Transit

A ghost, a bicyclist, and a streetcar

by David Alpert   •   October 31, 2009 5:00 pm

The Hill is Home has been publishing some Capitol Hill ghost stories this month. In one, from 1896, a streetcar comes to a sudden halt as the gripman is sure he's run over a bicyclist. But there's nobody under the wheels. Why?

"I am haunted by a cyclist, and if you like I'll tell you why I, more than all the other gripmen, should be thus cursed," the gripman tells a reporter. He proceeds to explain the haunting, and the circumstances that led to it.

Did the ghosts of cyclists proceed to haunt Metrobuses after the demise of the streetcars? Or only in the form of ghost bikes?

David Alpert is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Greater Greater Washington. He has had a lifelong interest in great cities and great communities. He worked as a Product Manager for Google for six years and has lived in the Boston, San Francisco, and New York metro areas in addition to Washington, DC. He loves the area which is, in many ways, greater than those others, and wants to see it become even greater.