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- Soonish
- Publisher |
- Hub & Spoke
- Media Type |
- audio
- Publication Date |
- Nov 09, 2018
- Episode Duration |
- 00:25:22
The Meigs Elevated Railway—one of the world’s first monorail systems—looked like something out of a Jules Verne novel. But it was very real. In this week’s episode, hear how nineteenth-century Bostonians missed their chance to build a steam punk utopia.
The monorail system was the brainchild of Joe Meigs, a Civil War veteran and tinkerer who had political and financial backing from Massachusetts governor Benjamin Butler. Meigs envisioned a system that would soar above the streetcar traffic clogging Boston’s streets. Beginning in 1884, thousands of people boarded his distinctive cylindrical train cars for 20-mph rides around a test track in East Cambridge, MA. The system was a technical success, and eventually Meigs obtained a charter to build miles of monorail track around Boston. But a fateful attack one winter night in 1887 dashed his hopes—and proved that the best technology isn’t always the one that wins widespread adoption.
Featured guest: Charles Sullivan of the Cambridge Historical Commission. Charlie also provided key historical perspective in Soonish 1.09, A Tale of Two Bridges.
Featured voice: Charles Gustine, producer, Iconography
To browse an extensive gallery of images of the Meigs monorail, check out our show notes.
A full episode transcript is available in the Extras section of the Soonish website.
Related episode: Soonish 1.02, Monorails: Trains of Tomorrow?
We need your ideas to make the show better! Please take a few minutes to fill out our listener survey at soonishpodcast.org/survey.
CHAPTER GUIDE
0:55 Opening
1:58 The Unknown Railway
2:49 Monorail Fanboy
3:37 225 Bridge Street
5:42 Readings from The Meigs Railway
6:42 Untangling the Streetcar System
8:32 Light and Air
10:10 Who Was Joe Meigs?
11:42 One Little Problem
12:18 Building the Demonstration Track
13:09 Four Wheel Drive
14:20 Sausage on a Stick
15:58 Two Ways of Moving People
16:37 Foul Play
18:05 A Stubborn Guy
20:01 Parallel Universe
21:49 How We Choose the Future
22:22 End Credits and Announcement
The Soonish theme is by Graham Gordon Ramsay. Additional music from Titlecard Music and Sound. For complete details on this episode go to soonishpodcast.org/302-the-track-not-taken.
Soonish is a proud founding member of Hub & Spoke, a collective of smart, idea-driven nonfiction podcasts. Learn more at hubspokeaudio.org.
Don't forget to fill out our listener survey at soonishpodcast.org/survey.
If you haven’t already, please rate and review Soonish on Apple Podcasts / iTunes! The more ratings we get, the more people will find the show. See https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/soonish/id1185234753?mt=2
You can also support the show with a per-episode donation at patreon.com/soonish. Listener support makes all the difference!
Give us a shout on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram and sign up for our email newsletter, Signals from Soonish.
The Meigs Elevated Railway—one of the world’s first monorail systems—looked like something out of a Jules Verne novel. But it was very real. In this week’s episode, hear how nineteenth-century Bostonians missed their chance to build a steam punk utopia.
The monorail system was the brainchild of Joe Meigs, a Civil War veteran and tinkerer who had political and financial backing from Massachusetts governor Benjamin Butler. Meigs envisioned a system that would soar above the streetcar traffic clogging Boston’s streets. Beginning in 1884, thousands of people boarded his distinctive cylindrical train cars for 20-mph rides around a test track in East Cambridge, MA. The system was a technical success, and eventually Meigs obtained a charter to build miles of monorail track around Boston. But a fateful attack one winter night in 1887 dashed his hopes—and proved that the best technology isn’t always the one that wins widespread adoption.
Featured guest: Charles Sullivan of the Cambridge Historical Commission. Charlie also provided key historical perspective in Soonish 1.09, A Tale of Two Bridges.
Featured voice: Charles Gustine, producer, Iconography
To browse an extensive gallery of images of the Meigs monorail, check out our show notes.
A full episode transcript is available in the Extras section of the Soonish website.
Related episode: Soonish 1.02, Monorails: Trains of Tomorrow?
We need your ideas to make the show better! Please take a few minutes to fill out our listener survey at soonishpodcast.org/survey.
CHAPTER GUIDE
0:55 Opening
1:58 The Unknown Railway
2:49 Monorail Fanboy
3:37 225 Bridge Street
5:42 Readings from The Meigs Railway
6:42 Untangling the Streetcar System
8:32 Light and Air
10:10 Who Was Joe Meigs?
11:42 One Little Problem
12:18 Building the Demonstration Track
13:09 Four Wheel Drive
14:20 Sausage on a Stick
15:58 Two Ways of Moving People
16:37 Foul Play
18:05 A Stubborn Guy
20:01 Parallel Universe
21:49 How We Choose the Future
22:22 End Credits and Announcement
The Soonish theme is by Graham Gordon Ramsay. Additional music from Titlecard Music and Sound. For complete details on this episode go to soonishpodcast.org/302-the-track-not-taken.
Soonish is a proud founding member of Hub & Spoke, a collective of smart, idea-driven nonfiction podcasts. Learn more at hubspokeaudio.org.
Don't forget to fill out our listener survey at soonishpodcast.org/survey.
If you haven’t already, please rate and review Soonish on Apple Podcasts / iTunes! The more ratings we get, the more people will find the show. See https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/soonish/id1185234753?mt=2
You can also support the show with a per-episode donation at patreon.com/soonish. Listener support makes all the difference!
Give us a shout on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram and sign up for our email newsletter, Signals from Soonish.
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