Manhattan elevated railway, cable car and streetcar system, 1899 theater posters As late as World War

As late as World War II

and weren't a millionaire who owned one of those newfangled automobile gizmos

it would've converted the existing streetcar lines to monorail and elevated them above the streets

I apologize in advance to Ta-Nehisi Coates

but everything else

Manhattan elevated railway, cable car and streetcar system, 1899 theater posters As late as World WarIn 1899, Manhattan was dirty, overcrowded, and booming as immigrants flooded the shores of the New World looking to start a better life. The electric trolley had been recently invented, but its superiority over the older manual cable car, which you can still see in San Francisco, wasn't apparent yet. The elevated railroads, so key to the city's expansion, had not yet been converted to electric operation. In this map, the NYC transit system looks an