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I’ve seen electric cars and trucks from the great EV era, but not sightseeing buses. Thanks to Shorpy, another gap has been filled.
1904 New York Sightseeing Buses: Electrifying Views
– Posted on March 2, 2012
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I have been rummaging through some memories of my mom. She was born in 1905 and this seems so right. Have been looking at a lot of pictures almost that age.
Paul could that have something to do with why I am hung up on EV’s? Maybe it was something I ate.
ok, this is wierd i was just admiring this on shorpy about an hour ago. i love the guy in the back with the little clip that keeps his hat from blowing away. also the kids near the front look way to worldly for their age.
The most interesting part is that the building behind the buses looks exactly the same more than 100 years later, 5th and 20ish or so.
Electric buggies with Acetylene headlights. It seems so backwards..
One thing is still the same…the electric car pushers are still saying “If only we could get a better battery….”
What a great picture, I’ve never seen this before!
This photo was taken at a brief moment in time where electricity outsold gasoline powered vehicles in New York by a good margin. There were fleets of EV taxicabs roaming the streets and curbside charging stations were apparently available (unclear if any were actually installed – though Jay Leno claims they were). 1904 was also the same year the NYC subway opened for business, electric streetcar lines began extending out to the suburbs and the city’s distribution system was still purely DC. If it was good enough to run the iron horses and trolleys, it was only natural that the horseless carriages follow suit.
I’m sure that when this picture was taken, everyone in it who had an opinion believed that EVs were the future just as much as the legendary Flatiron Building they’re craning their necks to admire… but of course within a few years, gasoline engines became much less crude and affordable and the range limitations of battery storage made themselves apparent.
Fast forward 98 years and crowds of tourists still crane their necks and gawk at skyscrapers from sightseeing buses on New York streets. Parking garage EV charging stations have been installed using stimulus funds all over town (though it’s unclear if anyone has actually used them yet) and plenty of folks are once again claiming the EV as the future, despite few advances in the range department over the last century. The streetcars are long gone and DC distribution finally got turned off for good 5 years ago, but otherwise I think you could easily look at this picture and say “the more things change, the more they stay the same… “
I found a hybrid fire truck petrol powered running a generator to power the ladder system photo on the cohort