Flashback Friday: Horsecar

Milwaukee pioneer George Walker, launched the city’s first horsecar line in 1859. The horsecars moved at 6 miles per hour and cost anywhere from $6 to $7 a day to operate.

Lack of speed, equine epidemics, cost and mountains of manure drove the invention of a new form of transportation: an electric streetcar. Charles Van Depoele introduced electrified transit as a more permanent and cost efficient solution.

A number of electric trolley systems emerged, and in January 1896 they were consolidated into The Milwaukee Electric Railway & Light Co. (TMER&L Co.), forerunner of today’s We Energies.