In the early twentieth century, an epic battle was
waged across America between the interurban railway and the automobile,
two technologies that arose at roughly the same time in the late 1890s.
Nowhere was this conflict more evident than in the Midwest, and
specifically Indiana, where cities of industry such as Indianapolis,
Gary, and Terre Haute were growing faster every day. By 1904,
Indianapolis had opened the Traction Terminal, which was widely
acclaimed to be the largest and most impressive interurban station in
the world. Yet, today there is only 90-mile remnant of this one great
system still operating within Indiana.
Featuring over 90 illustrations and featuring contemporary accounts and newspaper articles from the period, Electric Indiana
is a biographical study of the rise and fall of a onetime important
transportation technology that achieved its most impressive development
within the Hoosier state.
