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107-560: The traffic circle is located at the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue NW, Connecticut Avenue NW, New Hampshire Avenue  NW, P Street NW, and 19th Street NW. The circle is named for Rear Admiral Samuel Francis Du Pont . The traffic circle contains the Dupont Circle Fountain in its center. The neighborhood is known for its high concentration of embassies , many located on Embassy Row , and think tanks , many located on Think Tank Row . Dupont Circle

214-890: A bohemian feel and became popular among the gay and lesbian community . Along with The Castro in San Francisco, Hillcrest in San Diego , Greenwich Village in New York City, Boystown in Chicago , Oak Lawn in Dallas , Montrose in Houston , and West Hollywood in Los Angeles, Dupont Circle is considered a historic locale in the development of American gay identity. D.C.'s first gay bookstore, Lambda Rising , opened in 1974 and gained notoriety nationwide. In 1975,

321-516: A streetcar or trolley in the United States) is a type of urban rail transit consisting of either individual railcars or self-propelled multiple unit trains that run on tramway tracks on urban public streets; some include segments on segregated right-of-way . The tramlines or tram networks operated as public transport are called tramways or simply trams/streetcars. Because of their close similarities, trams are commonly included in

428-622: A tram engine in the UK) at the head of a line of one or more carriages, similar to a small train. Systems with such steam trams included Christchurch , New Zealand; Sydney, Australia; other city systems in New South Wales ; Munich , Germany (from August 1883 on), British India (from 1885) and the Dublin & Blessington Steam Tramway (from 1888) in Ireland. Steam tramways also were used on

535-520: A Vermont blacksmith, had invented a battery-powered electric motor which he later patented. The following year he used it to operate a small model electric car on a short section of track four feet in diameter. Attempts to use batteries as a source of electricity were made from the 1880s and 1890s, with unsuccessful trials conducted in among other places Bendigo and Adelaide in Australia, and for about 14 years as The Hague accutram of HTM in

642-399: A brickyard and slaughterhouse. There also was a creek, Slash Run, that began near 15th Street NW and Columbia Road NW, ran from 16th Street near Adams Morgan , through Kalorama and within a block of Dupont Circle, but the creek has since been enclosed in a sewer line. Improvements made in the 1870s by a board of public works headed by Alexander "Boss" Shepherd transformed the area into

749-473: A fashionable residential neighborhood. In 1871, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers began construction of the traffic circle, then called Pacific Circle, as specified in L'Enfant's plan . On February 25, 1882, Congress renamed it "Dupont Circle", and authorized a memorial statue of Samuel Francis Du Pont , in recognition of his service as a rear admiral during the Civil War. Unveiled on December 20, 1884,

856-511: A fixture in Dupont Circle for over 30 years and includes over 100 rooms and 32 secret doors. Also overlooking the square is The Dupont Circle Hotel . Two disused semicircular trolley tunnels follow the outline of the circle; the one on the east is currently Dupont Underground, an art and performance space. In addition to its residential components, consisting primarily of high-priced apartments and condominiums, Dupont Circle

963-635: A section of Massachusetts Avenue as Embassy Row. Several of these embassies are listed on the National Register of Historic Places . The track of the avenue was not paved until the administration of Alexander Robey Shepherd in the early 1870s. It was extended beyond Boundary Road, now Florida Avenue , in the 1880s, and beyond Rock Creek to Wisconsin Avenue after 1900. In 1906, the District Commissioners approved extending it to

1070-726: A similar technology, Pirotsky put into service the first public electric tramway in St. Petersburg, which operated only during September 1880. The second demonstration tramway was presented by Siemens & Halske at the 1879 Berlin Industrial Exposition. The first public electric tramway used for permanent service was the Gross-Lichterfelde tramway in Lichterfelde near Berlin in Germany, which opened in 1881. It

1177-467: A turn-of-the-century writer who described the district as "the Striver's section, a community of Negro aristocracy". The area, which was once considered an overlap of the Dupont Circle and Shaw neighborhoods, is today a historic district. Many of its buildings are the original Edwardian -era residences, along with several apartment and condominium buildings and a few small businesses. The neighborhood

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1284-584: A view of the Anacostia River . It proceeds in a northwesterly direction crosstown. At 14th Street SE, it enters the neighborhood of Capitol Hill and Lincoln Park in Northeast Washington, D.C. After briefly converging with Columbus Circle as it curves around Washington Union Station , Massachusetts Avenue enters Northwest Washington, D.C. in a rapidly changing neighborhood which has transitioned from earlier blight and decay to in

1391-946: A well-known tourist attraction . A single cable line also survives in Wellington (rebuilt in 1979 as a funicular but still called the " Wellington Cable Car "). Another system, with two separate cable lines and a shared power station in the middle, operates from the Welsh town of Llandudno up to the top of the Great Orme hill in North Wales , UK. Hastings and some other tramways, for example Stockholms Spårvägar in Sweden and some lines in Karachi , used petrol trams. Galveston Island Trolley in Texas operated diesel trams due to

