[Street car on Bridgeport and Stratford Horse Railroad. Conn. 1892]

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A horsecar on the Bridgeport and Stratford Horse Railroad in Connecticut is the subject here, captured in 1892, the year the line was still running on animal power. Horsecars were the everyday transit of many American towns in that era, with a driver and a team of horses hauling passengers along iron rails laid into city streets. By the 1890s, electric trolleys were spreading quickly and would soon replace most horse-drawn lines, so a picture like this records transportation at a turning point. The print is part of the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, and it gives a useful glimpse of how a small Connecticut town moved its residents before the trolley era took hold.

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