The Omaha and Council Bluffs Railway and Bridge Company, known as O&CB, was incorporated in 1886 in order to connect

Omaha, Nebraska Omaha ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Nebraska and the county seat of Douglas County. Omaha is in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. The nation's 39th-largest cit ...

with

Council Bluffs, Iowa Council Bluffs is a city in and the county seat of Pottawattamie County, Iowa, Pottawattamie County, Iowa, United States. The city is the most populous in Southwest Iowa, and is the third largest and a primary city of the Omaha–Council Bluffs ...

over the Missouri River. With a sanctioned monopoly over

streetcar A tram (called a streetcar or trolley in North America) is a rail vehicle that travels on tramway tracks on public urban streets; some include segments on segregated right-of-way. The tramlines or networks operated as public transport are ...

service in the two cities,Seilegman Syndicate Deal"
''The New York Times.'' August 14, 1902. Retrieved 4/11/08. the O&CB was among the earliest major electric street railway systems in the nation, and was one of the last streetcar operators in the U.S., making its last run in 1955.

Background

The predecessor of the O&CB was the

Omaha Horse Railway Company The Omaha Horse Railway was a private transportation company in early Omaha, Nebraska. The company was founded in 1867 by Omaha pioneers Ezra Millard, Andrew J. Hanscom and Augustus Kountze to provide horsecar service in the city. On February ...

, which was incorporated by an act of the

Nebraska Legislature The Nebraska Legislature (also called the Unicameral) is the legislature of the U.S. state of Nebraska. The Legislature meets at the Nebraska State Capitol in Lincoln. With 49 members, known as "senators", the Nebraska Legislature is the small ...

in 1867. Electric streetcar service in Omaha is said to be the outgrowth of the 1887 Omaha Motor Railway, which was formed when the Omaha Horse Railway and the

Omaha Cable Tramway Company The Cable Tramway Company of Omaha, Nebraska started in 1884 and ended in 1895. It was the only cable car line ever built in Omaha, and had only four lines of tracks in operation. History The Omaha Cable Tramway Company was originally formed in 18 ...

were consolidated under the leadership of Samuel D. Mercer.Larsen, L.H., Cottrell, B.J. and Dalstrom, H.A. (2007) ''Upstream Metropolis: An Urban Biography of Omaha and Council Bluffs.'' University of Nebraska Press. p 151. George F. Wright, builder of the 1868 Council Bluffs Street Railway company, organized the Omaha and Council Bluffs Railway and Bridge Company in 1886, along with Frank Murphy and Guy C. Barton of Omaha and John T. Stewart, Thomas J. Evans and George F. Wright of Council Bluffs. Majority

stockholder A shareholder (in the United States often referred to as stockholder) of a corporation is an individual or legal entity (such as another corporation, a body politic, a trust or partnership) that is registered by the corporation as the legal owner ...

s included

Marshall Field Marshall Field (August 18, 1834January 16, 1906) was an American entrepreneur and the founder of Marshall Field and Company, the Chicago-based department stores. His business was renowned for its then-exceptional level of quality and customer ...

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

and U.S. Senator

Joseph Millard Joseph Hopkins Millard (April 20, 1836January 13, 1922) was a Canadian-American businessman and politician from Nebraska. He served in the United States Senate and as mayor of Omaha, and was an anti-suffrage activist. Life Millard was born in ...

of Nebraska, and officials from the American Smelting Company. The last

horse car A horsecar, horse-drawn tram, horse-drawn streetcar (U.S.), or horse-drawn railway (historical), is an animal-powered (usually horse) tram or streetcar. Summary The horse-drawn tram (horsecar) was an early form of public rail transport, wh ...

route in the city ceased operation in June 1895.

Douglas Street Bridge

The O&CB's proposal for a combined wagon and railway bridge over the Missouri River was accepted by

United States Congress The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, composed of a lower body, the House of Representatives, and an upper body, the Senate. It meets in the U.S. Capitol in Washing ...

and the

Secretary of War The secretary of war was a member of the U.S. president's Cabinet, beginning with George Washington's administration. A similar position, called either "Secretary at War" or "Secretary of War", had been appointed to serve the Congress of the ...

in 1887. This led to the construction of the

Douglas Street Bridge The Ak-Sar-Ben Bridge was a Whipple through truss bridge that was the first road bridge to cross the Missouri River connecting Omaha, Nebraska and Council Bluffs, Iowa. It was replaced in 1966 by the Interstate 480 girder bridge. History O ...

, which was later known as the

Ak-Sar-Ben Bridge The Ak-Sar-Ben Bridge was a Whipple through truss bridge that was the first road bridge to cross the Missouri River connecting Omaha, Nebraska and Council Bluffs, Iowa. It was replaced in 1966 by the Interstate 480 (Nebraska-Iowa), Interstate 480 ...

. The bridge was opened to traffic on October 30, 1888.

Operations

After the construction of the bridge, O&CB laid out streetcar lines throughout Omaha and its suburbs, including

South Omaha South Omaha is a former city and current district of Omaha, Nebraska, United States. During its initial development phase the town's nickname was "The Magic City" because of the seemingly overnight growth, due to the rapid development of the Union S ...

