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American Cities Teemed With Horses

From 1840 to 1890, so many people settled out West that in 1890 the federal government said that the region could no longer be classified as a frontier. From 1860 to 1910, despite the fact that millions of settlers had left the cities, these urban centers, with their entertainment, shopping, and work opportunities, continued to grow at a phenomenal rate. In 1860, only one American in four lived in a city. By 1890, one in three did. And by 1910, nearly half of all Americans lived in a city. And just as the horse was essential to life in the West, it dominated the nation's urban areas as well.

American cities teemed with horses. Private citizens rode to and from work and carried out their errands on horseback. Many policemen patrolled their beats astride their mounts. Horse-drawn delivery wagons, peddlers' carts, fire engines, ambulances, cabs, and private carriages clogged the city streets. Every well-todo residence had its own stable and carriage house. Public stables, blacksmith shops, hitching posts, and watering troughs abounded.

From the time that cities began to grow, inhabitants needed some form of public transportation. The earliest solution was a horse-drawn vehicle called an omnibus. First used in London and Paris, the omnibus made its initial American appearance in New York City in 1831. By 1844, Philadelphia, Boston, and Baltimore all had their own bustling omnibus lines. The omnibus became so popular that in New York one of these passenger-filled vehicles made its way past City Hall every 15 seconds.

The earliest omnibuses resembled stagecoaches. But soon, longer and narrower vehicles were built, which made them look more like modern buses. Teams of two to six horses pulled them. The word "Omnibus" was written on each side of the vehicle. Borrowing from the stagecoach, omnibuses were decorated with brightly painted scenes on their sides. Fringed curtains adorned their windows.

Traveling on an omnibus was far from an enjoyable experience, however. The buses were always overcrowded with passengers who bumped into each other and stepped on each other's feet. Many of the early city streets were paved with cobblestones, and riders were jarred and thrown about as the buses moved along the uneven surfaces. "The arrangements for shooting passengers out into the mud are unsurpassed," wrote the New York Tribune. In addition, the harried drivers were often surly, and quarrels with passengers were common. "Modern martyrdom may be succinctly defined as riding in a New York omnibus," the New York Herald, 1835

Even more serious was the danger the omnibus presented to other city traffic. As drivers from rival companies raced across city streets in order to beat each other to waiting passengers, private carriages, delivery wagons, and pedestrians were apt to get caught between them, causing injury and even death. "A ferocious spirit," wrote yet another newspaper, "appears to have taken possession of the drivers, which defies law and delights in destruction."

As omnibus travel became increasingly popular and yet more difficult and dangerous, transit owners began to search for a more comfortable and less hazardous way of moving people around the city. They found their inspiration in the earliest railroads, which, in 1830, were just being developed. Rails provided a far smoother ride than did rough street surfaces. Traveling over rails also meant the route was set, rather than haphazard, as it was with the omnibuses.

From this example set by the railroads emerged the horsecar, an omnibus-type vehicle pulled by horses over rails set into city streets. John Mason, one of New York's wealthiest citizens, established the first horsecar line in the United States. Mason hired stagecoach builder John Stephenson to design and construct his horsecars, which were highly decorated and featured cast-iron wheels. "They resemble an omnibus, or rather several omnibuses attached to each other," reported the Morning Courier, "padded with fine cloth and with handsome glass windows, each capable of containing outside and inside fully forty passengers."

The first run on Mason's line, which he named the New York and Harlem Railroad, occurred on November 14, 1832, before a large group of spectators. The New York Enquirer reported:

Officials of The New York and Harlem Railroad with Mayor Walter Browne and others of distinction left the City Hall in carriages to deposit near Union Square where two splendid cars, each with two horses, were in waiting. The company was soon seated and the horses trotted off in handsome style, with great ease, at the rate of about 12 miles, followed by a group of private [carriages] and horsemen. Groups of spectators greeted the passengers of the cars with shouts and every window in the Bowery was filled.

This initial horsecar trip so impressed Mayor Browne that upon its completion he stated, "This event will go down in history as the greatest achieve ment of man." It was, of course, an exaggeration but also an indication of the widespread acceptance that the horsecar would quickly gain. By 1835, a horsecar line had been established in New Orleans. In the early 1850s, other lines were operating in New York City.

By 1859, the vehicles filled the streets of such cities as Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, Denver, Baltimore, and Cleveland. A report issued in 1881 proclaimed that 415 horsecar lines, consisting of some 3,000 miles of track, were flourishing throughout the United States. More than 100,000 horses pulled the 18,000 cars involved in these operations.

The horsecar lines created a new problem for the other vehicles. Omnibus operators, many of whom kept their lines operating long after the horsecars appeared, complained that horsecar tracks obstructed the movement of their buses. Drivers of delivery wagons and other horse-drawn conveyances were also upset. Private citizens who daily traveled the city streets on horseback added their voices to the protests.

The tracks caused many injuries and deaths to both animals and humans when horses slid on the slippery tracks or caught their hooves between the rails. Outraged drivers sometimes deliberately brought their horses to a halt across the tracks to block the path of the horsecar. Many accidents resulted. "In New York City they kill one person each week on city railroads and mangle three or four on an average in the same space of time. Human life is really of little value these days," stated the New York Sunday Dispatch.

Nevertheless, horsecars continued to attract a growing number of passengers. More horses were needed to keep the lines moving along. Companies carefully selected these horses. The age of the animals was a prime factor. Most companies avoided using young horses because they were too frisky to pull the cars along at a steady pace. And they avoided older horses because it was difficult to change their ways and teach them to make smooth stops and starts and to remain unfazed in the midst of the tumultuous city traffic - skills vital to horsecar hauling. Also, many companies used only gray horses, convinced that they could withstand summer heat better than animals of a different color.

Because the horses were by far the most expensive part of any horsecar operation, they were treated with care. Fresh animals took over every four or five hours. Back in the stable, they were groomed, watered, and fed hay and grain three times a day, along with treats such as oats and carrots. In all, they ate about 30 pounds of food every day. Every horsecar stable employed its own veterinarian, who kept the animals healthy.

Although the omnibus and the horsecar were the most common means of urban public transportation, there was another, less crowded, considerably more expensive way to move about the city. This was a hansom cab, what we would today call a taxi.

The use of hansom cabs (invented by Joseph A. Hansome) dates back to Paris in the late 1600s. There, an enterprising Frenchman named Nicholas Savage began charging people a modest fare to transport them from one place to another. Hansom cabs first appeared in the United States in 1829 when Ephraim Dodge established a cab service between Boston and South Boston. A ride cost 12 1/2 cents.

By the 1840s, hansom cabs operated in many American cities, but they were most common in Boston and New York. This vehicle was a light, usually elegantly appointed buggy-type conveyance. It was so light, in fact, that a passenger had to climb aboard carefully to keep the cab from tipping over. A single horse, meticulously groomed, pulled the cab. Wealthy citizens used hansom cabs most often, because they were much more expensive to ride in than omnibuses or horsecars. A young man, out on a date, might splurge on a cab ride in order to impress his companion.

The heyday of the hansom cab has long since passed. But in many cities, such as Charleston, South Carolina, Savannah, Georgia, New York, and Boston, there are still horsedrawn carriages in operation that provide sightseers and fun-seekers with leisurely trips through parks, to historic sites, and to other places of interest. Many people ride in them to get a sense of what it was like to travel in an age gone by.

Martin W. Sandler. . Oxford University Press. 2003.

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