1498-614: Is a major diagonal transverse road in Washington, D.C. , and the Massachusetts Avenue Historic District is a historic district that includes part of it. Massachusetts Avenue was part of Pierre Charles L'Enfant 's original plan for the development of Washington, D.C. The avenue crosses three of Washington, D.C.'s four quadrants . It intersects every major north–south street and passes numerous Washington landmarks. Massachusetts Avenue represents

1605-446: Is centered around the traffic circle, which is divided between two counterclockwise roads. The outer road serves all the intersecting streets, while access to the inner road is limited to through traffic on Massachusetts Avenue. Connecticut Avenue passes under the circle via a tunnel; vehicles on Connecticut Avenue can access the circle via service roads that branch from Connecticut near N Street and R Street. The park within

1712-485: Is considered the starting point of Embassy Row . Massachusetts Avenue passes through the inner ring of Dupont Circle and curves north at Sheridan Circle , paralleling Rock Creek to Belmont Road NW. After crossing Rock Creek over Charles C. Glover Memorial Bridge , it curves around the United States Naval Observatory and Number One Observatory Circle , the official residence of

1819-768: Is home to numerous embassies , many of which are located in historic residences. The Thomas T. Gaff House serves as the Colombian ambassador's residence, and the Walsh-McLean House is home to the Indonesian embassy. Located east of Dupont Circle on Massachusetts Avenue is the Clarence Moore House , now serving as the Embassy of Uzbekistan , and the Emily J. Wilkins House , which formerly housed

1926-1168: Is home to some of the nation's most prestigious think tanks and research institutions, including the American Enterprise Institute , the Brookings Institution , the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace , the Institute for Policy Studies , the Aspen Institute , the German Marshall Fund , the Center for Global Development , the Stimson Center , the Eurasia Center , and the Peterson Institute . The renowned Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) of Johns Hopkins

2033-468: Is located in the "Old City" of Washington, D.C. , the area planned by architect Pierre Charles L'Enfant that remained largely undeveloped until after the American Civil War , when there was a large influx of new residents. Based on the original L'Enfant plan , the area occupied by the circle was intended to be rectangular in shape, similar to Farragut Square . Dupont Circle was once home to

2140-545: Is located less than two blocks from the circle. Dupont Circle is also home to the Founding Church of Scientology museum and Scientology's National Affairs Office. The Phillips Collection , the nation's first museum of modern art, is located near the circle; its most famous and popular work on display is Renoir 's giant festive canvas Luncheon of the Boating Party . Additionally, the national headquarters of

2247-640: Is still in operation in modernised form. The earliest tram system in Canada was built by John Joseph Wright , brother of the famous mining entrepreneur Whitaker Wright , in Toronto in 1883, introducing electric trams in 1892. In the US, multiple experimental electric trams were exhibited at the 1884 World Cotton Centennial World's Fair in New Orleans, Louisiana , but they were not deemed good enough to replace

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2354-734: Is the sole survivor of the fleet). In Italy, in Trieste , the Trieste–Opicina tramway was opened in 1902, with the steepest section of the route being negotiated with the help of a funicular and its cables. Cable cars suffered from high infrastructure costs, since an expensive system of cables , pulleys , stationary engines and lengthy underground vault structures beneath the rails had to be provided. They also required physical strength and skill to operate, and alert operators to avoid obstructions and other cable cars. The cable had to be disconnected ("dropped") at designated locations to allow

2461-647: The Washington Times-Herald (sold to The Washington Post in 1954) and declared journalistic warfare on Franklin D. Roosevelt from 15 Dupont Circle, continuing throughout World War II to push her policies, which were echoed in the New York Daily News , run by her brother Joseph Medill Patterson , and the Chicago Tribune , run by their first cousin, Colonel Robert R. McCormick . Today's Dupont Circle includes

2568-578: The AIDS crisis of the 1980s and 1990s. Capital Pride is an annual LGBT pride festival held each June in Washington. As of 2007, the festival is the fourth-largest LGBT pride event in the United States, with over 200,000 people in attendance. The Capital Pride parade takes place annually on Saturday during the festival and travels through the streets of the neighborhood. Dupont Circle is host to

2675-743: The Australian embassy and now is occupied by the Peruvian Chancery. Iraq operates a consular services office in the William J. Boardman House on P Street. Other landmarks, many of which are listed on the National Register of Historic Places, include the International Temple , Embassy Gulf Service Station , Christian Heurich Mansion (also known as Brewmaster's Castle), Whittemore House (headquarters to

2782-713: The Bleecker Street Line until its closure in 1917. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania , had its Sarah Street line drawn by horses until 1923. The last regular mule-drawn cars in the US ran in Sulphur Rock, Arkansas , until 1926 and were commemorated by a U.S. postage stamp issued in 1983. The last mule tram service in Mexico City ended in 1932, and a mule tram in Celaya, Mexico , survived until 1954. The last horse-drawn tram to be withdrawn from public service in

2889-544: The District line, although at the time they thought it would really only be used up to its intersection with Nebraska Avenue with the exception of pleasure drives. In the 1870s, residential development accelerated on Massachusetts Avenue, mostly around the circles located west of 9th Street NW. These brick and brownstone structures reflected the Queen Anne and Richardsonian Romanesque styles in vogue at

