Trolley Tuesday 10/6/20 - The Boston Elevated Railway

Today, Boston's North Station is home to the mighty nest of Larry Bird and the Boston Celtics, TD Gardens, which sits directly atop one of the city's most prestigious and famous railway terminals, North Station. Not only is this area still the hub of rail transit in Boston for Amtrak, MBTA, and the Green and Orange Line subways, but in 2004, it played host to the final moments of one of the city's most beloved (or maligned) city transit services. On June 25, 2004, the last "streetcar" service along the Washington Street Elevated entered North Station and closed yet another chapter of century-old history in the Hub of the Universe. Today, we'll look back on how the Boston Elevated Railway both captivated and caused distress for the City's people, and why it still deserves to be remembered.

The Elevated Railway Begins

A system routemap of
the BERy, circa 1940s.
(Abe Books)

The start of the Boston Elevated Railway (BERy) began the same way as the West End Railway (WER) in the late 1890s. The same Massachusetts State Authorization that gave the WER carte blanche to buy all the other street railways in Boston also gave them authorization to build an elevated railway. In 1894, the BERy was established and immediately there were issues on where to put this new elevated line. With the construction of the Tremont Street Subway complete by September, it was immediately decided that the elevated rail should help suburban growth by building out to the suburbs of Roxbury and Charlestown. To appease the public and ensure there was no danger of a monopoly, the Boston Transit Commission leased running rights of the Tremont Street Subway to the private BERy, who in turn built up their elevated structure. This put the monopoly under control of the electorate, and every rider was assured their five-cent fare went back to the city rather than a company's pocketbook.

Construction Conundrums

Construction on the Dudley/Washington section of
the BERy is underway in this March 8, 1900 picture.
(Historic New England)

Construction began on the new elevated railway on January 23, 1899, starting with Dudley Station on what is now 247 Washington Street, Boston. In order to not disturb the peace, BERy construction street deliveries only occurred after 7PM, and construction itself only took place between midnight and 5AM. The first columns were erected near Dover Street, with the busy Washington Street serving as the main line alignment. This first portion, the "Charlestown Main Division" was built out to reach the Charlestown Bridge, where it then crossed the River Charles and met the newly-refitted four track Tremont Subway at North Station through the Pleasant Street Incline. Over the next two years, seven miles of track and ten stations were constructed, along with two huge terminals and brand-new power generating stations.

Central Power Station in Boston's South End,
providing power for the West End Street
Railway since 1891.
(Public Domain)

Power generation was forever an issue for the BERy initially, as the coal-fired generators required difficult overland transportation from the Port of Boston and Thomas Edison's "Direct Current" (DC) could only travel so far along the system. There was no option back then to use subsidized electricity, as the West End Railway and the BERy were not into the public utilities business like its contemporaries in the Midwest and West Coast. This was later remedied in 1911 through the creation of a large "Alternating Current" (AC) power station in South Boston, which could provide huge amounts of current over long distances. Substations then collected the AC current and converted it to DC use for the rapid transit and street cars, but this wouldn't be done until 1931, and we're not even past 1900 yet. 

Sumptuous Stations

Forest Hills Station in 1967, showing off its handsome
copper-sheathed exterior and French boulevard-inspired
architecture. The train is inbound to Forest Hills.
(David Wilson)

One noted aspect of the Main Street Elevated was its beautiful architecture, from its wrought-artful elevated trusswork to its station buildings, sheathed in burnished copper. George A. Kimball was assigned as Engineering Division Chief to head the project, and already he knew Bostonians wanted nothing less for their shining City on the Hill. He had seen how solid plate girders and filthy heavy-rail trains ruined the beauty of the New York Elevated, so he instead took inspiration from the beauty of the Berlin Elevated at half the budget. To do this, he contracted J.A.L. Waddell (who designed the Chicago Elevated System) to design the trusswork and the stations. The resulting designs took heavy inspiration from the "early French Renaissance", and as such they were light, airy, and graceful with sunlight easily shining down through the ties and girders onto the street below. The stations themselves were similarly rhythmic and artfully crafted in their copper sheathing, which helped protect the oak-wood structures from wearing in the salty Eastern seaboard breeze. 

