"Just One Nickel and I Could Ride"

"Just One Nickel and I Could Ride". ... in the Patapsco Heritage Area. The Trolley Trail runs on the track bed built for the #9 Route that connected Ellicott City to Catonsville and Baltimore. Many used the line to get to work or shop in Baltimore. "I could tell by the color whether to board the front or the back," recalls Jerry Kelly of Catonsville, about the streetcars he rode in the 1940s and 50s. "I only had to wait a few minutes before I saw the yellow car coming up the hill. Just one nickel and I could ride.", In 1892, the Columbia and Maryland Railway was chartered to build an electric trolley line to connect Baltimore and Washington, D.C. Despite a lawsuit brought be a descendant of the Ellicott brothers to prevent the track from running near his elegant home on Westchester Avenue, rail for the #9 was soon laid. The project then proceeded under the Baltimore Consolidated Railway, committed to reach the Patapsco River by December 31, 1898. Days before the deadline, the line made a connection to the Patapsco River via a "cut-off" route now known as #8. Tracks beyond this point into Washington were never laid out but the routes between Baltimore, Catonsville and Ellicott City continued to be developed and heavily used., By the 1920s, more roads were paved and more people could afford cars. Yet even the modern streetcars introduced in the 1930s could not entice enough people to the cheap and rapid trolley transit. After world war two, a bus route replaced the line that ran from Baltimore to Rolling Road. The last trolley ran on #9 in June 19, 1955. In 1957, the Baltimore Transit Company deeded the #9 right-of-way to Baltimore County. With the help of an Eagle Scout and the Department of Recreation and Parks, implementation of the county's bikeway plan began in the 1970s and the Trolley Trail opened in sections from 1991 through 1997., [Captions:] , The trolley bridge over the Patapsco River in Ellicott City was completed in July of 1899. Shortly after this 1917 trolley car was photographed crossing in 1957, the bridge was demolished leaving behind the stone abutments., Above: Trolley on Main Street weeks before the last regular run in Ellicott City. Previously school teachers who lived in Baltimore rode to their jobs and walked uphill to the Ellicott City Colored School., Below: Consolidated Trolley No. 1403 paused for the camera during a run between Baltimore and Ellicott City in 1899., Detail of a map of the Baltimore Transit Company from 1945.