I was fascinated by this film showing the better side of New York City taken over 100 years ago. The streetcars drew power from an underground slot between the rails. The steamboat with the "walking beam" was also fascinating. Almost everyone was dressed up then, even common laborers. And....I don't remember seeing any obese individuals.

https://www.facebook.com/thevintagenews ... DQzMTI3OQ/

Our heaviest president, Taft, was in office at this time. Obesity was a thing, just not as common for the people you'd see on the street every day.

Conduit third rail systems were not uncommon at that time. One of the complications of using the conduit system was that fire hoses could not be laid across streetcar tracks-the fire department used a gantry to suspend the hose high enough to permit streetcars to pass under the hose. This reduced the risk of injury or death by electrocution and kept streetcars running.

Washington DC used a conduit system within District limits. At the District line was a pit where the "plow" was manually connected to the bottom of one of the trucks, and then, of course, disconnected on the way out. Neat systems, but troublesome during snow storms. There used to be a remnant of track in Georgetown.

Still some significant lengths of track in O and P Streets in Georgetown, which appeared to be two parallel one way streets formerly used by the streetcars.
Photo taken in October 2016.....


I had read somewhere that the City had attempted to resurface the streets here (sometime in the last few years) but the residents protested about the potential loss of the historic street surface!

London here in the UK used a conduit system in the central area up to the closure of the remains of the system in 1952.