St. Charles Streetcar Line

The oldest continuously operating streetcar line in the world, running since 1835. Planning began in 1831, and work began as the New Orleans and Carrollton Railroad in February 1833. Passenger and freight services by steam locomotives began on September 26, 1835. Two locomotives were supplied from England by B. Hick and Sons. Service began as a suburban railroad, since Carrollton was at that time a separate city. As the area along the line became more urbanized, objections to the soot and noise produced by the locomotives increased, and transport was switched to cars powered by horses and mules. Experimental systems included overhead cable propulsion, with a cable clamp patented by P. G. T. Beauregard in 1869 later being adapted for the San Francisco cable car system. Dr. Emile Lamm designed several innovative systems, including ammonia engines and the Lamm Fireless Engine which propelled pairs of cars along the line in the 1880s and was adopted by the street railways of Paris. The line was electrified February 1, 1893. The line was extended from the corner of St. Charles and Carrollton Avenues to continue eight blocks out Carrollton to a new car barn at Willow Street. The line starts uptown at South Carrollton Avenue and South Claiborne Avenue. It runs on South Carrollton Avenue through the Carrollton neighborhood towards the Mississippi River, then near the river levee turns on to St. Charles Avenue. It proceeds past entrances to Audubon Park, Tulane University and Loyola University New Orleans. It continues through Uptown New Orleans including the Garden District, and ends at Canal Street in the New Orleans Central Business District at the edge of the French Quarter. The distance is 6 miles. Most of the line runs in the neutral ground with greenery between the tracks