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Back in the day, they used to build elevated railroads in Boston

Elevated railroad under construction in Boston

The folks at the Boston City Archives wonder if you can place this photo. See it larger.

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For those who lived there, it must have been horrific to watch this monstrosity under construction directly in front of so many houses and buildings on Washington Street.

But the good news is that a pint of cream soda was only 5 cents!

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For many who lived along the corridor, I imagine it was something of awe and wonder; marvels of steel and electricity coming to bring them into the next century. Instead of traveling in horse drawn vehicles or tiny trolleys on filthy, crowded streets, they'd have a new rapid-transit system that could bring them to places they never went to before.

A little extra noise would be an insignificant tradeoff for the tremendous convenience and opportunities for prosperity the new trains would usher in.

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It was also very dark underneath these structures once the decking was laid.

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      Widen the street to accommodate twelve lanes of traffic?

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Build a subway like they did in Cambridge.

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It must have been an exciting time when transportation kept getting faster and more convenient.

Now all it does is get more expensive.

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If you lived on Washington St it sucked, for a long time, until they took it down. A simple cut and cover subway would have been much better, and would still be there.

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Underground construction was still quite primitive. The Tremont Street Subway wasn't (and still isn't) a real rapid-transit line; it was only built so that trolleys could avoid the worst congestion in the center of town.

Twenty years later when the Red Line was constructed, mechanized equipment made it practical to build straight tunnels for much longer distances.

Of course, an underground subway would have been better, but in 1899, an elevated rapid-transit line was much better than doing nothing at all.

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For a few short years, what we'd now call the Orange Line was routed through it, until the Washington Street subway was built.

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The first section of the IRT in New York opened in 1904.

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Visiting in Chicago this summer (after a too-long hiatus), I have to say that I think Els get too much of a bad rap. Chicago's "L" is pretty nice for the most part, and you get such a great view too.

One major difference between Chicago's system compared to Boston's old El and NY's though is the fact that the Chicago "L" largely runs along alleyways behind buildings (outside of the central Loop area where it really does cover streets). The "L" doesn't really run for long distances above main streets in the outer neighborhoods. That probably helps, and wasn't really an option here.

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Tremont Street

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http://www.ebooksread.com/authors-eng/mass-exposition-1915--boston/offic...

Boston Veterans Fireman Association is listed at 1015 Washington Street.

Today that's between Herald and E. Berkely Streets. Facing north, today's Washington Street bends in the same direction.

The left turn the horse-drawn cart is taking could be Cobb Street, which no longer exists, but shows up on Bromley maps at WardMaps.com. http://www.wardmaps.com/viewasset.php?aid=1701

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Doesn't every successful bid come with a free monorail?

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super-sized McDonalds restaurant.

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Only Mitts olympics in Utah got free (for locals, taxpayers paid) trains with the olympics. Boston hasn't had a new subway in decades (orange line) and probably won't for decades to come.

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Bronies need not apply.

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I hear those things are awfully loud.

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Homer is screaming as he tries to figure out how to stop it...

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          ( modern elevated transit systems can be whisper quiet! )

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Washington Street between Dover and Motte Streets. That's possibly the Columbia Theater faintly up the street in the distance on the right. As to the date, the open car is signed for Bartlett Street which was a regular operating house until about January 1902; thereafter Bartlett Street became devoted 100% maintenance. Steel south of Tower C started going up early in 1900, so this photo is likely from that summer.

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...at the tracks below the horse drawn cart you can faintly see handwriting that says "WASHINGTON ST." So we can confirm that -- not that it's a big surprise.

Imagine being a turn-of-the-century iron worker putting up steel beams a foot over a live catenary wire?

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I'm guessing Tremont Street, facing the old Scollay Square.

https://www.google.com/maps/@42.358377,-71.06018,3a,75y,18.67h,82.92t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1sZYlTJbSvanNV15PEfIe49A!2e0!6m1!1e1

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                   ( Adorable! )

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The Wicked Witch of the West

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Thanks for playing folks! This is Looking north on Washington Street opposite Cobb Street on August 21, 1899.

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