Thursday, June 06, 2002
What Ever Happened to the Trolley?
by Robert P. Carson
This is "a micro historical and economic study of the rise and decline of street railroads in Syracuse, New York, 1860-1941." Now you may be asking why I would ever bother trying to read such a thing. Well, let me tell you. Y'see, recently I've been tracing my family tree and my grandfather, as well as his mother, was born in Syracuse. Being into history, I wanted to read some of the history of the city from where my ancestors hailed. Unfortunately, the Seattle public library is not real strong in their Syracuse collection. I really didn't find any book that filled the bill for my purposes, but I did discover this little tome. Since my great-great uncle was listed as a street railroad conductor in 1900, I figured I'd check the book out. Maybe he'd be tucked into some picture somewhere. Well, I suppose it's possible that he was one of the few people pictured, but since nobody was named, I'll probably never know. I did enjoy reading this little book, though, in light of Seattle's own transit controversy. It shows that even 100 years ago, businesses existed to make a profit, not necessarily to benefit the common good. The infrastructures that have been passed down to us are rarely the result of unaltered, altruistic planning, but rather the remnants of political and financial projects, affected by market forces and public opinion. In regards to practical application, I still prefer to see a monorail in Seattle rather than the over-budget subway that's being pushed through, but I'm not going to feel so victimized if I don't get it. As for this book, it's really just waiting room material.
LibraryThing link
This is "a micro historical and economic study of the rise and decline of street railroads in Syracuse, New York, 1860-1941." Now you may be asking why I would ever bother trying to read such a thing. Well, let me tell you. Y'see, recently I've been tracing my family tree and my grandfather, as well as his mother, was born in Syracuse. Being into history, I wanted to read some of the history of the city from where my ancestors hailed. Unfortunately, the Seattle public library is not real strong in their Syracuse collection. I really didn't find any book that filled the bill for my purposes, but I did discover this little tome. Since my great-great uncle was listed as a street railroad conductor in 1900, I figured I'd check the book out. Maybe he'd be tucked into some picture somewhere. Well, I suppose it's possible that he was one of the few people pictured, but since nobody was named, I'll probably never know. I did enjoy reading this little book, though, in light of Seattle's own transit controversy. It shows that even 100 years ago, businesses existed to make a profit, not necessarily to benefit the common good. The infrastructures that have been passed down to us are rarely the result of unaltered, altruistic planning, but rather the remnants of political and financial projects, affected by market forces and public opinion. In regards to practical application, I still prefer to see a monorail in Seattle rather than the over-budget subway that's being pushed through, but I'm not going to feel so victimized if I don't get it. As for this book, it's really just waiting room material.
LibraryThing link
Labels: WaitingRoomMaterial
// posted by John @ 5:49 PM 
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