page_title: Interurban
section_title: Growth
hierarchical_section_title: Interurban / History / Growth
caption_attribution_description: A postcard from the Ken Levin Toledo Postcard Collection, donated by Toledo resident, Ken Levin. The collection contains picture postcards about the Toledo area. Mr. Levin's collection was published by the Toledo Blade in a book entitled "You Will Do Better in Toledo: From Frogtown to Glass City", edited by Sandy and John R. Husman.
context_page_description: The interurban is a type of electric railway, with streetcar-like light electric self-propelled railcars which run within and between cities or towns. They were prevalent in North America between 1900 and 1925 and were used primarily for passenger travel between cities and their surrounding suburban and rural communities. Large networks have also been built in countries such as Japan, the Netherlands, Belgium and Poland, many of which survive to the present day. Interurban as a term encompassed the companies, their infrastructure, and the cars that ran on the rails.
  The interurban, especially in the United States, was a valuable cultural institution. Most roads and town streets were unpaved, and transportation was by horse-drawn carriages and carts. The interurban provided vital transportation links between the city and countryside. In 1915, 15,500 miles of interurban railways were operating in the United States. For a time, interurban railways were the fifth-largest industry in the United States. By 1930, most interurbans in North America were gone, with few surviving into the 1950s.
context_section_description: From 1900 to 1916, a large network of interurban lines was constructed in the United States, particularly in the states of Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Iowa, Utah, and California. In 1900, 2,107 miles (3,391 km) of interurban track existed, but by 1916, this had increased to 15,580 miles (25,070 km), a seven-fold expansion. During this expansion, in the regions where they operated, particularly in Ohio and Indiana,  "...they almost destroyed the local passenger service of the steam railroad." To show how exceptionally busy the interurbans radiating from Indianapolis were in 1926, the immense Indianapolis Traction Terminal (nine roof covered tracks and loading platforms) scheduled 500 trains in and out daily and moved 7 million passengers that year. At their peak the interurbans were the fifth-largest industry in the United States.
caption: Interurban Station and Superior Street, Toledo, Ohio
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