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Postcard view of a tram on Broad Street downtown Augusta ca 1903.
From 1866 Augusta has developed an extensive network of trams that served the city during its seven decades of existence It connected the most developed areas of the city and assured the fast transport at a reasonable cost for its runners.
The backbone system was Broad Street, the aptly named 168 feet wide main commercial street in the historic center of the city Its scope First Street runs east of Lake Olmstead west branching off in various connecting streets were lines at the Union Depot, Turpin Hill, Paine College, Magnolia and Cedar Grove cemeteries, and many other places Two lines went in Summerville, atop the plateau above the city center, one on Walton Way and the other on Central Avenue Remarkably, the city also has a trunk connection that reaches across the river some 26 miles in Aiken, South Carolina.
As was the case in many cities, horses and mules supplied the initial power In 1890, Augusta Summerville Railroad Company pioneered using 112 animals to pull 27 cars more than 10 miles of trails, according to Manuel Poors The company, which was incorporated March 20, 1866, just one year after Appomattox, carried nearly 800,000 passengers in 1888 with running cars over a quarter of a million miles in that year.
Summerville had been established before the Civil War as a prosperous place Augustans to escape the heat and miasma in the homes of the town of summer have been built, as well as residences throughout the year and, later, the hotels street railway enabled people to live on the hill and commute three miles on Walton way in downtown.
As the 1880s ended, the horsecar days were also nearing the end of a new railway company Augusta, incorporated in November 1889 and under the leadership of President Daniel B Dyer, bought the 10 miles of track Augusta Summerville and began construction of a modern electric rail system in the city fast growing Dyer was able to secure funding for the company by the Jarvis-Conklin union of Kansas city, where he had previously worked as broker and real estate agent.
President AS RR was then Patrick Walsh, a politician and journalist who was one of the leading citizens of Augusta Born in Ireland in 1840, he became a lawyer in New South in the mold of Henry Grady and a promoter A tireless Augusta statue Walsh stands Barrett Plaza in front of the old site Union Depot.
The conversion of horses to electricity occurred rapidly in 1892, the Company of Augusta Railways had 49 cars, but only one horse His companions had been replaced by a power plant providing electricity to 22 miles standard gauge railway cars from the street serving two million passengers per year.
The fleet consisted of 35 cars using Edison and Thomson-Houston technology for peak demand 11 nonmotorized trailing cars were available; these were usually pulled by motor vehicles, trains or 2 cars plus all the cars were purchased from J G Brill Co. Of Philadelphia and John Stephenson Co. In New York, two of the largest carbuilders the country.
The center of the city tram operations was the Confederate Monument on Broad Street From the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.
Central was on the north side of Augusta channel Streets fifteenth and Greene Publishing, canal water flowed through a short penstock to two horizontal turbines 350 horses each an auxiliary turbine operating from the main envelope of the turbine produces a 150 hp, totaling 800 a belt system transfered this mechanical power to electrical generators.
In addition to power trams, the station also supplied electricity to 300 arc lamps, incandescent lamps 1800, and several stationary engines for situations where the hydraulic system is not available, three steam boilers and a Corliss engine 800 hp has been used for more details about this station, see this document by the US engineering historical record to the Library of Congress.
On the same site as the plant was a barn and a car repair shop short tracks these facilities connected to the Broad Street line was only two blocks north.
Augusta Central Railway Company and the car home to the fifteenth and Greene Men are standing on the bridge approach of the Fifteenth Street on the Augusta Canal from the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division For a wide angle these buildings here.
In 1896 the Company of Augusta Railways was consolidated with the Augusta Light Company and the local Thomson-Houston Company to form the new Augusta Daniel Railway Electric Company B Dyer remained president.
In 1898 AR E reported 27 miles of track 15 5 miles from streets It operates 42 cars and 18 trailing cars, as well as five other vehicles and two horses.
The railway network of the extended Augusta Street in South Carolina in 1897 when the first truck crossed the river at the Thirteenth Street The immediate objective was a connection to a new speculative community called North Augusta Promoted by James U Jackson, a former president the Southern Railroad Augusta North Augusta was built on the cliffs above the river, west of the old and almost dead Hamburg designed as an residence and suburban station, it has been carefully designed to preserve the green space along streams and hills while providing great sites for the construction of homes and businesses.
Iron bridge at the Thirteenth Street across the Savannah River from Augusta, and North Augusta From Street Railway Review, Vol 9, No. 5, May 15, 1899 Online Internet Archive here.
The short extension SC served for a while, but Jackson was working much more ambitious plans for the railway and the region a specialized electric railway to standard gauge running right most private time sense rather than in the streets of the city was its purpose the trunk would run to the Horse Creek valley, through the cotton mill towns of Graniteville, Langley and Warrenville, Aiken, a winter colony rich northerners, and potentially beyond in North Augusta, it would connect to a luxury 300 room hotel cents be called Hampton Terrace.