2996-639: The Jewish War Veterans of the United States of America , the nation's oldest veterans organization, the National Museum of American Jewish Military History , and the Washington, D.C. Jewish Community Center are also located in Dupont Circle. DuPont Circle roughly coincides with the following five Census tracts, which had a total population of 15,099 in 2020. The area is roughly 70% non-Hispanic (NH) White, 10% Hispanic, 9% NH Asian, 7% NH Black and 4% NH Multiracial. Note: "Circle" refers to

3103-870: The Lamm fireless engines then propelling the St. Charles Avenue Streetcar in that city. The first commercial installation of an electric streetcar in the United States was built in 1884 in Cleveland, Ohio , and operated for a period of one year by the East Cleveland Street Railway Company. The first city-wide electric streetcar system was implemented in 1886 in Montgomery, Alabama , by the Capital City Street Railway Company, and ran for 50 years. In 1888,

3210-547: The Metrobus N ;routes serve upper Northwest while a patchwork of routes serve Downtown , Northeast, and Southeast. The following Metrobus routes travel along the street (listed from west to east): DC Circulator travels along the street, connecting Georgetown in the west with Washington Union Station in the east. Ride On Route 29 serves Massachusetts Avenue in Maryland from Westmoreland Circle to

3317-416: The Queen Anne and Richardsonian Romanesque revival styles. Rarer are the palatial mansions and large freestanding houses that line the broad, tree-lined diagonal avenues that intersect the circle. Many of these larger dwellings were built in the styles popular between 1895 and 1910. One such grand residence is the marble and limestone Patterson Mansion at 15 Dupont Circle. This Italianate mansion,

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3424-715: The Richmond Union Passenger Railway began to operate trams in Richmond, Virginia , that Frank J. Sprague had built. Sprague later developed multiple unit control, first demonstrated in Chicago in 1897, allowing multiple cars to be coupled together and operated by a single motorman. This gave rise to the modern subway train. Following the improvement of an overhead "trolley" system on streetcars for collecting electricity from overhead wires by Sprague, electric tram systems were rapidly adopted across

3531-456: The Strivers' Section , a small residential area west of 16th Street roughly between Swann Street and Florida Avenue. The Strivers' Section was an enclave of upper-middle-class African Americans —often community leaders—in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The area includes a row of houses on 17th Street owned by Frederick Douglass and occupied by his son. It takes its name from

3638-824: The West Midlands Metro in Birmingham , England adopted battery-powered trams on sections through the city centre close to Grade I listed Birmingham Town Hall . Paris and Berne (Switzerland) operated trams that were powered by compressed air using the Mekarski system . Trials on street tramways in Britain, including by the North Metropolitan Tramway Company between Kings Cross and Holloway, London (1883), achieved acceptable results but were found not to be economic because of

3745-526: The White House underwent renovation. The Coolidges welcomed Charles Lindbergh as a houseguest after his historic transatlantic flight . Lindbergh made several public appearances at the house, waving to roaring crowds from the second-story balcony, and befriended the Patterson Family, with whom he increasingly came to share isolationist and pro- German views. Cissy Patterson later acquired

3852-407: The Woman's National Democratic Club ), the Brigadier General George P. Scriven House (headquarters to the National Society Colonial Dames XVII Century ), and the Phillips Collection , the country's first museum of modern art . The Richard H. Townsend House located on Massachusetts Avenue now houses the Cosmos Club . Across Massachusetts Avenue, the historic Anderson House, owned by the Society of

3959-403: The vice President of the United States , which forms the southwest boundary of the Massachusetts Heights neighborhood. Washington National Cathedral , located at the intersection of Massachusetts and Wisconsin Avenues , is usually considered the end of Embassy Row . At Ward Circle , Massachusetts Avenue delineates the American University Park neighborhood from Spring Valley , passing to

4066-803: The 1850s, after which the "animal railway" became an increasingly common feature in the larger towns. The first permanent tram line in continental Europe was opened in Paris in 1855 by Alphonse Loubat who had previously worked on American streetcar lines. The tram was developed in numerous cities of Europe (some of the most extensive systems were found in Berlin, Budapest , Birmingham , Saint Petersburg , Lisbon , London , Manchester , Paris , Kyiv ). The first tram in South America opened in 1858 in Santiago, Chile . The first trams in Australia opened in 1860 in Sydney . Africa's first tram service started in Alexandria on 8 January 1863. The first trams in Asia opened in 1869 in Batavia (Jakarta), Netherlands East Indies (Indonesia) . Limitations of horsecars included

4173-410: The 1870s and 1880s, mansions were built along Massachusetts Avenue, one of Washington's grand avenues, and townhouses were built throughout the neighborhood. In 1872, the British built a new embassy on Connecticut Avenue, at N Street NW. Stewart's Castle was built in 1873 on the north side of the circle, the James G. Blaine Mansion was built on the west side in 1882, and the Leiter House was built on

