. and the inventor, miller. we are the only people considering alexander miller, this is part of his 15 minutes of fame. so who was alexander miller? alexander miller was a farm boy from ohio who fell in love with

railroads. sounds like a sensible thing to do. brake got a job as a ma for hisn hometown railroad and in time he learns morse code and he becomes a calligrapher for the railroad. and he goes up the ladder, becoming a dispatcher in illinois. so he is a minor railroad official. that his future is not with the burlington and with some friends and partners, the organizers a bank at this , andthat a bank -- a bank at this time it is not hard to become a bank. he also is an inventor at heart and he comes up with an electric signaling system and will be the

founder and president of the miller electric signal company. well, he goes out on the road. the bank can operate on its own. and when he does it is to spend time in new york city, and spending time with investors and trying to interest corporate executives in the big apple to buy his system. he does not have a lot of success. , they do in illinois by his -- buy his signal. the point is, miller is commuting between new york and chicago, maybe not commuting, but he does make frequent trips. one day i guess he is bored, he goes onto a new york central

passenger train in the city and he realizes that the first 150 miles or so, he is going in the wrong direction. he is going on the hudson river. you have seen north by northwest , when he is in albany, he is further from the windy city then when he left gotham. got it? the new york central goes west on the erie canal and eventually to chicago. so my guess is does not take a genius to think, maybe there is a better route. and the big competitor to pennsylvania, goes from new york to philadelphia, then through the appalachians, then you have the horseshoe curve and then you go to ohio and a straight shot to chicago. in 1903fastest trains

is about 18-19 hours between those destinations. lightbulbs are going on. electricity, it is a metaphor. so what miller decides to do is build a high-speed electric railroad between these two cities and it is going to be as the crow flies, indirect route -- a drirect route. it will not have much grades, they will be less than a half of a percent. that is essentially level. you have to deal with the appalachians, but building across indiana and ohio, most of it is relatively flat. it will make it possible to have the low grades. when you go beyond the ohio

river, you have challenges. associatesand his are convinced that what they can do is have these deep cuts, -- tunnels,ubles and you can keep the grade of 1% or less. it is a straight line, but he toledo,s places like cleveland, pittsburgh, sources of a lot of passenger revenue. so what does he suggest, you will have these shuttle trains andating between cleveland where it slices through the buckeye state. doesn't it sound like a great idea? and we will have a powerful locomotive, electric of course.

and the cars will not look like regular railroad cars. this is a little fuzzy, but here -- heere is -- maybe. look at this locomotive. it is what we would call these people -- steeple locomotive, it was called the electro-loco. miller is optimistic that we will have this locomotive. notice we have conventional steam railroad rolling stock, but it will go fast. i mean fast.

it is really exciting. here is what the writer for the said insunday tribune july of 1906, i think that he was rewriting promotional copy, "chicago to new york in 10 hours, fare $10, it startles the transportation world. 160 miles shorter than the shortest, 10 hours quicker than ares $10kest, f cheaper than the cheapest." carsancy locomotive with with high passengers be -- spe ed. express express -- for service. the electric airline will turn

the first shovel of dirt in the summer of 1906 in northwestern indiana. there is a great deal of optimism. what miller and his associates plan to do is to use a different kind of interurban financing. most interurbans were like steam railroads in that they issued bonds as well as stock equity. but this railroad would be owned totally by stockholders, no bonds. so, if we do not have interest to deal with and the economy goes down in a handbasket, we will not go into bankruptcy. also miller and his associates, kind of like bernie sanders, did not trust wall street. those was thought that

evil capitalists won't be , inpulating our incredibly the future profitable railroad. it will be the people's railroad. and they will be the investors, they will call the shots. investors were given priority when the railroad opened, for jobs. so you have shares in the airline, wow. you will get a great job. a typical promotional statement was this -- do not sit around and growl at standard oil, when the airline with no bonds holders earns 50% on your money -- 15% on your money, the stock for which you pay $25 a share will be worth $300. if you have extra money, i can

guarantee a wonderful return. and you are a smart investor. and what is fascinating, from my perspective, is that there were investor clubs organized. first in illinois, then throughout the midwest, chicago was the center and new york and los angeles and san francisco. so there is a grassroots support for the airline. relatively short springof time, about 1907, there were more than 200 -- $2 million that have been raised that was in a chicago bank fortunately that did not fail in the panic of 1907. a lot of money. the idea that the backers had

was to build in sections. they would build 100 miles at a time, get the railroad started, then the fabulous profit would grow and that we would build another 100 miles, then more investors would be interested. whatever. wonderfuls like a business proposition, kind of like a perpetual motion machine. sections and it in eventually we will go to new york city. some of the railroad would be built. it is more than just a paper or hot air good idea project. northwest indiana about 20 miles would be completed. it will be double track. at first, they thought we will just use a single track.

