Riding the trolley, or street car, in 1926


Let's time-travel back to 1926 and ride the trolley. Got a nickel? Then let's go. We'll start by asking when it will arrive. But we have to call it a different name or we'll get strange looks. It's a street car.

By the way, before I forget, I found this image on the Duke University site. The site is all about historic advertising, which is interesting in its own way I guess, but mostly I like looking at the backgrounds, and stepping into them to imagine myself there and then.

To be fair to the people talking about street cars nowadays, it technically is a trolley car. Here, I just looked up the definition, here ya go:


But functionally, it's a just a car, like on a train. You have to remember that this is 1926, and most people call "cars" automobiles, anyway. And the older people are still calling them "horseless carriages"! A car is something that you get in when you ride a train. And since trolleys are right there on the street, they're called street cars. You know, like a train, but on the street.

So now that we know the correct lingo, let's go. Clang, clang, clang, went the street car!

Trenton, New Jersey, in 1926.
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