Benson Benson may refer to: Animals *Benson (fish), largest common carp caught in Britain Places Geography Canada *Rural Municipality of Benson No. 35, Saskatchewan; rural municipality *Benson, Saskatchewan; hamlet United Kingdom * Benson, Oxfordshire ...

Dundee Dundee (; sco, Dundee; gd, Dùn Dè or ) is Scotland's fourth-largest city and the 51st-most-populous built-up area in the United Kingdom. The mid-year population estimate for 2016 was , giving Dundee a population density of 2,478/km2 or ...

, and

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...

. In 1888 Wright was elected Secretary of the company, and the O&CB built the first electric street railway line ever constructed in

Iowa Iowa () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wisconsin to the northeast, Illinois to the ...

Nebraska Nebraska () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Kansas to the south; Colorado to the southwe ...

. In 1898 the Omaha Street Railway, later acquired by the O&CB, ordered new cars, repaired and refurbished older cars, and allocated $100,000 for improvements to the streetcar system in anticipation of providing to and from Omaha's

Trans-Mississippi Exposition The Trans-Mississippi and International Exposition was a world's fair held in Omaha, Nebraska from June 1 to November 1 of 1898. Its goal was to showcase the development of the entire West, stretching from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Coa ...

. This increased the capacity of the company's power plant at 20th and Nicholas Streets. By 1902 all of the electric-powered railways in Omaha were consolidated in the O&CB. The company was sold to a

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

-based syndicate for $4,000,000 that year, with the syndicate taking control of all stock.

Omaha and Council Bluffs Street Railway 1913

The Omaha and Council Bluffs Street Railway Company bought the Omaha and Council Bluffs Railway and Bridge Company in 1902, taking a hundred year lease on the city's rails. It also consumed other local transportation franchises, including the

Omaha Street Railway Company Omaha ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Nebraska and the county seat of Douglas County. Omaha is in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. The nation's 39th-largest city ...

and the Council Bluffs Street Railway Company. When local banker

Gurdon Wattles Gurdon Wallace Wattles (May 12, 1855 - January 31, 1932) was an early businessman, banker, and civic leader in Omaha, Nebraska, who became responsible for bankrolling much of early Hollywood.(2006"Gurdon Wattles", ''Hollywood Heritage''. Septemb ...

bought the company along with several competing lines and merged them into one unit called the

Omaha Traction Company The Omaha Traction Company was a privately owned public transportation business in Omaha, Nebraska. Created in the early 1900s by wealthy Omaha banker Gurdon Wattles, the company was involved in a series of contentious disputes with organized la ...

the O&CB ceased operating as an independent line. However, Wattles continued using the brand. In 1943 the company began training women as streetcar operators after many of its male drivers were called into military service during World War II. The women learned quickly and were paid the same wages as their male counterparts. In the late 1940s the O&CB was the target of a general boycott called by the

DePorres Club The DePorres Club was an early pioneer organization in the Civil Rights Movement in Omaha, Nebraska, whose "goals and tactics foreshadowed the efforts of civil rights activists throughout the nation in the 1960s." The club was an affiliate of CORE ...

, a central group in Omaha's civil rights movement. The youth-led organization targeted the railroad for its segregation practices and poor service to the Near North Side neighborhood four years before the

Montgomery bus boycott The Montgomery bus boycott was a political and social protest campaign against the policy of racial segregation on the public transit system of Montgomery, Alabama. It was a foundational event in the civil rights movement in the United States ...

. The still-standing Omaha and Council Bluffs Street Railway Company Car Barn at the intersection of South 10th Street and Pierce Street was the last active barn in the city. The O&CB line ceased operating on March 4, 1955.Orr, R. (1996) ''O&CB: Streetcars of Omaha and Council Bluffs.'' p 154. The still-standing Car Barn at South 10th Street and Pierce Street was used by the

United States Postal Service The United States Postal Service (USPS), also known as the Post Office, U.S. Mail, or Postal Service, is an independent agency of the executive branch of the United States federal government responsible for providing postal service in the U ...

. There are plans to renovate this building in the near future There is a still-standing Sub-Station in

. A streetcar is preserved, on freight car trucks, on the Northeast corner of South 11th Street and Leavenworth Street in

Omaha Omaha ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Nebraska and the county seat of Douglas County. Omaha is in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. The nation's 39th-largest city ...

. A streetcar, off its trucks, is preserved inside the Durham Western Heritage Museum at 801 South 10th Street in Omaha. Also a streetcar body remains as part of a cabin off Allied Road on the south side of Bellevue, NE.

References

External links

A large collection of historic photos of the Omaha & Council Bluffs Street Railway Company

Image of O&CB badge

Photo of the O&CB bridge
{{DEFAULTSORT:Omaha Council Bluffs Railway Bridge Company History of Omaha, Nebraska Defunct companies based in Omaha, Nebraska Railway companies established in 1886 Tram, urban railway and trolley companies Railway companies disestablished in 1955 Defunct Iowa railroads Streetcars in Omaha, Nebraska American companies disestablished in 1955 American companies established in 1886

Background

Douglas Street Bridge

Operations

See also

References

External links