Search
- Lithograph Advertising Belding Bros. & Co. Silk Thread, "Sectional View of Cable Street Cars," circa 1880 - This print shows a cutaway of Chicago City Railways' State Street cable car line. In the 1880s Chicago transit companies invested heavily in cable railways, but most had switched to electric streetcars by 1900. Belding Brothers, a leading manufacturer of silk thread, put the strong fiber to work pulling cable cars-but most transit companies eventually settled on cheap, sturdy wire rope.

- circa 1880
- Collections - Artifact
Lithograph Advertising Belding Bros. & Co. Silk Thread, "Sectional View of Cable Street Cars," circa 1880
This print shows a cutaway of Chicago City Railways' State Street cable car line. In the 1880s Chicago transit companies invested heavily in cable railways, but most had switched to electric streetcars by 1900. Belding Brothers, a leading manufacturer of silk thread, put the strong fiber to work pulling cable cars-but most transit companies eventually settled on cheap, sturdy wire rope.