Now and a Long Time Ago: Wisconsin and O

This week on Now and a Long Time Ago, GM visits the corn of O and Wisconsin. He’s merged the present day shot with a shot of the northwest corner from 1893.

You can see a horse-drawn street car from the Metropolitan Railroad (there’s something about that name that GM likes!) The company was founded in 1864, first operating a line from the Capitol to 14th and I St. All its cars were horse-drawn at first.

It didn’t build a streetcar line into Georgetown until the 1870s. This is the company that first laid the tracks down O and P St. (The tracks you see today are not from this period. They were installed as part of the electrification in the 1890s).

The company folded at the turn of the century due to financial difficulties. Nonetheless, streetcars continued to travel on tracks the company laid right up until 1962.