By: centraljersey.com
LAWRENCE – Lean over the bridge that crosses the Shabakunk Creek on Route 206 near Notre Dame High School, and you can see the old trolley track abutment for the Trenton Street Railway Co., known as the Old Line.
Up the road apiece on Route 206 near the Lawrenceville-Pennington Road, there is a wide spot in the road – now used as a bus stop, opposite the PNC Bank – that served as a siding for the Old Line’s trolley cars.
And pedestrians and bicyclists who use the paved path along Johnson Avenue, off Eggerts Crossing Road, are walking and riding in the right-of-way where the Johnson Trolley ran its trolley cars.
Township Historian Dennis Waters outlined the history of the two trolley lines, which connected Trenton and Princeton for nearly 40 years, at the Lawrence Historical Society’s annual meeting Feb. 27. About 175 people turned out for the event, held at Lawrence High School.
Horse-drawn streetcars began serving Trenton around the time of the Civil War, Mr. Waters said. Soon, the Trenton Street Railway Co. decided it wanted to expand. It laid tracks to Yardville and Hamilton Square, and to West Trenton, Hopewell and Pennington.
Lawrence and Princeton were next on the list, and efforts got under way in early 1899, he said. The work was completed and the inaugural run of the trolley line between Trenton and the historic village of Lawrenceville took place in June.
But efforts to complete the second leg, from Lawrenceville to Princeton, were nearly derailed by opposition from Moses Taylor Pyne, who lived at Drumthwacket – known today as the Governor’s Mansion. He did not want the trolley car to run in front of his estate, so he bought up land where the tracks would have been laid, Mr. Waters said.
"Moses Taylor Pyne was the classic NIMBY – not in my backyard," he said.
Mr. Pyne, who was a Princeton University graduate and a trustee of both Princeton University and The Lawrenceville School, was not alone in his opposition. Princeton University also opposed it, for fear of providing easy access to its campus for Trenton residents. There was also concern that the students would frequent Trenton, Mr. Waters said.
Nevertheless, the Trenton Street Railway Co. found another route, up Route 206 to Fackler Road and then across Princeton Pike. The tracks continued across the fields to Canal Street – today’s Alexander Street – and terminated on University Place, between Dickinson Street and Edwards Place in Princeton Borough.
Around the same time, the Sadler Co., which lost its bid to build a trolley line on Route 206, went ahead with plans to build a competing line, Mr. Waters said. Property owners allowed the company to install tracks across their land, west of the village of Lawrenceville.
Work began on the Sadler Co. trolley car line in April 1899, and the tracks reached Lawrenceville in July, Mr. Waters said. Work continued on the trolley car line, and the tracks reached the banks of Stony Brook on Rosedale Road by the end of 1900.
Along came the Johnson brothers – not the pharmaceutical company Johnsons, but the streetcar Johnsons, Mr. Waters said. Thomas and Albert Johnson got their start in Louisville, Ky., where Thomas Johnson was involved with the DuPont family, who owned the street car line in that city.
Branching out, the Johnsons wanted to build a trolley car line from New York City to Philadelphia. When those plans were rejected, the Johnson brothers bought the Sadler Co. line, which was known as the Trenton, Lawrenceville and Princeton Railroad. It soon became known as the Johnson Trolley line.
The Johnsons completed the tracks from Stony Brook to the bottom of Witherspoon Street, near today’s Community Park School. The tracks continued up Witherspoon Street, ending opposite Spring Street. Work was completed in 1902.
Although the two streetcar lines connected Trenton and Princeton, there were significant differences – starting with the fare.
It cost 30 cents on the Old Line to travel from Trenton to Princeton, and it took about an hour because the trolley car made frequent stops, he said. But the Johnson Trolley line charged 10 cents for the same trip, and made it in less time because it ran through the fields and made fewer stops.
With the completion of the trolley car lines, life in Lawrenceville – and Lawrence Township – underwent some changes, Mr. Waters said.
"Some of the effects were simple, but important," he said.
Opening up the trolley car lines also opened up Lawrence Township to development, he said. The township’s population had held steady at about 1,500 people in the 1890 and 1900 U.S. Census reports, but it soared to 6,000 by 1930. It had become a suburb of Trenton.
In fact, developers promoted the Ridgemont Terrace subdivision – located in the Eldridge Park neighborhood in Lawrence – because of its proximity to the Old Line, Mr. Waters said. There was actually a trolley at either end of Eldridge Avenue – the Old Line and the Johnson Trolley.
Trolley cars reached their peak of popularity in the 1920s, Mr. Waters said. There were 1.6 million fares on the Johnson Trolley in 1921. But road improvements that were made to accommodate the flow of vehicular traffic led to the trolley car lines’ demise, he said.
Main Street was widened and repaved, and the Old Line had to be relocated to the center of the roadway, he said. Those improvements also made it possible to introduce safer, more reliable and economical bus service, he said.
The last of the Old Line trolleys arrived in Princeton on Dec. 29, 1931. The trolley was replaced by bus service.
The Johnson Trolley was losing money, also, but its request to shut down was denied by the state Board of Public Utilities in 1934, Mr. Waters said. Trolley service continued between Trenton and Princeton, until it was finally shut down in 1940.

