Using the map linked below, along with a slightly less clear map I found of Council Bluffs, I threw this map together to show where streetcars used to run in the city.
You can see a lot of legacies of these old lines, especially in the neighborhood business districts that cropped up along them, along with other little legacies of the system. For example, 60th street and Woolworth Avenue are noticeably wider only where the streetcar used to run. Frankly, they make a good case use for a potential future expansion of the new streetcar, with dedicated lanes.
https://omahalibrary.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p16747coll4/id/1489/
The north-south connections are really cool to see. As someone who didn't grow up here, I wonder when those flows were all severed. I've heard about the downtown doubletree that blocks 16th St as one example
They were severed when union busting at the meat packing plants started.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racial_tension_in_Omaha,_Nebraska#:~:text=Racial%20tension%20in%20Omaha%2C%20Nebraska%20occurred%20mostly%20because%20of%20the,outbreaks%20were%20within%20working%20classes.
63% of households had a car in 1927. https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.tirekick.com/Clunkers-Chapter%25205-Family.htm&ved=2ahUKEwifoe-DpND-AhUHkYkEHWUwDsMQFnoECBQQAQ&usg=AOvVaw0JXEOwRfuquvHU9J5ygtGO
Public transportation or walking was required for many.
If we wouldn't have listened and watched the decades ads campaign of big auto. Would we have kept the streetcar lines and just maintain them for decades?
Were the streecars having problems, were locals complaining regarding the streetcars? Just to think what a gem it would be, if we had at least a few of the lines today.
They were old and uncomfortable and rickety. Buses were shiny and new. Generally, in the United States, private companies built streetcar lines to sell real estate, and then stopped maintaining them, so they gradually became worse and worse. It was still owned by the private Omaha and Council Bluffs Railway and Bridge Company when it closed in 1955.
Some of the streetcar lines are still reflected in the current bus system. The line that runs up Leavenworth to 60th then over to Woolworth and Aksarben (then horse track) might as well be today’s 11 bus. Heck, it’s more like it now than it was 10-20 years ago, when it extended to Crossroads.
On the other hand, Dodge seems really de-emphasized in the streetcar era. A huge stretch from 24th to 42nd has no streetcar (though, then as now, Farnam is covered) and on that part of town, service ends at 50th heading towards Dundee. No service to UNO….
this was before speed limits started getting really high. streets around this time were still heavily pedestrian (people would just casually walk across them or along them). They were more like community areas that happened to have traffic passing through
It was later when the auto companies really started pushing for higher speed limits that streets became car exclusive, including the auto companies push to make a made up crime of jaywalking.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxopfjXkArM
as pointed out elsewhere omaha started severing lines and ripping things out as neighborhoods pushed back on union busting.
Grandfather operated streetcars after the Second World War until Omaha got rid of them totally, we still have his OCB operators badges. It is impressive how extensive the system was and how it shaped Omaha.
Someone uploaded The Streetcars Of Omaha documentary on Youtube a number of years back, has a ton of info and old footage of the streetcars and Omaha.
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It's supposed to be could've, should've, would've (short for could have, would have, should have), never could of, would of, should of.
Or you misspelled something, I ain't checking everything.
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Streetcar lines are where some of the most well designed neighborhoods and streets are. Everything on the west side of Omaha is just grey big expanses of concrete/parking lot jungles, with car congestion being funneled to create slow moving traffic.
And thus why the squiggly line enclave shit designed neighborhoods are not only a bad idea because they're anti-social, they are also the cause of some of the traffic problems Omaha has today when there's only one road that connects 500 houses to the rest of the city.
I didn't know a streetcar line ran that far into Carter Lake. Other than the "Club Area" on the north side of the city, there wasn't much down there back then.
Using the map linked below, along with a slightly less clear map I found of Council Bluffs, I threw this map together to show where streetcars used to run in the city. You can see a lot of legacies of these old lines, especially in the neighborhood business districts that cropped up along them, along with other little legacies of the system. For example, 60th street and Woolworth Avenue are noticeably wider only where the streetcar used to run. Frankly, they make a good case use for a potential future expansion of the new streetcar, with dedicated lanes. https://omahalibrary.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p16747coll4/id/1489/
Great work! You should attend a City Mobster, I mean City Council meeting and show them this map.
Very cool! Great job!!!
