Getting Around at the Fort

Getting Around at the Fort. . , At its peak, Fort Snelling covered more than 2,300 acres. That meant that getting from one side of the fort to another was a long walk. Traveling between the fort and Minneapolis and Saint Paul was an even bigger challenge., This made it difficult for the people stationed here to get into the cities, and made it challenging for civilians to work at the fort. While horses and horse-drawn carts made travel easier, at the beginning of the twentieth century, getting around at the fort was still very hard., The solution for these travel troubles was streetcars, which could go farther and faster than carriages. At the time, Minneapolis and Saint Paul both had streetcar lines, but they did not reach Fort Snelling., The Army negotiated a deal with the Twin Cities Rapid Transit Company (TCRTC) to run streetcar lines through the fort. They allowed the TCRTC to connect its tracks to the fort as long as the company built and ran a streetcar line through the Upper Post for free. The TCRTC agreed and extended the Minneapolis line to the fort in 1905 and the Saint Paul line in 1909., The Upper Post's streetcar line, called the Fort Snelling Extension, started at the Lower Post's Round Tower and traveled through the Upper Post, following the same path as this trail. Cars ran every fifteen minutes during off-peak hours and even more frequently during rush hours. The line was in service until 1952, when the streetcar system throughout the Twin Cities was replaced by buses., Shuttle streetcar, Fort Snelling, 1951, Minnesota Streetcar Museum, Fort Snelling line streetcar, John W.G. Dunn, photographer, c. 1925, Minnesota Historical Society, The Minneapolis line, the Saint Paul line, and the Extension met at a triangle of tracks near the Round Tower. This triangle, known as a wye, allowed streetcars, which usually ran in one direction, to turn around. The Extension's cars could move in both directions without having to turn around. Streetcar on Fort Snelling wye, Fort Snelling, Minnesota, Louis Euringer, photographer, 1948, Minnesota Streetcar Museum, Service members often rode the Extension and then transferred to other lines on their way to Minneapolis or Saint Paul. Soldier boarding streetcar at Fort Snelling, 1941, Minnesota Historical Society, Background image: Fort Snelling streetcars, Fort Snelling, Minnesota, 1919, Minnesota Streetcar Museum