St. Charles Streetcar Line

About this audio guide

This guide to the St. Charles Streetcar Line in New Orleans opens on the morning in February 1893 when electric cars replaced the mules that had pulled them for decades along Saint Charles Avenue. It follows the small rituals that grew up around the line over the following century: fathers timing children's rides to buy themselves an hour alone, motormen running errands for regulars, and a conductor who once stood at a rider's funeral. None of these customs were ever written into a transit rulebook; they simply repeated until they hardened into habit.