Buenos Aires 19 – Streetcar City

It seemed like, no matter the neighbourhood, there were signs of an era past:

Likely, one could guess, there was a significant streetcar system in Buenos Aries.  No kidding.

The Anglo-Argentine Tramways Company, known simply as La Anglo in Argentina, was a large transportation company which operated the vast majority of the largest network trams in Buenos Aires, which was also one of the largest in the world at the time with its 875 km (544 mi) length.

Even a casual reading of BA history reveals the turbulence of streetcar politics in civic government.  Parties campaigned on the issue of the 10 centavo fare, and the role of private companies in providing city services.  Eventually, as in North America, companies pleaded bankruptcy, were bought out, consolidated, nationalized, and then eventually scrapped, with the only evidence of their existence being some steel rail in granite-block streets.

But at its height the system was extraordinary:

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