Washington Traction and Electric Company

The Washington Railway and Electric Company was the larger of the two major street railway companies in Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States, until 1933. At that time, it was merged with its main competitor, the Capital Traction Company, to form the Capital Transit Company. The WR&E's core was the Metropolitan Railroad, the second street railway in Washington, which had a main line zigzagging north of Pennsylvania Avenue on streets including F Street North, and it included many other lines in the city and into Maryland suburbs.

Congress passed a law incorporating the Metropolitan Railroad on July 1, 1864, two years after the Washington and Georgetown Railroad. The W&G had been assigned a route largely along Pennsylvania Avenue, one of the major diagonal streets in downtown Washington. The Metropolitan's route roughly paralleled this, but was longer, since it had to zigzag on north-south and east-west streets. The route began at the north side of the Capitol, heading northwest on New Jersey Avenue, west on D Street North (and C Street North and Indiana Avenue for eastbound cars), north on Fifth Street West, and west on F Street North to Fourteenth Street West near the White House. Beyond the intersection of F and 14th Streets, the railroad was authorized to continue north on 14th Street to I Street North, turning west to Washington Circle. However, it did not build on I Street, instead turning west off 14th Street onto H Street North to 17th Street West, part of a route - the rest of which was not built - that continued east on H Street and Massachusetts Avenue and south on New Jersey Avenue. The same law authorized a north-south line on Ninth Street West between B Street North and M Street North, among other streets.

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