page_title: Transportation in metropolitan Detroit
section_title: 1805–1928
hierarchical_section_title: Transportation in metropolitan Detroit / History / 1805–1928
caption_attribution_description: English: Woodward Avenue
context_page_description: Transportation in metropolitan Detroit is provided by a system of transit services, airports, and an advanced network of freeways which interconnect the city of Detroit and the Detroit region. The Michigan Department of Transportation administers the region's network of major roads and freeways. The region offers mass transit with bus services provided jointly by the Detroit Department of Transportation and the Suburban Mobility Authority for Regional Transportation through a cooperative service and fare agreement administered by the Regional Transit Authority. Cross border service between the downtown areas of Windsor and Detroit is provided by Transit Windsor via the Tunnel Bus. A monorail system, known as the People Mover, operates daily through a 2.94 mile loop in the downtown area. A proposed SEMCOG Commuter Rail could link New Center, Dearborn, Detroit Metropolitan Airport, and Ann Arbor with access to DDOT and SMART buses. Amtrak's current passenger facility is north of downtown in the New Center area. Amtrak provides service to Detroit, operating its Wolverine service between Chicago, Illinois, and Pontiac.
context_section_description: The period from 1800 to 1929 was one of considerable growth of the city, from 1,800 people in 1820 to 1.56 million in 1930 (2.3 million for the metropolitan area). During this period, a new road system had been created in 1805, a regional rail network was constructed, a thriving streetcar network developed and an emerging global motorcar industry was established in the city.
  In 1805, five new radial avenues (Woodward, Michigan, Grand River, Gratiot, and Jefferson) were constructed in the city as part of a new city plan drawn up by Augustus Woodward following a devastating fire in the city earlier the same year.
  Over land the Sauk Trail, a Native American trail which ran through Michigan, Illinois and Indiana, connected Detroit with Sauk Village, Illinois, and Chicago; in 1820 it was described as a 'plain horse path, which is considerably traveled by traders, hunters, and others' but one which not possible for someone unfamiliar with the route to follow without a guide.
  Congress passed an act to construct a new Chicago Road from Detroit to supply Fort Dearborn in Chicago; surveying began in 1825 however financial shortfalls resulted in the road mostly following the path of the Sauk Trail which military couriers were already using. By 1835, daily stage coach departures run by the Western Stage Company traveled all the way from Chicago to Detroit on a multi-day trip whose travel time was dependent on how bad the road was at the particular season.
  The Erie Canal, which had first been proposed in 1807, opened in 1825 and greatly improved access to Detroit and other Michigan ports from Europe and the eastern seaboard. From Detroit, settlers were able to use the Chicago Road and other land routes. Land sales in Detroit reached a peak in that year with 92,232 acres (373.25 km²) being sold.
  A charter for the Detroit and Pontiac Railroad was granted in 1830 to link Detroit with Pontiac; however, it was not until 1843 that the line was completed and operation started from a station at Jefferson and Woodward Avenue. Plans for a railway line to St. Joseph, Michigan and then on to Chicago by boat were outlined in 1930, and after a number of funding problems, the line reached Dexter ten years later and Kalamazoo, Michigan in 1846 when the Michigan Central Railroad was formed to progress the work faster and replace faulty rails that had already installed. The new company decided to create a line all the way to Chicago (via New Buffalo rather than St. Joseph), which they completed by 1852.
  In January 1863, a Syracuse, New York-based firm gave a $5,000 deposit which created the Detroit City Railway Company, which was followed by an ordinance which was passed in May 1863 awarded a 30-year franchise to the DCRC for the construction of a horse-drawn streetcar system in the city; construction started in June and services were available to the public starting August 4 on Jefferson (from the Michigan Central depot at 3rd to Elmwood Street), August 27 on Woodward (from Jefferson to Adams), September 12 on Gratiot (to Russell Street) and November 25 on Michigan (to Thompson Street (later 12th Street, now Rosa Parks Boulevard)) (note: west of 8th Street, Michigan Avenue was named Chicago Road until 1867). By the end of the year, services were operating along Jefferson (which had been extended on October 1 to the then-city limits at Mount Elliott), Woodward (extended in October to Alexandrine Street), Gratiot and Michigan. Other companies were also established on other streets (the first being the Fort Street & Elmwood Avenue Railway Company which operated the city's first crosstown car line from the then-city limits west of Porter Road (present-day 24th Street), to downtown along Fort Street, then out along Michigan Grand Avenue (present-day Cadillac Square), Randolph and Croghan Street (present-day Monroe Street) to the Elmwood Cemetery) and business was brisk, by 1875; the Detroit City Railway Company alone carried 2.9 million passengers on their four lines. The first electric streetcars started operation on September 1, 1886, along Dix Street (
caption: Streetcars on Woodward Avenue, circa 1900s
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