Because there seems to be so much misunderstanding about and under-appreciation of the role transit once played, and by extension, could still play, in the development and the quality of life of the city of Minneapolis in general and the ECCO and CARAG neighborhoods in particular, here is a brief history pulled together from several sources.

Minneapolis' transit system was founded almost single-handedly by Thomas Lowry, whose beautiful early-Deco style statue is ignored by thousands daily as they drive by the intersection of Hennepin Ave and 24th St (If you've never seen it up close, it's well worth checking out. On foot, please.) In 1875, Lowry and several other local bigwigs, (including Col. William King, who founded both the city's park system and the Minneapolis, now the Star, Tribune) were granted a franchise by the city council to begin a horse-drawn trolley system. Typical for the time, it was to be financed entirely by private investors, without the use of public funds. Local moneybags were not especially keen on the idea, however (sound familiar?), and Lowry had to seek investors from all over the country. He pledged his own wealth and credit to back the original loans and went on to build a street railway system that one source calls "unsurpassed by any in the country". The company itself rarely paid its investors dividends, (try this today, folks) preferring instead to put its profits into expanding the lines and improving service.

The first line connected Minneapolis' main railway station with the U of M, passing through the center of town and running from 5AM to 11PM. Service began September 2, 1875. But Lowry had bigger plans. He saw transit as the foundation of the future development of the city and began expanding lines far beyond the settled areas of what is now the downtown. "He believed in constructing in advance of the population and waiting for the traffic to follow", as one source puts it. And nearby pleasure spot Lake Calhoun was one of the first on the list. In 1879 a steam driven excursion line was built by Col. King from Nicollet Avenue and first street south to 31st street then west to the Lake where the line veered south along the east shore to end at 34th street. Somewhere along the line between 33 and 34th street and west of Humboldt maintenance shops went up and at 35th street the three story "King's Pavillion" (later known as the Lyndale Hotel) was built with a scenic view of a nearly totally undeveloped Lake Calhoun. A steamboat called the Hattie was added to ferry passengers and freight across the lake. The next year the line was extended to Lake Harriet, which immediately became the favorite playground of city residents, causing a "third rush hour" home on summer evenings at ten p.m. when boating, swimming and concerts ended.

Today, the last little bit of what was once the mighty TCRT still connects the two lakes and an exquisitely refurbished electric trolley runs every fifteen minutes during summer days. If you've never ridden it, catch it sometime, it's great. The trolley is run by volunteers of the Minnesota Transportation Museum, who also run an equally refurbished steamboat that once carried streetcar passengers across Lake Minnetonka. (For more info call 228 0263). (By the way, the Transportation Museum, more than any other group, is responsible for keeping the dream of the Twin Cities' once great transit system alive and their books provided much of the info for this article. They're well illustrated and you can buy them at their depots at both lakes.) Plans are seriously being considered to extend the line from where it ends now on the southeast corner of Lake Calhoun to the Refrectory at Lake Street. In 1884 a line was extended from Lyndale Avenue, west on 27th street and south on Dupont to 45th street, the first line into what is now the CARAG neighborhood. The horsedrawn line was abandoned a few years later and replaced by a new electrified line down Bryant Ave to 38th street in 1891. In the 1920's a bus line began running from 36th north on Hennepin to the downtown. The conversion of the trolley system from horse drawn to electric took place by an 1890 edict from the city council. The technology had been introduced only a few years earlier and the change put Minneapolis and St.Paul in the vanguard of transit technology. The conversion took two years and doubled the distance of trolley lines, extending them, as before "into new areas where no previous settlement existed" well beyond the ECCO and Carag neighborhoods. It cost $6,000,000, over twice the original estimate, all as before from private investment and more than total state tax revenues for 1891, which totalled $4,382,412.63. The funding was secured by connecting for the first time the separate Minneapolis and St.Paul lines and merging the companies into the new Twin City Rapid Transit company, now serving nearly half a million people. And, as before, its public-spirited board of directors plowed its profits back into improving and expanding service.

In 1888 there were over 69 miles of horse drawn trolleys in service.  By 1893 they had been replaced by over 199 miles of new, state of the art electric trolley lines. By 1916 there were 437 miles in operation. As Lowry expected, development followed the transit lines; apartments sprang up near them, businesses went up at transit intersections and homes filled the spaces between. The lines soon became the warp and woof that defined the very fabric of city life, a pattern still clear today. Hennepin and Lake, Lyndale and Lake and even Linden Hills' shopping district all began as transit intersections. The multiple instersections along Lake Street made it the major shopping street in Minneapolis.