4280-430: The 1894-built horse tram at Victor Harbor in South Australia . New horse-drawn systems have been established at the Hokkaidō Museum in Japan and also in Disneyland . A horse-tram route in Polish gmina Mrozy , first built in 1902, was reopened in 2012. The first mechanical trams were powered by steam . Generally, there were two types of steam tram. The first and most common had a small steam locomotive (called

4387-420: The 1980s. The history of passenger trams, streetcars and trolley systems, began in the early nineteenth century. It can be divided into several distinct periods defined by the principal means of power used. Precursors to the tramway included the wooden or stone wagonways that were used in central Europe to transport mine carts with unflanged wheels since the 1500s, and the paved limestone trackways designed by

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4494-614: The 21st century developing numerous high-rise apartment complexes. In the tradition of the acronym SoHo in Manhattan , realtors sometimes refer to this area as NoMa , standing for north of Massachusetts Avenue. It intersects with Interstate 395 , which runs underground at that point, at H Street  NW, and passes over Mount Vernon Square in front of the Walter E. Washington Convention Center . Continuing northwest, Massachusetts enters an underpass below Thomas Circle at 14th and M Streets NW, before curving around Scott Circle at 16th and N Streets NW; this

4601-422: The Australian state of Queensland between 1909 and 1939. Stockholm , Sweden, had a steam tram line at the island of Södermalm between 1887 and 1901. Tram engines usually had modifications to make them suitable for street running in residential areas. The wheels, and other moving parts of the machinery, were usually enclosed for safety reasons and to make the engines quieter. Measures were often taken to prevent

4708-407: The British newspaper Newcastle Daily Chronicle reported that, "A large number of London's discarded horse tramcars have been sent to Lincolnshire where they are used as sleeping rooms for potato pickers ". Horses continued to be used for light shunting well into the 20th century, and many large metropolitan lines lasted into the early 20th century. New York City had a regular horsecar service on

4815-464: The Cincinnati, is open daily for tours. The Dumbarton Bridge , also known as the Buffalo Bridge, carries Q Street over Rock Creek Park and into Georgetown and was constructed in 1883. The Nuns of the Battlefield sculpture, which serves as a tribute to over 600 nuns who nursed soldiers of both armies during the Civil War, was erected in 1924. The Mansion on O Street a luxury boutique hotel, private club, events venue and museum has been

4922-421: The Dupont Circle traffic circle. Source: 2020 decennial Census Dupont Circle is served by the Dupont Circle station on the Red Line of the Washington Metro . There are two entrances: north of the circle at Q Street NW and south of the circle at 19th Street NW. The northern entrance is framed by a quote from Walt Whitman 's 1865 poem, "The Wound-Dresser", that was carved into the entrance in 2007 and echoes

5029-477: The Entertainment Centre, and work is progressing on further extensions. Sydney re-introduced trams (or light rail) on 31 August 1997. A completely new system, known as G:link , was introduced on the Gold Coast, Queensland , on 20 July 2014. The Newcastle Light Rail opened in February 2019, while the Canberra light rail opened on 20 April 2019. This is the first time that there have been trams in Canberra, even though Walter Burley Griffin 's 1914–1920 plans for

5136-416: The Irish coach builder John Stephenson , in New York City which began service in the year 1832. The New York and Harlem Railroad's Fourth Avenue Line ran along the Bowery and Fourth Avenue in New York City. It was followed in 1835 by the New Orleans and Carrollton Railroad in New Orleans, Louisiana , which still operates as the St. Charles Streetcar Line . Other American cities did not follow until

5243-430: The Netherlands. The first trams in Bendigo, Australia, in 1892, were battery-powered, but within as little as three months they were replaced with horse-drawn trams. In New York City some minor lines also used storage batteries. Then, more recently during the 1950s, a longer battery-operated tramway line ran from Milan to Bergamo . In China there is a Nanjing battery Tram line and has been running since 2014. In 2019,

5350-436: The North Sydney line from 1886 to 1900, and the King Street line from 1892 to 1905. In Dresden , Germany, in 1901 an elevated suspended cable car following the Eugen Langen one-railed floating tram system started operating. Cable cars operated on Highgate Hill in North London and Kennington to Brixton Hill in South London. They also worked around "Upper Douglas" in the Isle of Man from 1897 to 1929 (cable car 72/73

5457-463: The Romans for heavy horse and ox-drawn transportation. By the 1700s, paved plateways with cast iron rails were introduced in England for transporting coal, stone or iron ore from the mines to the urban factories and docks. The world's first passenger train or tram was the Swansea and Mumbles Railway , in Wales , UK. The British Parliament passed the Mumbles Railway Act in 1804, and horse-drawn service started in 1807. The service closed in 1827, but

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5564-413: The Second Street Cable Railroad, which operated from 1885 to 1889, and the Temple Street Cable Railway, which operated from 1886 to 1898. From 1885 to 1940, the city of Melbourne , Victoria, Australia operated one of the largest cable systems in the world, at its peak running 592 trams on 75 kilometres (47 mi) of track. There were also two isolated cable lines in Sydney , New South Wales, Australia;

