The Providence Cable Tramway Company built and operated a
cable car line in
Providence, Rhode Island
Providence is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Rhode Island. One of the oldest cities in New England, it was founded in 1636 by Roger Williams, a Reformed Baptist theologian and religious exile from the Massachusetts ...
. It was incorporated in 1884 and eventually absorbed into the
Union Railroad. Construction began in late 1888 and
revenue service
A revenue service, revenue agency or taxation authority is a government agency responsible for the intake of government revenue, including taxes and sometimes non-tax revenue. Depending on the jurisdiction, revenue services may be charged with ...
began on January 1, 1890.
The line provided access between the
East Side and
Market Square: prior to this point,
College Hill was too steep for other transit systems. The cable line only ran until 1895, at which point the line was electrified. Various underground
counterweight
A counterweight is a weight that, by applying an opposite force, provides balance and stability of a mechanical system. The purpose of a counterweight is to make lifting the load faster and more efficient, which saves energy and causes less wea ...
systems were used to help train cars ascent the steep hill with the assistance of cars descending it.
[ at which point the ]East Side Trolley Tunnel
The East Side Trolley Tunnel, also known as the East Side Transit Tunnel or the College Hill Tunnel, is a bi-directional tunnel in Providence, Rhode Island, originally built for trolley use in 1914, and now used for public transit buses. The Eas ...
, running from South Main Street to Thayer Street
Thayer Street in Providence, Rhode Island is a popular destination for students of the area's nearby schools of Brown University, Moses Brown School, Hope High School, Wheeler School, RISD, Providence College, Johnson & Wales University, and ...
was opened. That tunnel provided a small enough grade
Grade most commonly refers to:
* Grade (education), a measurement of a student's performance
* Grade, the number of the year a student has reached in a given educational stage
* Grade (slope), the steepness of a slope
Grade or grading may also ref ...
that ordinary trolleys could ascend without assistance, rendering the previous systems obsolete.
References
External links
*
*
Cable railways
Providence, Rhode Island
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