John Stephenson (coachbuilder)

This article is about the person. For the company he founded, see John Stephenson Company.

John Stephenson

John G. Stephenson (1809 in County Armagh, Ireland - 1893 in New Rochelle, N.Y.),[1] an American coachbuilder, invented and patented the first streetcar to run on rails in the United States.[2] Stephenson also designed the New York and Harlem Railroad which was formally opened on 26 November 1832. Twelve days later a horse-drawn streetcar built at Stephenson's works and named John Mason after the president of the railroad company, started the public service.[3][4] Stephenson is therefore remembered as the creator of the tramway.[5] Stephenson was the great-grandfather of Alan Stephenson Boyd, the first United States Secretary of Transportation.

  1. ^ Death of John Stephenson from the New York Times. Retrieved 25 February 2009.
  2. ^ Middleton, William D. (1967). The Time of the Trolley, pp. 13 and 424. Milwaukee: Kalmbach Publishing. ISBN 0-89024-013-2.
  3. ^ John Prentice: Tramway Origins and Pioneers from TramwayInfo.com. Retrieved 25 February 2009.
  4. ^ Streetcars - Cable Cars from About.com Inventors. Retrieved 25 February 2009.
  5. ^ The John Stephenson Car Co. Retrieved 25 February 2009.