Inside Dudley Street Station, the interiors were light, airy, and palatial, more fitting
for a magnificent French train station than an elevated railway. This photo was from 1982.
(RedTwigs)

BERy Car No. 35 swings its way out of the Pleasant
Street Incline some time in the early 1900s. The tracks
beyond split the line to Shawmut Avenue and Tremont. 
Today, this incline now belongs to the MBTA Green Line.
(Dirty Old Boston)

While the elevated was beautifully designed, the underground sections were being fast-tracked for an opening in the winter of 1901 (already delayed). Due to the rapid transit using the Tremont Street Subway's new outer tracks, wherever possible every wall near a curve was scalloped or widened to allow for the wider swings of the long rapid transit cars. Stations also were provided a new wooden elevated platform to accommodate the rapid transit cars sharing with the streetcars. Thanks to "fast-track" project planning, both the Main Street Elevated, the Charlestown Elevated, the Atlantic Avenue Loop (connecting North and South Stations), and the Tremont Subway connector were on the way to meeting their winter 1901 opening, all to ensure everything ran as normal and that no elevated or subway service was interrupted.

North and South Stations

A false-colored postcard showing the construction
of the Causeway Street Elevated, with the Haymarket
Incline and Station on the left, 1907-1915.
(Unknown Author)

The marvelous capstones to the Main Street Elevated was the grand North and South Stations, where the rapid transit connected to the heavy rail services of the Boston & Maine (B&M), Maine Central (MEC), and New Haven (NH) Railways (among others). Though North Station went through many iterations over its lifetime, this station was originally built in 1893 through B&M leasing the Fitchburg Railroad in 1887 and including a requirement that a "union station" be built to serve both railroads. The station officially opened in June 1894, but the B&M part of the depot was demolished 3 years later (1897) to facilitate the new Canal Street Incline of the Tremont Subway. This incline was also known as "Haymarket" due to North Station sitting on the B&M's former "Haymarket Square" station, and elevated trains reached the station via the Causeway Street Elevated further elaborated below.

The beautiful South Station with the Atlantic
Avenue Elevated right in front, 1905.
(Detroit Photographic Company)

South Station opened a couple years after North Station, in 1899, to serve the same purpose as its predecessor in tying up Eastern railroads under one roof. This time, lines forming the Boston & Albany (bought by New York Central), New York & New England, Old Colony, and Boston & Providence (all eventually New Haven) made for the heavy rail connection, and the Atlantic Avenue Elevated connected passengers to the rapid transit system just a short walk from the platforms on Summer Street. When the Atlantic Avenue Elevated opened in 1901, and the Park Street Subway loop in 1913, South Station became the one of the busiest stations on the East Coast, if not the busiest in the world. Unlike North Station, however, South Station's time in the sun lasted until 1965 and the elevated actually stopped serving the station in 1938 as waterfront traffic declined.  

Just because the streetcars were now above the street didn't stop the bigger trains
from occasionally bumping into the supports. This hapless B&M boxcar
wedged itself on Atlantic Avenue thanks to the Union Freight Railroad, 1930s-ish.
(MeEvilBob)

A Growing System

A modern map of the Boston Elevated Railway's main lines,
with close approximations of their colors today. 
(Jake Berman) 

So how big was the system, exactly? Well, after the new Main Street and Charlestown elevateds opened in 1904, the system had 421 miles of street track and 16 miles of elevated track. By the turn of 1910, that number had quadrupled to hundreds of miles spreading out to Forest Hills, Lechemere Square, Everett & Broadway, and Maverick in East Boston, under the harbor itself. By 1925, at the height of BERy service prior to WWII, the system spanned all over the Greater Boston Area, and had both the modern equipment and enough track to keep Boston on the move. This was due to the BERy finally buying up tracks and equipment belonging to the original West End Railway in 1922 and merging into one enormous mass transit system. 

The Charlestown Elevated's beautiful City Square
station, as photographed in 1930.
(Boston Public Library)

The Charlestown Elevated was of great importance as it split from what was eventually the Atlantic Avenue Elevated and crossed both the Charles and Mystic River to Everett, forming the north end of the BERy. Interestingly, when the Everett Station opened on March 15, 1919, it was the only ground-level station on the elevated system, as all the other stations were either high above or low. Everett never received the fancy copper sheathing and solid construction that the other stations did, as it was merely a temporary terminal while the BERy built north to Malden. Unfortunately, Malden residents shunned the idea of an elevated railway in their backyard, so the extension was never built and Everett remained the north terminal for the BERy.

Everett Station by comparison, looking more like a house than a railway station.
(Boston Public Library)

The Dudley Street Terminal when finished, showing
the iconic streetcar loop sheds on either side of the
rapid transit line.
(Boston Streetcars)

One of the biggest additions to the system was the Forest Hills Extension, which was one of the last segments originally considered in 1899. This line followed Washington Street to the original terminal at Dudley Street before continuing southwest to Forest Hills in Roxbury, meeting the South Street loop and the Hyde Park Avenue line. It was built less sophisticatedly than the original Washington Street line, using plate steel, but also featured plenty of changes above and below. Dudley Station was a new multi-level design with new pedestrian bridges and a loop for trains bound for Forest Hills, with enclosed trolley loops down below. The new line opened in November 22, 1909, but final work on the enclosed loop's roof did not finish until September 1910. 

