Montgomery, Alabama

For exactly 50 years, the city of Montgomery, Alabama operated a municipal streetcar system under the name Capitol City Street Railway Company. Dubbed the "Lightning Route," this system was the first city-wide application of electric streetcars in the United States. This early public transportation system made Montgomery one of the first cities to depopulate its central residential areas through transportation-facilitated suburban development. Developed in 1886, the system operated until 1936 when it was replaced by municipal buses.