Pictures 76, 76.1, and 76.2.

This badly damaged picture (top) from the Detroit Publishing Co. archives is one of the few to show the Clay statue in early electric days, after the massive base was severely cut back.  We are looking out toward the lake.  The left track in this view is the outer riverbound track, and the track at the right side of the picture is the terminus for the Orleans RR lines.

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The second and third pictures are details from the first.  The second picture features Tulane Belt car 222, riverbound on the outer track.  The route sign is visible hanging from the platform roof, and also in the front glass of the clerestory.  Car 222 was an FB&D car, one of the group of 70 cars numbered 160-229 built by the American Car Co. of St. Louis in 1899 for the New Orleans & Carrollton.  Note the wire mesh fender, a type not clearly seen on many photographs.

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The third picture shows car number 10 of the Orleans R. R. Co., operating on the Broad line; the route sign above the platform roof says, “BROAD VIA ST. PETER”, and appears to be an early form of a roll sign.  A sign hanging over the front dash adds, “TO CANAL STREET”.  More signs arching across the car roof proclaim, “TO FAIR GROUNDS” and “TO THE RACES”.  We are seeing the car just as it pulls up to its terminal on the center track.  Car 10 was one of the first group of electric cars for the Orleans R. R., cars 1-20, built in 1895 by the Brill Co. of Philadelphia.  We have a view of another, slightly different wire mesh fender, with a slot from which a coupler peeks out.

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The picture can be dated quite closely.  The light tower at the Carondelet/Bourbon intersection was removed in 1897.  Tulane Belt car 222 was built in 1899.  The Tulane and St. Charles Belts were started in 1900.  And the Clay statue was removed from Canal Street about 1900. — Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Detroit Publishing Company Collection

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