The Causeway Elevated in 1974, showing its proximity
to Boston Garden and North Station.
(War of Yesterday)

Another important line was the Causeway Street Elevated, which opened in 1912. This new alignment stopped right in front of Boston Garden/North Station and allowed streetcars to load and unload quickly at North Station without disturbing the street traffic below. When it opened on June 1, 1912, the ten minute trip from Lechmere Square to the subway portal was cut to just three minutes. Despite being the last line to open on the elevated, it was also the last line to remain open as it closed on June 25, 2004. 

 

Disasters and Tragedies

The Haymarket Incline in 1906.
(CelebrateBoston)

Over the course of the BERy's life, a few tragic and odd incidences plagued it from when it began to when the MTA took over operations in 1947. The first occurred on the morning August 6, 1906, when a northbound elevated train was first disabled at Haymarket and the passengers were forced to disembark there. Now empty, the crew decided to call up the line and "dead-head" (run empty) the train to Sullivan Square Terminal, which held the repair shops. As they got underway up Haymarket Incline, a relief train arrived shortly after to pick up the stranded passengers. Suddenly, the "dead-head" train stopped, but now it began to roll backwards down Haymarket Incline. There was no stopping it, as both trains collided immediately and the end vestibules were reduced to kindling. Several passengers were injured, thanks to the relief train's motorman who attempted to reverse the train and soften the blow. Surface cars were forced to run relief services past Haymarket while the mess was cleaned up, and the dead-head crew were not found at fault for the incident. 

Car No. 393 being lifted out of the water at 3:30AM,
November 8, 1916.
(Boston Globe)

The worst disaster occurred just ten years later, on November 7, 1916, in absolute rush hour. At 5.25 PM, streetcar No. 393 was heavily-laden as an inbound extra with 60 passengers aboard. Motorman Gerald Walsh and conductor George McKoen had never worked the route along Summer Street and Fort Point, but they were "well familiar with the area". No. 393 was a converted double-truck horsecar of 1900, and its crush capacity was already well surpassed with 60 people aboard. As they crossed over Fort Point Channel to reach Downtown Boston, the retractable bridge guarding the channel was opening to allow a ship to pass through. For whatever reason, Walsh missed a stop sign at Melcher Street and ran onto the bridge, only noticing the now-huge gap when it was too late. Car 393 crashed through the metal barriers guarding the gap and splashed into the Fort Point Channel, a 30-foot deep chasm of frigid water. Walsh, McKoen, and some 15 passengers ended up escaping thanks to some tugboats, but 46 passengers drowned still trapped inside the streetcar. 

Interior of Car 393 after salvage.
(Boston Globe)

Work began quickly that night recovering the bodies between 9PM and 12:40AM. The streetcar itself was lifted out of the water on November 8, at 3:30AM. The disaster was considered the worst in Boston's history (possessing a higher body count than the Boston Molasses Flood) until the Cocoanut Grove Fire of 1942, and following Car No. 393's repair, many motorman refused to operate the car. Walsh went to trial for manslaughter in 1917, but was declared not guilty. He never returned to the BERy. McKoen was never tried, having died in combat in France in July 1918. Car No. 393 was later converted to a work car and scrapped.

Another major incident occurred on July 22, 1928, dubbed the "Beach Street Wreck." Instead of operator error or train malfunction, this time it was the railway infrastructure itself. As the four-car train approached the Atlantic Avenue Loop on a rainy day, it was said to be travelling at 40MPH, far above the recommended speed limit. As it squealed onto the sharp curve over Beach Street and Harrison Avenue, the lead car's front truck hopped the rails and crashed into the apex, right into the abandoned Beach Street Station (then closed and bypassed). The second car swerved violently and swung towards the outside of the curve, with the last two being bumped off the tracks. A large blue flash and a "CRACK" rang through the city as the rain brought to life an enormous electric arc. Thankfully, none of the cars crashed into the street below, but two men were killed and twenty-one others injured. 

The aftermath of the Beach Street Wreck, July 22, 1928.
(Digital Commonwealth)

A Boston "Type Four" wooden streetcar is
crushedat Egleston Station, 1948.
(Digital Commonwealth)

The last major incidents to happen on the BERy were two that happened in quick succession following the end of WWII. In 1948, a "Type Four" streetcar lost its brakes on the 29/Mattapan-Egleston line and crashed into Egleston Station. The impact of the car was so severe, the roof of the car was shaved off by the station ceiling. Following this, in 1960, another car of the same type had its air brakes leak at the Heath Street Loop in Mission Hill/Roxbury thanks to a very hands-on child. The car ran away down Huntington Avenue, jumped off the rails and struck a telephone pole, coming to a stop soon after. Following this, the MTA immediately retired the "Type Fours" and made strict efforts to modernize their aging railway, but this was already happening without any help from them.

