In an age in which one can jump into an automobile and travel wherever one wishes after work, it’s hard to imagine a life completely dependent upon public transportation for any trip out of town. In the summer of 1904, C.A. Smith’s East Liverpool Traction and Light Company offered, for the first time, evening trolley excursions during the workweek to Rock Springs Park so that townspeople in the Beaver Valley area could enjoy “the cool, life-giving, ozone-laden breezes from the pine-clad mountains of West Virginia.” Sounds nice, doesn’t it?
The Daily Tribune, Beaver Falls, PA – June 20, 1904
A Popular Move
Rock Springs Special from Beaver Valley Will Be Popular – Low Rates
The Rock Springs Special, to be run from the Beaver Valley to East Liverpool, over the Pennsylvania lines, on Tuesday evening, June 21, promises to be one of the most popular innovations ever attempted in the excursion line in this section. An opportunity of spending an evening at beautiful Rock Springs Park has never before been granted the people of the valley at so low a cost. In fact, the rate is so low that any young man can take his best girl on this trip cheaper than he can take her to the opera.
The schedule of the special has been so arranged that the entire evening may be spent at the park and yet no time need be lost from work or employment. This is expected to prove one of the most attractive features of this excursion, as many people would spend an evening in the woods if they could do so without loss of time from their work.
Rock Springs Park has the reputation of being one of the most beautiful and popular picnic grounds and summer resorts in the part of this United States, and it is visited annually by hundreds of thousands of people. Some twenty different forms of amusement may be enjoyed by visitors. Among these are dancing, bowling, boating, tennis and all kinds of outdoor sports. Large and costly roller coasters and merry-go-rounds furnish amusements for the young people.
But to the majority of people the most attractive feature is the cool, life-giving, ozone-laden breezes from the pine-clad mountains of West Virginia. An evening's outing in such an atmosphere will repair the ravages of weeks spent amid the dust, dirt and smoke of the towns.
The special will leave Beaver Falls at 6:45; New Brighton, 6:52; Rochester, 7:00; Beaver, 7:10, Eastern time. Returning the special leaves East Liverpool at 11:30 and arrives Beaver Falls at 12:30, Eastern time. The fare is fifty cents for the round trip.
This postcard picture shows that the dirt and smoke of the city soon encroached on Rock Spring’s “ozone-laden breezes.”
1904 marks the beginning of the automobile craze in the United States, including the introduction of Ford’s first car, the Model B.
No comments:
Post a Comment