Rock Creek Railway

Two Rock Creek Railway electric streetcars sit at 18th and U Streets, the line's original Washington, D.C. terminus, in 1893.[1]
The Rock Creek Railway streetcar line is shown on this 1897 map of property owned by the Chevy Chase Land Company.

The Rock Creek Railway, which operated independently from 1890 to 1895, was one of the first electric streetcar companies in Washington, D.C., and the first to extend into Maryland.

Created to increase the value of land owned by the Chevy Chase Land Company, the railroad began service in 1890. By 1893, it stretched more than seven miles from the Cardoza/Shaw neighborhood of D.C. to Coquelin Run in Maryland. The trip from Chevy Chase to downtown took about 35 minutes.[2]

In 1895, the railroad purchased the Washington and Georgetown Railroad Company and changed its name to the Capital Traction Company, which would become one of the two major streetcar companies that operated in and around Washington, D.C., in the early decades of the 20th century. The line fostered the development of several neighborhoods of northwest Washington, D.C., and suburban Maryland.

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference :4 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ "A Streetcar City". National Museum of American History. 2017-02-28. Archived from the original on 2023-09-26. Retrieved 2023-09-26.