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Circa 1907. "Fourth Street, Cincinnati, Ohio." Where the brands vying for your trade include Mullane and Wurlitzer. 8x10 glass negative. View full size.
Cincinnatti was unique in many ways with their streetcar system. Other than the dual poles, it's worth noting how wide the gauge between the rails is. Though it's assumed this was to make it easy for horse drawn carriages also use the tracks as a guide, the truth is less...well interesting. When the trolley lines were under construction, it was feared that freight trains might end up on the street lines. To avoid this, all Cincy trolley tracks were built to a wider gauge, being 5 feet between the rails, while freight and other railroads used the "standard" gauge of 4 feet 8.5 inches.
This is one of those views of Cincinnati where most of the buildings still stand (at least on the north side of the street). The classical Third National Bank is gone, but most of the rest of what can be seen is still there - the next building down was a TJ Maxx until recently, after that is a Quiznos and Bang and Olufsen now, The "German National Bank" on the corner is now a Starbucks, the tall building in the foreground is the Ingalls Building and still partially occupied by a local Gyro storefront, and the Bartlett Building (tall building in the background) was recently renovated and turned into a rather nice hotel.
Cincinnati was one of a handful of cities that forbade their streetcar lines from using the running rails for ground return of electricity. The theory was that stray currents from the rails would follow underground water and gas pipes causing corrosive electrolysis of the pipes. So, a second trolley wire was installed above the track parallel to the positive wire.
Hence, two trolley poles on each car.
I had wondered about Mullane Candy and found a video that I think is rather interesting.
http://www.cincinnatimagazine.com/citywiseblog/cincinnati-vintage-candy-...
A Florida candy company uses a machine from Mullane's to make candy.
Mullane's closed up in the 80's.
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