5671-562: The UK at Lytham St Annes , Trafford Park , Manchester (1897–1908) and Neath , Wales (1896–1920). Comparatively little has been published about gas trams. However, research on the subject was carried out for an article in the October 2011 edition of "The Times", the historical journal of the Australian Association of Timetable Collectors, later renamed the Australian Timetable Association. The world's first electric tram line operated in Sestroretsk near Saint Petersburg invented and tested by inventor Fyodor Pirotsky in 1875. Later, using

5778-410: The UK took passengers from Fintona railway station to Fintona Junction one mile away on the main Omagh to Enniskillen railway in Northern Ireland. The tram made its last journey on 30 September 1957 when the Omagh to Enniskillen line closed. The "van" is preserved at the Ulster Transport Museum . Horse-drawn trams still operate on the 1876-built Douglas Bay Horse Tramway on the Isle of Man , and at

5885-508: The advantages over earlier forms of transit was the low rolling resistance of metal wheels on steel rails, allowing the trams to haul a greater load for a given effort. Another factor which contributed to the rise of trams was the high total cost of ownership of horses. Electric trams largely replaced animal power in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Improvements in other vehicles such as buses led to decline of trams in early to mid 20th century. However, trams have seen resurgence since

5992-485: The avenue's terminus at Goldsboro Road. The M6, which travels from the Potomac Avenue Metro station to Fairfax Village, runs along Massachusetts Avenue between Alabama Avenue and Southern Avenue. The following Metrorail stations have stops located near Massachusetts Avenue: Washington Union Station , which is served by Amtrak , MARC , and Virginia Railway Express trains, is located on Massachusetts Avenue at Columbus Circle. Tram A tram (also known as

6099-460: The busiest tram line in Europe, with a tram running once per minute at rush hour. Bucharest and Belgrade ran a regular service from 1894. Ljubljana introduced its tram system in 1901 – it closed in 1958. Oslo had the first tramway in Scandinavia , starting operation on 2 March 1894. The first electric tramway in Australia was a Sprague system demonstrated at the 1888 Melbourne Centennial Exhibition in Melbourne ; afterwards, this

6206-439: The capital then in the planning stage did propose a Canberra tram system. In Japan, the Kyoto Electric railroad was the first tram system, starting operation in 1895. By 1932, the network had grown to 82 railway companies in 65 cities, with a total network length of 1,479 km (919 mi). By the 1960s the tram had generally died out in Japan. Two rare but significant alternatives were conduit current collection , which

6313-458: The car up the hill at a steady pace, unlike a low-powered steam or horse-drawn car. Cable cars do have wheel brakes and track brakes , but the cable also helps restrain the car to going downhill at a constant speed. Performance in steep terrain partially explains the survival of cable cars in San Francisco. The San Francisco cable cars , though significantly reduced in number, continue to provide regular transportation service, in addition to being

6420-402: The cars to coast by inertia, for example when crossing another cable line. The cable then had to be "picked up" to resume progress, the whole operation requiring precise timing to avoid damage to the cable and the grip mechanism. Breaks and frays in the cable, which occurred frequently, required the complete cessation of services over a cable route while the cable was repaired. Due to overall wear,

6527-417: The circle is maintained by the National Park Service . The central fountain designed by Daniel Chester French provides seating, and long, curved benches around the central area were installed in 1964. The park within the circle is a gathering place for those wishing to play chess on the permanent stone chessboards . Tom Murphy , a homeless championship chess player, was a resident. The park has also been

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6634-406: The circle, to separate the through traffic on Massachusetts Avenue from the local traffic, and traffic signals were added. In 1949, traffic tunnels and an underground streetcar station were built under the circle by Capital Transit , the company produced by the consolidation of D.C.'s streetcar lines. The tunnels enabled trams and vehicles traveling along Connecticut Avenue to pass more quickly past

6741-413: The circle. When streetcar service ended in 1962, the entrances to the underground station were closed. The space has since been transformed and reopened as the Dupont Underground art space. The neighborhood declined after World War II and particularly after the 1968 riots , but began to enjoy a resurgence in the 1970s, fueled by urban pioneers seeking an alternative lifestyle. The neighborhood took on

6848-409: The city's hurricane-prone location, which would have resulted in frequent damage to an electrical supply system. Although Portland, Victoria promotes its tourist tram as being a cable car it actually operates using a diesel motor. The tram, which runs on a circular route around the town of Portland, uses dummies and salons formerly used on the Melbourne cable tramway system and since restored. In

6955-416: The combined coal consumption of the stationary compressor and the onboard steam boiler. The Trieste–Opicina tramway in Trieste operates a hybrid funicular tramway system. Conventional electric trams are operated in street running and on reserved track for most of their route. However, on one steep segment of track, they are assisted by cable tractors, which push the trams uphill and act as brakes for

7062-428: The current double-tiered white marble fountain replaced the statue. Daniel Chester French and Henry Bacon, the co-creators of the Lincoln Memorial , designed the fountain, which features carvings of three classical figures symbolizing the sea, the stars and the wind on the fountain's shaft. In 1876, the second house located directly in Dupont Circle was built by a wealthy merchant by the name of William M. Galt. During

