The automobile bottleneck on Centre Street and Loudon Road wasn't the first traffic jam in Concord, as this photo of electric streetcars operated by the Concord Street Railway reveals. This picture, from the collection of antiquarian Earl Burroughs, shows the streetcars at the intersection of Main and Pleasant streets in the 1890s. This might not even have been Concord's first traffic jam; 19th-century memoirs say that Main Street was often jammed with freight wagons. Old-timer Abiel Rolfe counted 50 at one time on a summer day in the early 1800s.
The Concord Street Railways operated streetcars over 11 miles of track and, in 1902, carried 2,500 riders a day. A determined traveler could transfer to the Manchester Street Railway in Hooksett and, through transfers and exchanges, ride all the way to Boston on electric streetcars. The trip would take five hours and cost 95 cents, a significant sum in a time when an average daily salary would not exceed $1.
The Concord Historical Society explores the railroad's influence on Concord in “Crosscurrents of Change,” the history of Concord in the 20th century. Publication is scheduled for later this year.