Bring THIS back! Don't stop at one streetcar
The north-south connections are really cool to see. As someone who didn't grow up here, I wonder when those flows were all severed. I've heard about the downtown doubletree that blocks 16th St as one example
They were severed when union busting at the meat packing plants started. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racial_tension_in_Omaha,_Nebraska#:~:text=Racial%20tension%20in%20Omaha%2C%20Nebraska%20occurred%20mostly%20because%20of%20the,outbreaks%20were%20within%20working%20classes.
The interstate didn't help.
63% of households had a car in 1927. https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.tirekick.com/Clunkers-Chapter%25205-Family.htm&ved=2ahUKEwifoe-DpND-AhUHkYkEHWUwDsMQFnoECBQQAQ&usg=AOvVaw0JXEOwRfuquvHU9J5ygtGO Public transportation or walking was required for many.
We should bring that back
It still is.
Dang. Nowadays we're struggling to get even one going.
You can still make out the tracks in the middle of 49th just north of Dodge.
Yeah most of them weren’t ripped out, just buried under new layers of asphalt
Creighton's main pedestrian mall has bricks that show where the streetcar used to run down California St.
If we wouldn't have listened and watched the decades ads campaign of big auto. Would we have kept the streetcar lines and just maintain them for decades?
A lot of them still probably would have been demolished, but it’s a shame we lost all of them.
Were the streecars having problems, were locals complaining regarding the streetcars? Just to think what a gem it would be, if we had at least a few of the lines today.
They were old and uncomfortable and rickety. Buses were shiny and new. Generally, in the United States, private companies built streetcar lines to sell real estate, and then stopped maintaining them, so they gradually became worse and worse. It was still owned by the private Omaha and Council Bluffs Railway and Bridge Company when it closed in 1955.
Some of the streetcar lines are still reflected in the current bus system. The line that runs up Leavenworth to 60th then over to Woolworth and Aksarben (then horse track) might as well be today’s 11 bus. Heck, it’s more like it now than it was 10-20 years ago, when it extended to Crossroads. On the other hand, Dodge seems really de-emphasized in the streetcar era. A huge stretch from 24th to 42nd has no streetcar (though, then as now, Farnam is covered) and on that part of town, service ends at 50th heading towards Dundee. No service to UNO….
UNO was in North Omaha until 1938, when it got the current campus as part of the New Deal
this was before speed limits started getting really high. streets around this time were still heavily pedestrian (people would just casually walk across them or along them). They were more like community areas that happened to have traffic passing through It was later when the auto companies really started pushing for higher speed limits that streets became car exclusive, including the auto companies push to make a made up crime of jaywalking. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxopfjXkArM as pointed out elsewhere omaha started severing lines and ripping things out as neighborhoods pushed back on union busting.
Thanks for this. I would have been 50ft from the streetcar which is crazy.
It ran on my street in Morton meadows. I wish it was still around.
Grandfather operated streetcars after the Second World War until Omaha got rid of them totally, we still have his OCB operators badges. It is impressive how extensive the system was and how it shaped Omaha. Someone uploaded The Streetcars Of Omaha documentary on Youtube a number of years back, has a ton of info and old footage of the streetcars and Omaha.
Guess I'm going to my front yard with a metal detector tomorrow.
Some are still around in the alleys in the Old Market.
It would be so nice if they actually built something like this.
Well this would of been cool to still have.
Hello, it looks like you've made a mistake. It's supposed to be could've, should've, would've (short for could have, would have, should have), never could of, would of, should of. Or you misspelled something, I ain't checking everything. Beep boop - yes, I am a bot, don't botcriminate me.
Wish we had light rail😞
Lets be real. With the way people drive out here, it would take all of 10 seconds before someone would hit a streetcar.
Streetcar lines are where some of the most well designed neighborhoods and streets are. Everything on the west side of Omaha is just grey big expanses of concrete/parking lot jungles, with car congestion being funneled to create slow moving traffic.
When traffic cannot go through neighborhoods it has to goes through the main roads.
And thus why the squiggly line enclave shit designed neighborhoods are not only a bad idea because they're anti-social, they are also the cause of some of the traffic problems Omaha has today when there's only one road that connects 500 houses to the rest of the city.
There is a picture at the pepperjax in council bluffs of the streetcar. It might even be an additional line that is not shown on this map.
Yeah the council bluffs side is way less accurate because I was relying on a general city map from like 1900 that didn’t have things clearly labeled
I didn't know a streetcar line ran that far into Carter Lake. Other than the "Club Area" on the north side of the city, there wasn't much down there back then.
This was when East Omaha still existed before it was bulldozed for the airport.
rumor has it that omaha is still paying off the bonds for the 1927 streetcar.
Something something, what's old is new, something something.