7169-430: The downhill run. For safety, the cable tractors are always deployed on the downhill side of the tram vehicle. Similar systems were used elsewhere in the past, notably on the Queen Anne Counterbalance in Seattle and the Darling Street wharf line in Sydney. In the mid-20th century many tram systems were disbanded, replaced by buses, trolleybuses , automobiles or rapid transit . The General Motors streetcar conspiracy

7276-407: The east side of the Anacostia River . That section extends from 30th Street SE near District of Columbia Route 295 , to Southern Avenue SE at the border between Washington, D.C. and Prince George's County . Several notable institutions are located on Massachusetts Avenue, including: Multiple embassies and residences are located on Massachusetts Avenue, leading to the naming of

7383-446: The engines from emitting visible smoke or steam. Usually the engines used coke rather than coal as fuel to avoid emitting smoke; condensers or superheating were used to avoid emitting visible steam. A major drawback of this style of tram was the limited space for the engine, so that these trams were usually underpowered. Steam trams faded out around the 1890s to 1900s, being replaced by electric trams. Another motive system for trams

7490-429: The entire length of cable (typically several kilometres) had to be replaced on a regular schedule. After the development of reliable electrically powered trams, the costly high-maintenance cable car systems were rapidly replaced in most locations. Cable cars remained especially effective in hilly cities, since their nondriven wheels did not lose traction as they climbed or descended a steep hill. The moving cable pulled

7597-439: The fact that any given animal could only work so many hours on a given day, had to be housed, groomed, fed and cared for day in and day out, and produced prodigious amounts of manure, which the streetcar company was charged with storing and then disposing. Since a typical horse pulled a streetcar for about a dozen miles a day and worked for four or five hours, many systems needed ten or more horses in stable for each horsecar. In 1905

7704-402: The former Millionaires' Row is today well known as Embassy Row . Several overlapping historic districts have been created to preserve the character of the remaining neighborhoods. The Massachusetts Avenue Historic District encompasses the buildings between 17th Street and Observatory Circle on Massachusetts Avenue NW . While no Washington Metro lines run along Massachusetts Avenue,

7811-604: The late 19th and early 20th centuries a number of systems in various parts of the world employed trams powered by gas, naphtha gas or coal gas in particular. Gas trams are known to have operated between Alphington and Clifton Hill in the northern suburbs of Melbourne , Australia (1886–1888); in Berlin and Dresden , Germany; in Estonia (1921–1951); between Jelenia Góra , Cieplice , and Sobieszów in Poland (from 1897); and in

7918-402: The late 19th and early 20th centuries. There was one particular hazard associated with trams powered from a trolley pole off an overhead line on the early electrified systems. Since the tram relies on contact with the rails for the current return path, a problem arises if the tram is derailed or (more usually) if it halts on a section of track that has been heavily sanded by a previous tram, and

8025-693: The location of political rallies, such as those supporting gay rights and those protesting the 2003 invasion of Iraq , the World Bank , and the International Monetary Fund . In 1999, Thelma Billy was arrested handing out Thanksgiving dinner to the homeless. In 2009, a tug of war was sponsored by the Washington Project for the Arts . In 2014, the city proposed to turn an 850-square-foot (79 m) concrete sidewalk on

8132-534: The necessity of overhead wire and a trolley pole for street cars and railways. While at the University of Denver he conducted experiments which established that multiple unit powered cars were a better way to operate trains and trolleys. Electric tramways spread to many European cities in the 1890s, such as: Sarajevo built a citywide system of electric trams in 1895. Budapest established its tramway system in 1887, and its ring line has grown to be

8239-410: The north of American University . It crosses the border between Washington, D.C. and Montgomery County, Maryland at Westmoreland Circle. In Maryland , the road continues signed as Maryland Route 396 , waving through residential sections of Bethesda until terminating at Goldsboro Road, also known as Maryland Route 614 . Another section of Massachusetts Avenue, discontinuous from this one, lies on

8346-456: The north side in 1893. By the 1920s, Connecticut Avenue was more commercial in character, with numerous shops. Some residences, including Senator Philetus Sawyer 's mansion at Connecticut and R Street, were demolished to make way for office buildings and shops. The Patterson House, at 15 Dupont Circle, served as a temporary residence for President Calvin Coolidge while the actual White House

8453-411: The northern boundary of downtown and the city's Embassy Row . Massachusetts Avenue is tied with Pennsylvania Avenue as the widest road in Washington, D.C., at 160 feet (49 m). The two roads run in parallel through much of the city, Massachusetts about seven blocks north of Pennsylvania Avenue. Massachusetts Avenue was long considered the city's premier residential street, and Pennsylvania Avenue

8560-533: The oldest operating electric tramway in the world. Also in 1883, Mödling and Hinterbrühl Tram was opened near Vienna in Austria. It was the first tram in the world in regular service that was run with electricity served by an overhead line with pantograph current collectors . The Blackpool Tramway was opened in Blackpool, UK on 29 September 1885 using conduit collection along Blackpool Promenade. This system

8667-589: The only survivor of the many mansions that once ringed the circle, was built in 1901 by New York architect Stanford White for Robert Patterson , editor of the Chicago Tribune , and his wife Nellie, heiress to the Chicago Tribune fortune. Upon Mrs. Patterson's incapacitation in the early 1920s, the house passed into the hands of her daughter, Cissy Patterson , who made it a hub of Washington social life. The house served as temporary quarters for President and Mrs.  Calvin Coolidge in 1927 while

