The Columbus Horsecar System - 1863-1892

History     The Companies      Stables & Car Houses     1872 Critique

The Horsecar Driver     The Horse     Photo Gallery

     The Columbus, Ohio, horsecar era started in 1863 with a  line from the Columbus Union Depot on North High Street past the new State Capital building at Broad and High Streets to South High at Mound Street , a distance of about one and a half miles.  The beginning of the end for the horse cars came in 1888 with the start of electrification and it was all over by 1892 with the conversion of the last horsecar line, the Oak Street line, to electrified streetcars.

     The horsecar era lasted 29 years.  During that time the Columbus population grew from 18,000 to 90,000.  The horsecars make it possible for Columbus to grow beyond a comfortable walking distance from the central commercial area located on High Street giving rise to the streetcar suburbs.  That first 1863 line grew from approximately 1.5 miles to multiple routes encompassing two streetcar companies (The Columbus Consolidated Street Railway Co. and the Glenwood and Green Lawn Railway Company) with a total of 34.5 miles.  That original High Street line remained the core of the system with most new routes radiating east or west from High Street.  The horsecar lines established the basic route layout for the electric street railway that followed in the 1890s. 

     This section of the web site gives the reader a view of horse drawn street railways in Columbus, Ohio, during the last half of the 19th century.