Boston Type Four Streetcar No. 5228 finds itself at an awkward position
after coming to rest on the curb and hitting a power line, 1960.
(Digital Commonwealth)

A Modern System on the Decline

"ALL THIS SCRAP TO LICK THE JAP" proclaims a
sign hanging from the former Atlantic Avenue Elevated
in 1942, with South Station's clock behind it. 
The line was still being demolished during the
WWII scrap drives.
(MeEvilBob

By 1936, the BERy was already converting most of its lines from streetcars and elevated railways to trolleybuses. The closure of the Atlantic Avenue Elevated in 1938 hurt the company and ridership only went down from there. The Boston public also turned against the system as well, as by the 1960s, the elevated was a filthy, loud eyesore and much of the tracks were getting in the way of new freeway and street development. The first line to go was the Charlestown elevate due to severe deterioration, replaced by the new Haymarket North Extension going under North Station. To accommodate the Main Street Elevated being torn down, the Orange Line (named so in 1964 following MBTA rearranging) was rerouted in the middle of the new I-95 Southwest Corridor and the tracks were torn down in 1987. 

Near Oak Street and Chinatown, the Main Street Elevated is being 
demolished in August of 1987. Dover Station is in the background.
(Author unknown)

A then-new Boeing-Vertol LRV passes by
old Boston Garden on the Causeway Street elevated,
outbound from the Tremont Street Subway, 1989 or 1998.
(KINKYSHARYO)

The last line to come down is, of course, the Causeway Street Elevated. After serving as the main "light rail" connection to North Station for many years, new development shoved Boston Gardens further away from the station and the infamous "Big Dig" closed the surface line station right underneath. Now without adequate connectivity, the Green Line was rerouted underneath North Station to free up land, with one section of the Elevated left as rerouting occurred. The last train ran on Causeway Street on June 25, 2004, and deconstruction occurred through September of that year. After the new Lechemere Viaduct tunnel was finished in November 2005, the last of Boston's mighty elevated railways was gone.

The BERy System Today

A replica "Forest Hills to Oak Grove" Orange Line sign
sold by the MBTA's official gift shop.
(MBTAGifts.com)

An Orange Line train at Back Bay Station, 2013.
(Fan Railer)

Today's MBTA system closely follows the route of the BERy's Main Street Elevated via the Orange Line between Forest Hills and Oak Grove, via North Station. As the line was redirected following the demolition of the aforementioned elevated, the Orange Line now stops at Ruggles and Back Bay before meeting Washington Street at in Chinatown, some one mile northwest of the old Dudley Street route and almost a mile west of South Station. Both North Station and Haymarket are served by the Green and Orange Lines too, but the Green Line now doesn't emerge until Kenmore Square, some 2 miles west of the original street portal at Park Street.

MBTA Green Line at Kenmore Square Portal, then and now.
(Lost New England, STV Inc.)

Bridge piers on the Mystic River, formerly carrying
the Charlestown Elevated North to Everett.
(Bridgehunter.com)

The famous Mattapan & Ashmont High Speed Line, formerly the BERy's Midland Branch, is also now run by the Red Line on a separate streetcar service, but more on that later. Other remains beyond rolling stock include the former footings and supports of the Mystic River and Charlestown Bridge on the Charlestown Elevated, as well as the former sliding supports of the Summer Street Bridge below the new roadway. Though the elevated was long maligned, many Bostonians were still sad to see the Causeway Street Elevated torn down, as it was a symbol of history and identity to them. I can't help but share a tear myself.

Thank you for reading another long-winded yet informative Trolley Tuesday piece! My resources today came from NY Subway's history of the Main Street Elevated, A CelebrateBoston piece on the Haymarket Collision, MassMoments.org writing about the last elevated train in Boston, Boston Streetcars' encyclopedia of car types, and the Boston Globe's article on the Summer Street Bridge Disaster's Centenary. On Thursday, we look at the final piece of the MBTA's identity, the long-strange Blue Line and its predecessor, the Boston, Revere Beach, and Lynn Railroad. I promise to also do a standalone piece for the rolling stock of the BERy. For now, you can follow myself or my editor on Twitter, buy a shirt or sticker from our Redbubble stand, or purchase my editor's self-developed board game! It's like Ticket to Ride, but cooler! (and you get to support him through it!) The Pacific Electric trolley gifs were created by Brian Clough and are used with permission from his website, "Banks of the Susquehanna". Until next time, ride safe!