8774-706: The parade, and the street festival is held in Penn Quarter. Held annually since 1986, the Dupont Circle High Heel Race takes place on the Tuesday before Halloween (October 31). The race pits dozens of drag queens against each other in a sprint down 17th Street NW between R Street and Church Street, a distance of three short blocks. The event attracts thousands of spectators and scores of participants. Massachusetts Avenue (Washington, D.C.) Massachusetts Avenue

8881-637: The poor paving of the streets in American cities which made them unsuitable for horsebuses , which were then common on the well-paved streets of European cities. Running the horsecars on rails allowed for a much smoother ride. There are records of a street railway running in Baltimore as early as 1828, however the first authenticated streetcar in America, was the New York and Harlem Railroad developed by

8988-672: The south side of the traffic circle into a "kinetic park". Previously occupied by bike lockers, the parklet was repaved with 100 PaveGen pavers, which generate electricity when people walk on them. Designers ZGF Architects said the project would rebuild the sidewalk and curbs and add seven granite benches, six bollard bicycle racks, and two flower beds. The pavers were expected to "generate 456.25 kilowatts of energy [ sic ] annually", according to Washington Business Journal , and power lights under each bench. The $ 300,000 project opened in November 2016. The Dupont Circle neighborhood

9095-486: The statue was sculpted by Launt Thompson , and the circle was landscaped with exotic flowers and ornamental trees. Several prominent duPont family members deemed it too insignificant to honor their ancestor, so they secured permission to move the statue to Rockford Park in Wilmington in 1917, and commissioned Henry Bacon and Daniel Chester French to design the fountain that sits in Dupont Circle today. In 1920,

9202-410: The store ran the world's first gay-oriented television commercial. Gentrification accelerated in the 1980s and 1990s, and the area is now a more mainstream and trendy location with coffeehouses , restaurants, bars, fast casual food, and upscale retail stores. Since 1997, a weekly farmers market has operated on 20th Street NW. The area's rowhouses , primarily built before 1900, feature variations on

9309-594: The suburban tramway lines around Milan and Padua ; the last Gamba de Legn ("Peg-Leg") tramway ran on the Milan- Magenta -Castano Primo route in late 1957. The other style of steam tram had the steam engine in the body of the tram, referred to as a tram engine (UK) or steam dummy (US). The most notable system to adopt such trams was in Paris. French-designed steam trams also operated in Rockhampton , in

9416-642: The time. Luxurious Georgian Revival and Beaux-Arts mansions on Massachusetts Avenuewere late inhabited by wealthy and influential Washingtonians. The section between Sheridan Circle and Scott Circle became known as "Millionaires' Row". The Great Depression forced many to relinquish their homes on Millionaires' Row. After World War II , Massachusetts Avenue was seen as less fashionable than newer areas such as upper 16th Street . Many residences were sold and demolished to make way for office buildings, particularly around Dupont Circle and to its east. Many others, however, survived as embassies and society houses;

9523-558: The tracks. Siemens later designed his own version of overhead current collection, called the bow collector . One of the first systems to use it was in Thorold, Ontario , opened in 1887, and it was considered quite successful. While this line proved quite versatile as one of the earliest fully functional electric streetcar installations, it required horse-drawn support while climbing the Niagara Escarpment and for two months of

9630-416: The tram and completing the earth return circuit with their body could receive a serious electric shock. If "grounded", the driver was required to jump off the tram (avoiding simultaneous contact with the tram and the ground) and pull down the trolley pole, before allowing passengers off the tram. Unless derailed, the tram could usually be recovered by running water down the running rails from a point higher than

9737-466: The tram loses electrical contact with the rails. In this event, the underframe of the tram, by virtue of a circuit path through ancillary loads (such as interior lighting), is live at the full supply voltage, typically 600 volts DC. In British terminology, such a tram was said to be 'grounded'—not to be confused with the US English use of the term, which means the exact opposite. Any person stepping off

9844-427: The tram, the water providing a conducting bridge between the tram and the rails. With improved technology, this ceased to be an problem. In the 2000s, several companies introduced catenary-free designs: Alstom's Citadis line uses a third rail, Bombardier's PRIMOVE LRV is charged by contactless induction plates embedded in the trackway and CAF URBOS tram uses ultracaps technology As early as 1834, Thomas Davenport ,

9951-804: The wider term light rail , which also includes systems separated from other traffic. Tram vehicles are usually lighter and shorter than main line and rapid transit trains. Most trams use electrical power, usually fed by a pantograph sliding on an overhead line ; older systems may use a trolley pole or a bow collector . In some cases, a contact shoe on a third rail is used. If necessary, they may have dual power systems—electricity in city streets and diesel in more rural environments. Occasionally, trams also carry freight . Some trams, known as tram-trains , may have segments that run on mainline railway tracks, similar to interurban systems. The differences between these modes of rail transport are often indistinct, and systems may combine multiple features. One of

