On January 28, 1962, the extensive network of streetcars that had operated in the District for a century was no more. Now, fifty years later, we’re in the midst of a planning process that — many city officials and streetcar enthusiasts hope — will see a new streetcar line along H Street NE in mid-2013.

The decision to scrap the District’s streetcars was made amidst demands that cheaper, more flexible alternatives be found to both easily extend transit options into the growing suburbs (buses were the chosen means) and make the city more friendly to cars. As with every decision at the time, it was Congress in 1956 that officially gave the D.C. Transit System seven years to dismantle the network of streetcars; civic organizations protested, saying they wanted hearings on each line to determine if they really had to be scrapped. The last streetcar lines to survive ran along 14th Street and U Street.

A decade after the streetcars had been replaced by buses, Post columnist Jack Eisen looked back upon what he called the “worst transportation decision ever made in this city” and resigned himself to their demise: “But any argument now is really pointless. Streetcars as we knew them will never again run in Washington.”