|
Posted by
Olog-hai
on Wed Aug 12 09:42:21 2020, in response to Seattle's Queen Anne Counterbalance Streetcar, posted by heypaul on Wed Aug 12 08:33:39 2020.
The old counterbalance streetcars passed into history not with a whimper, but with what was described as "a cross between an earthquake and a cyclone". On August 11, 1940, a "mob of 70 Queen Anne youths" chose to celebrate the final run of the old streetcar at 1:30 a.m. by storming the trolley, "smashing windows and seats and pelting passengers and operators with fruit and vegetables." They had greased the tracks and stacked garbage cans to force it to stop. Then they jumped on, broke every window and tossed seats into the street. They "routed" the other 40 passengers and threw corn cobs and tomatoes at them. Inspector Wiley, riding on the last run, said they "swarmed over the top of the car," rocked the car and cut the trolley rope.
Wiley struggled with the mob for 15 minutes before he could get the car rolling again. It was an empty hulk when it finally limped back to the car barns. The Seattle Times ran a front-page editorial headlined "Mob Violence!" which said, "There is no excuse, no extenuation for such riotous demonstrations. The fact that the car had served its usefulness and was to be retired had nothing to do with the mob’s responsibility for its act" ("Mob Violence!"). Police later rounded up 20 youths, almost all from Queen Anne Hill, on vandalism charges. The head of the Seattle Transportation Commission said he was aware that youths had been planning some revelry around the farewell rides, "but we didn't think anybody would touch our poor old Queen Anne trolleys"…
Looks like they had problems with Antifa back then too.
|
