Madison was first connected with the rest of the state by rail in 1854. Within the city, our first public transportation was streetcars drawn by mules, which started operation in 1884. Thirty passenger trains and twenty-three freight trains served Madison each day in 1915. By 1916 Madison had fifteen miles of streetcar lines including two routes that ran east from the square. These streetcars were electric and ran on tracks embedded in the streets.

Two pairs of tracks circled Capitol Square starting in 1905. From there, one eastbound route was built down King Street and served the Williamson Street neighborhood, then went clear down Atwood to Fair Oaks where the streetcar garage was located. The other route followed North Hamilton to East Johnson as far as Baldwin Street. It then turned up the hill on Baldwin and proceeded across E. Wash taking workers to the Gisholt factory, a major employer located in the 1300 block of E. Washington and to several other factories in the same area.

Around the same time Madison also had a small private bus company that ran between Maple Bluff (then known as Lakewood) and the Square via Sherman Avenue. Between 1911 and 1916, tracks for an interurban train line were laid down East Washington Avenue to Milwaukee Street, and another track reached down Monona Drive as far as Dean Avenue. Four cars were purchased for this interurban line, but financing fell through and the trains never ran. Children played in the abandoned train cars until the whole setup was removed in 1920.

In 1915, the speed limit on city streets was 15 mph. Past schools, in parks, and in cemeteries it was 8 mph. Vehicles were not to be left unattended more than fifteen minutes along Capitol Park on the Square and in various other locations downtown. Motorists were to stop when horses were frightened, and no one was to drive while intoxicated.

One way streets date back to 1925-1927, first set up by Police Chief Frank Trostle, but Johnson Street and Gorham Street both ran two ways until the 1960s. In the original plat, Gorham Street simply ended at Few Street. Johnson Street crossed the Yahara River and continued east. In 1961, a Madison Area Transportation Study analyzed traffic and set forth a plan for traffic in and around Madison that included making Gorham and Johnson a primary arterial pair across the Isthmus.

East Washington up to Blair Street was designated a second primary arterial. This plan was intended to be good until 1985. In accordance with the plan, in the late 60s Gorham Street was given a one-block diagonal extension across an old orchard in the 1200 block so it could connect with Johnson Street at Baldwin. Gorham was made one-way westbound and Johnson became one-way eastbound as we know them today.

On Johnson Street some old business signs, such as the one painted on the side of the building at 836 E. Johnson, can be found facing the other way because they were intended to be read by traffic formerly traveling west. By this time the city bus system connected Madison with a single hub at the Capitol Square. East Johnson and East Mifflin Streets each had bus routes -- the one on East Mifflin ran straight up to the square because the one-way portion of Mifflin in front of today's Cafe Montmartre and the YWCA had not yet been closed off.

Westbound, this bus went as far as Hilldale on the edge of the growing city. The bus company in those days was a private firm and remained so until 1968. The same 1961 traffic plan set forth the routes for the Monona Causeway (now John Nolen Drive) and Northport Drive. It mandated Packers Avenue as we now know it, built to serve the busy Oscar Mayer plant. We are still living with the basic traffic pattern set forth in this 1961 transportation study, though its 25-year lifespan has long since expired and traffic has increased far beyond its 1961 flow. We still have city buses as in 1968, we still have no interurban trains, and we still have a trickle of freight trains though no passenger service. I'll be back with an update in ten years. -

-Mary Pulliam

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