An international seaport and an industrial powerhouse, Duluth was a
natural for streetcar service, but making it successful was a
challenge. The city, some twenty-five miles long yet only three
miles wide in most places, has the tallest and steepest hills in
Minnesota and a harbor separating it from its sister city,
Superior, Wisconsin. "Twin Ports by Trolley" charts the history of
the streetcar system that met the unique difficulties posed by
Duluth, from the Interstate Bridge that crossed the harbor to the
Incline Railway that carried travelers more than five hundred feet
above Lake Superior.
Following the rails as horse-drawn cars gave way to electric
trolleys, Aaron Isaacs takes us into the workings of the
Duluth-Superior streetcars: politics and corporate maneuvers,
engineering and maintenance, scheduling and setting routes, running
and riding the trolleys. Along the way we meet motormen and
conductors (including twenty-one women who stepped in during World
War I) and learn what it's like to run a streetcar through
obstacles ranging from heavy snowstorms to Halloween pranks to the
heroism of evacuating a burning neighborhood. Then we ride the
rails in a typical car, with a floor of varnished wood and seats of
cushioned rattan, and a not-so-typical luxury car, outfitted to the
nines with velvet curtains and a bar for lucrative "streetcar
parties." We experience the ride, whether buying a token or braving
the smokers on the rear platform when boarding, and we learn the
routes as the streetcars deliver, along with passengers, mail
pouches and newspapers, dogs, and, in the case of the Park Point
funeral car, corpses and mourners. Isaacs traces traffic patterns
and geographic features for each line and describes imaginary trips
on three of the most interesting routes.
The book is, finally, a tour of the Twin Ports over time, with a
wealth of maps and photographs illustrating routes and landmarks
and picturing the people who made the rails hum. Interviews and
newspaper features, "day-after reports" and management memos,
stories told by employees and onlookers--all contribute to a rich
evocation of a fascinating historical era. The streetcars are long
gone from Duluth and Superior, but remnants survive if one knows
where to look--and this street-level exploration points the
way.
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