The idea of an electric road Augusta-Aiken had begun a few years earlier in 1893, Major Gary WT Augusta asked legislative approval of a charter for such an undertaking, but time has not from the first interurbans had just been built then, and even the railways of the electric street were only about five years the first real success was built in Richmond, Virginia, in 1887-1888.
The Long Distance Augusta Aiken became a reality when it opened September 9, 1902, while the hotel was completed the following year.
A first car Augusta-Aiken Long Distance From Elks Lodge No. 205 Augusta Augusta, Ga coming City of South Augusta Augusta Chronicle, ca 1904 Online Internet Archive here.
A car of 48 seats built by J G Brill Co From The Street Railway Journal, July-December 1904, pp 919-20 Online Internet Archive here.
Interior view of the type of car above the Street Railway Journal, July-December 1904, pp 919-20 Online Internet Archive here.
Hampton Terrace Hotel in North Augusta photo note comprehensive cropped picture is online here at the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.
Jackson bought the 1902 Railway Augusta Electric Company Dyer and soon began coordinating with other enterprises January 3, 1903, he created a new holding company, the railway Augusta-Aiken and Electric Company, which would bring together products city and intercity railways and power plants and development operations of the territory it encompassed the railway electric Company Augusta, Augusta Aiken railway Company, the electric improving North Augusta Company, North Augusta Land Company and the Hotel North Augusta company Jackson became president of the new holding company.
In 1908, the tram operation intown Augusta Electric Company Railway reported 30 miles of track with 85 cars The long distance operation the Railway Company reported 25 miles from Augusta Aiken track with 14 cars and a power plant near Clearwater, SC the cars were built by JG Brill and Laconia Eleven cars were type double truck powered by four engines.
In 1910, the street railway and light and Augusta electrical properties were purchased by JG White of New York, through legal maneuvers, reorganization and the company name emerged changing the way Augusta-Aiken iron and Electric Corporation in April of the following year Among the assets of this company was majority stock ownership, control and operation of the Georgia-Carolina Power company.
In December 1912, excavation began a new concrete dam and hydropower plant on the Savannah River about nine miles upstream from Augusta Completed in 1914, it was built by the engineering company JG White for Georgia Power -Carolina Company Meanwhile, the White JG management Company, a consulting operations manager or utilities and railroad properties in several states and nations, assumed management of the railway system of the street.
At Augusta, as in many other cities, the demand for electricity is growing for some time, the street railway companies have produced their own electricity for trams while selling their surplus production for lights and engines nearby, but the future was in the production of energy for the masses So the industry of electric power would prevail gradually the electric tram industry.
In 1914, the railway Augusta-Aiken and Electric Corporation reported owning 42 cars, 17 cars followed, and 30 other cars kinds These 89 electric vehicles running on 55 miles of track.
Most of the city's tram routes were two-way, including in residential neighborhoods like this one on Broad Street.
Many nation tram systems had anchor theme parks the end of a road, and Augusta was no exception Lake View Park, south and east of Lake Olmstead was at the terminus west Broad Street road now known as Julian Smith park, it was popular for picnics and boating, including boat races Popular attractions and picnic stops include German Scheutzen about Platz in Summerville and Piney Dell, a park near the company's car barn and home power between Belvedere and Clearwater on the intercity line Scheutzen Platz, owned by the German Society of Augusta, featured a beer garden, shooting range, and clubhouse in 1917, during the First World war, it was sold and this Tubman school was built on the site.
Acquisition by Big Electric and the end of the City Streetcar Days.
In 1928, South-East Power Light Company acquired the Augusta-Aiken Electric Railway Company and Georgia Power Company Carolina Their different properties were quickly merged into subsidiaries SP The Georgia Power Company and South Carolina Power Company.
At that time, the production of electric energy became much more profitable than the railways of the street and interurbans During the first decades of the railway investment from the street, the car was not a threat because it was rare and affordable to only a few, but by the end of the car of the 1920s the property has increased by almost three times the result was the decrease in revenues for trams and lack of interest on the part of power companies to continue investing in them.
On July 8, 1929, the Long Distance made his last performance of Intown operations hooked until December 29, 1937, when the Augusta trams were replaced by buses.
Some reminders of the city's tram system is now Broad Street and Central Avenue yet medians where cars ran once and intersections in Central and Monte Sano Central at Druid Park, and Druid park Laney-Walker still turn lanes with favorite soft curves for trams as a single corner at each intersection has such a curve, it becomes clear where the trams were the towers most tangible surviving is a tram single truck restored to Augusta Museum of History.
Trams in Augusta, trams, augusta, Electric Railway, Railway Augusta.