Streetcar Sunday - Marseille, France

I'd like to just step into this street scene, head right over to the Cafe on the left, and watch the trams go by as I sip a café au lait. The trams have been there since 1875, when the first horse-drawn tram traveled on this very street.  If I were sitting in some other city, I might look at the trams with sadness, predicting their demise in a few decades. Not so in Marseille where trams have been running continuously since 1876.

And it's not as if the City Council in Marseille didn't try. They wanted to replace the trams with buses and were successful at pulling trams off of La Canebière by 1955.  Since then though, new tram lines have been built and trams are back on La Canebière. It's part of a new plan to reduce car traffic and favor pedestrians.

Here is a view of the intersection today, looking like a pedestrian's worst nightmare. There is obviously still work to be done.

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Cards for Lulu Woodin

These cards appear to have been given to Lulu Woodin on the same day one week apart in July of 1898. I thought at first that they might have been given out by a Sunday school teacher, but the dates are both Fridays. Still, maybe it was some kind of summer instruction?

Michigan Avenue at Night

Another great postcard from Brian at Paper Sponge. This is a beautiful night-time view of Michigan Avenue in Chicago.  The Water Tower is still there, but if it hadn't served such an important role in stopping great Chicago Fire of 1871, it would probably be long gone. Public outcry thwarted the various attempts to have it demolished in 1906, 1918, and 1948.  At one time, the 154-foot tower dwarfed all the buildings around it.

Here's the same view today.

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And here's the back of the card.