The Tatum Family
In April 1906, only 10 years after Miami was formally incorporated, the City Council passed an ordinance granting three members of the pioneer Tatum family and several associates the exclusive right to operate a railway over Miami's streets.
July 25, 1906--a single car began running from the old FEC depot near Avenue B and Sixth Street, down Avenue B to 12 Street, then out 12 Street to the FEC crossing at the courthouse. Avenue B is the present NE 2 Avenue, and 12 Street is Flagler Street; so the line served the purpose of linking downtown Miami, such as it was, with the then-outlying FEC station.
On September 3, 1907, the company superintendent announced that service would be suspended so the line could prepare for the coming winter season. Although repairs were supposed to take only a month, the line had carried its last passengers. Miami's first trolley line lasted just one year.
Early in 1915, the Tatums again decided to venture into a field of public transportation. Again, the streetcar was to be the vehicle, and the route would basically be the same. Work on the new system began in 1915, but it was late in 1917 before cars were running the length of the line. This line, unlike its predecessor, used battery-powered cars rather than an overhead trolley system for power.
The car barn was also located near the ball park, standing at Ninth Street and Avenue U. It accommodated the six cars that comprised the system. Early in 1920, the barn was the scene of a disastrous fire that wiped out the entire fleet. Faced with the prospect of an expensive re-equipping of the line, the Company managed to stall for a year before it officially decided to leave the transportation field.
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 Carl Fisher
During 1920, the Miami Beach Electric Co. with Carl Fisher as president, built a single-track line across the County Causeway to Miami Beach. Ten small streetcars, known as Birney safety cars and seating 28 passengers, were delivered to the Electric Company in September 1919. The car barn was situated near the east end of the causeway where the power house now stands.
Early in December the company began running tests at various points over the line, and on December 13, 1920, the first car completed a round trip between Miami and Miami Beach. Shortly before noon on December 18, regular electric railway service was incorporated between the two cities.
Meanwhile, on the west side of the bay, Miami's city fathers were not blind to the success of the Miami Beach Electric Railway Co. Miami had been without local trolley service since the demise of the battery line early in 1920. Late in 1921, the city began negotiations to buy the franchise of the Miami Traction Company. The city ordered eight new streetcars similar to the ten operated by the Beach Company. On January 3, 1922, the agreement was signed, and the city of Miami now owned a trolley system.
Local streetcar operation in Miami proper returned to the city on January 7, 1922 with two safety cars running on a 20-minute headway. In March, 1924, the Miami Beach Electric Railway Company and its rail subsidiary were sold to the American Power and Light Company.
By 1925 the Florida boom was wide open. Miles of new track were built both in Miami and on the Beach. In 1924 and 1925, the city bought 27 more streetcars, now owning a total of 39. The original single-track line across the causeway had been double tracked in 1925-26, and 12 large deluxe cars arrived just in time to inaugurate service on the improved lines.
In 1925 and 1926, the Miami Railway Company was operating 50 buses on a less heavily traveled line.
On April 30, 1924, William Jennings Bryan, the silver-tongued orator, made a speech extolling the streetcar as "the apostle of democracy."
Seaboard Depot Line--Service for this line began on January 4, 1928 and ended on May 20, 1928, less than five months after it opened with such high hopes.
One final route, which lasted somewhat longer, operated along Ponce de Leon Boulevard in Coral Gables to the University of Miami, then south along the present Magnolia Street to Sunset Drive in South Miami. This service, which began on November 18, 1926, and was operated principally for students at the university and at old Ponce de Leon High, lasted until 1931.
By 1935, the Coral Gables Municipal Railway was operating only the Coral Way high-speed line, and even this line was only a shadow of its original glory. Only four of the 20 trolleys the city owned were required to maintain service on the line.
On November 4, 1935, an unexpected hurricane touched down in Miami. Much of the overhead wire on the Coral Way line was destroyed. The city of Coral Gables, which had contemplated replacing its last trolley line with buses anyway, decided that the estimated $7,500 for repairs was too much.
By the '30s the city had begun to spread beyond its original boundaries, and now buses and jitneys were siphoning off the long-haul traffic. School cars were still popular, carrying students to Miami High in the morning and home in the afternoon.
Early victims of the depression were the local beach lines on Alton Road, Washington Avenue, and Sheridan/Pine Tree. By 1933, the last of these had been replaced by buses, and only the original intercity causeway line still operated between Miami and the Beach.
In 1934, the Kiwanis Club spearheaded a campaign to rid Miami of streetcars and modernize the city transit system. The newspaper took up the cry. On the afternoon of October 17, 1939, only hours after receiving official permission, the last trolleys rolled across the causeway, ending the service that had begun nearly 20 years before. In the rush hour the next morning, 30 buses seating 23 passengers each were required to handle the loads that the 12 trolleys, carrying 48 passengers each, had handled the morning before.
On October 8, 1940, a special election granted the Miami Transit Company the authority to run buses throughout the city. The final conversions were set for November, and on the afternoon of November 14, a gala parade, celebrating the passing of the trolley, rolled through downtown Miami. On the unusually cold night of November 16, 1940, the last trolleys rolled along Miami's streets.
Finally, it is interesting to note that initial proposals for the present-day Miami-Dade County Metrorail system called for early construction of a line across MacArthur Causeway through south Miami Beach, following almost the identical route taken by Carl Fisher's little trolleys that morning of December 18, 1920.
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< 1990s
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