Credit: Courtesy of the Library Company of Philadelphia
The introduction of the horsecars on iron rails before the Civil War and then motorized streetcars in the late 1800s enabled explosive physical growth of Philadelphia and a restructuring of its social geography. In the late 1800s street traction lines fueled the growth of sprawling streetcar suburbs on the city’s periphery; residential districts at a distance from the noise, grime, and congestion of older industrial neighborhoods.