10058-409: The winter when hydroelectricity was not available. It continued in service in its original form into the 1950s. Sidney Howe Short designed and produced the first electric motor that operated a streetcar without gears. The motor had its armature direct-connected to the streetcar 's axle for the driving force. Short pioneered "use of a conduit system of concealed feed" thereby eliminating

10165-532: The world's first hydrogen fuel cell vehicle tramcar at an assembly facility in Qingdao . The chief engineer of the CSR subsidiary CSR Sifang Co Ltd. , Liang Jianying, said that the company is studying how to reduce the running costs of the tram. Trams have been used for two main purposes: for carrying passengers and for carrying cargo. There are several types of passenger tram: There are two main types of tramways,

10272-401: The world. Earlier electric trains proved difficult or unreliable and experienced limited success until the second half of the 1880s, when new types of current collectors were developed. Siemens' line, for example, provided power through a live rail and a return rail, like a model train , limiting the voltage that could be used, and delivering electric shocks to people and animals crossing

10379-682: Was a case study of the decline of trams in the United States. In the 21st century, trams have been re-introduced in cities where they had been closed down for decades (such as Tramlink in London), or kept in heritage use (such as Spårväg City in Stockholm). Most trams made since the 1990s (such as the Bombardier Flexity series and Alstom Citadis ) are articulated low-floor trams with features such as regenerative braking . In March 2015, China South Rail Corporation (CSR) demonstrated

10486-480: Was being repaired in 1927. In 1933, the National Park Service took over administering the circle, and added sandboxes for children, though these were removed a few years later. Connecticut Avenue was widened in the late 1920s, and increased traffic in the neighborhood caused a great deal of congestion in the circle, making it difficult for pedestrians to get around. Medians were installed in 1948, in

10593-491: Was built by Werner von Siemens who contacted Pirotsky. This was the world's first commercially successful electric tram. It drew current from the rails at first, with overhead wire being installed in 1883. In Britain, Volk's Electric Railway was opened in 1883 in Brighton. This two kilometer line along the seafront, re-gauged to 2 ft  8 + 1 ⁄ 2  in ( 825 mm ) in 1884, remains in service as

10700-487: Was installed as a commercial venture operating between the outer Melbourne suburb of Box Hill and the then tourist-oriented country town Doncaster from 1889 to 1896. Electric systems were also built in Adelaide , Ballarat , Bendigo , Brisbane , Fremantle , Geelong , Hobart , Kalgoorlie , Launceston , Leonora , Newcastle , Perth , and Sydney . By the 1970s, the only full tramway system remaining in Australia

10807-585: Was its most sought-after business address. The two avenues are named Massachusetts and Pennsylvania , two states that played a leading role in securing American independence in the American Revolution and the subsequent Revolutionary War . The historic district is an 81-acre (33 ha) area in Northwest Washington, D.C. that includes 150 contributing buildings and three contributing structures . In 1985, Massachusetts Avenue

10914-400: Was listed on the National Register of Historic Places . It includes multiple properties that are individually listed on the National Register. The main section of Massachusetts Avenue begins at 19th Street Southeast , just to the west of the former District of Columbia General Hospital site and one block north of Congressional Cemetery . At the hospital, Massachusetts Avenue commands

11021-566: Was restarted in 1860, again using horses. It was worked by steam from 1877, and then, from 1929, by very large (106-seat) electric tramcars, until closure in 1960. The Swansea and Mumbles Railway was something of a one-off however, and no street tramway appeared in Britain until 1860 when one was built in Birkenhead by the American George Francis Train . Street railways developed in America before Europe, due to

11128-574: Was tested in San Francisco , in 1873. Part of its success is attributed to the development of an effective and reliable cable grip mechanism, to grab and release the moving cable without damage. The second city to operate cable trams was Dunedin , from 1881 to 1957. The most extensive cable system in the US was built in Chicago in stages between 1859 and 1892. New York City developed multiple cable car lines, that operated from 1883 to 1909. Los Angeles also had several cable car lines, including

11235-635: Was the Melbourne tram system. However, there were also a few single lines remaining elsewhere: the Glenelg tram line , connecting Adelaide to the beachside suburb of Glenelg , and tourist trams in the Victorian Goldfields cities of Bendigo and Ballarat. In recent years the Melbourne system, generally recognised as the largest urban tram network in the world, has been considerably modernised and expanded. The Adelaide line has been extended to

11342-411: Was the cable car, which was pulled along a fixed track by a moving steel cable, the cable usually running in a slot below the street level. The power to move the cable was normally provided at a "powerhouse" site a distance away from the actual vehicle. The London and Blackwall Railway , which opened for passengers in east London, England, in 1840 used such a system. The first practical cable car line

11449-878: Was widely used in London, Washington, D.C., and New York City, and the surface contact collection method, used in Wolverhampton (the Lorain system), Torquay and Hastings in the UK (the Dolter stud system), and in Bordeaux , France (the ground-level power supply system). The convenience and economy of electricity resulted in its rapid adoption once the technical problems of production and transmission of electricity were solved. Electric trams largely replaced animal power and other forms of motive power including cable and steam, in

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