it was going to have a third rail operation with a new third rail scheme being introduced. but the first construction used the trolley overhead with poles and brackets. and several cars were purchased. endcar said new york at one , chicago at the other. and after they completed about 20 miles, they would invite potential investors or actual investors to ride on it and people were anxious to get more stock, or by stock for the first time -- buy stock for the first time. then there was the problem of coffee creek. and the idea was to keep the grade to a minimum. but at coffee creek we find the downfall. it is a minor stream outside of

a new city, gary, the home of a still plans -- steel plant. and the railroad uses the money in the bank to purchase a lot of construction equipment. field that isssal two miles long going over this creek. they put in the wooden structures that are needed, where the gravel can be dumped. but this does it in. they are now experiencing the bank panic of 1907, and they do buthave bonds that -- debt, the company more or less decides that they will become a conventional interurban. so they build a branch line that will go into gary and eventually

make connections with some electric trolleys, small interurbans that go into chicago, or at least connect with the commuter system. so they got lucky because of gary and gary was thought to be the great metropolis, the future metropolis of hoosier land and perhaps the midwest. , almost all airline of it will be abandoned in 1917. so, no long history. --hough, the theater line feeder line will be part of the the street railways until 1930's. several historians have looked at the airline, although i do not think they have done the greatest research, but the argument is that this is a fraud. but it is not. was sincere miller

and the investors were sinc ere. ideaerhaps just had an that was beyond reach at the time, in terms of a grassroots financial arrangement. if you had big money coming from the rockefellers or somebody else, this might have happened. in fact, around the same time there was a proposal to build a high-speed line between philadelphia and chicago and actually was financed by major capitalists, although it was more like a paper proposition. so, here we have the failure of the airline, but i think it is a ofderful illustration interurban madness. when you look at any technology you can see that there is that

excitement. we think about the .com bust in the 1990's, not every company turned out to be microsoft or ebay or amazon. there were a lot of companies that folded relatively quickly, although there were investors who are convinced that this was the wave of the future. , ashe interurban industry we will see in the next two presentations, certainly in the latter one, was a kind of dot com proposition. keep this in mind, make a mental nottion, this -- there is in any other industry in the history of the u.s. that grew so rapidly and collapse almost so completely as electric interurbans. again, when we look at history, we could say that maybe if the automobile had been invented

earlier and we had good roads, we may not have had the interurban era. or the opposite, maybe of the automobiles were not invented into the -- until the 1940's, we would have a lot more miles on the electric interurban. any questions? interurbanut and buy stock. a useful pointer with the knowledge of the past. time is up. no questions, you can get your test after 12:15 p.m. some of you will be happy. thank you for being good listeners. i will see you on thursday. >> join us every saturday evening at 8:00 p.m. and midnight as we go into college classrooms to hear lectures on topics ranging from the american revolution to 9/11.

lectures are also available as podcasts. visit our website or download them from itunes. citizens have got to feel that their vote matters, that their voice matters, and whether they can not spare a single cent to help a person running for office, or whether they can write a big check, their concerns will be listened to and followed up on. >> sunday night, the wisconsin senator tammy baldwin talks about her career and wisconsin political history. helped shepherd the change whereby senators were not appointed by the legislatures, but demanded elections. i guess those, i do not know if

it was the first, but the idea it would not be the party bosses that made the decision of you the nominees were, but rather the people who were going to get a chance to vote in free and fair elections. >> sunday night at 8:00 p.m. 19-year-old switzerland native albert gallatin came to 1780.ited states in he served as treasury secretary and later was ambassador to france and england. tv,, on american history interpreter ron duquette discusses the founding father