Edgewood Streetcar: The Rumble to the East

Lyrics

[Intro]

Oh, old streetcar, you with your trolley pole reaching up.

[Verse 1]
In the late 1880s, Joel Hurt dreamed you into being,
extending wires from downtown, copper threads across the sky.
You rumbled east on Edgewood Avenue, steel rails embedded in the dirt,
carrying families to plots of land that would become our homes.
Your wooden seats, varnished oak, creaked under the weight of new lives,
motormen like shadows at the controls, pulling levers in the dawn.

[Chorus]
Rumble to the east, my faithful one,
from Terminus to these budding streets.
You sparked the suburb's heart, in 1902 when lines consolidated,
Georgia Railway & Electric, your pulse in the overhead wires.
Electric hum, ozone scent in the air,
you blossomed Edgewood, petal by petal.

[Verse 2]
Open-air cars in summer, sides removed for the breeze off the Piedmont ridge,
passengers laughing as you halted for wandering cows on the tracks.
Nickel fares dropped into the box, transfer checks in hand,
conductors calling stops: Hardee Street, Whitefoord Avenue.
You transformed rural tracts, hammers echoing as bungalows rose,
linking us to the city's iron heart, day after day.

[Bridge]

But remember the quiet moments, when rain slicked your rails,
and the pole sparked blue against the wires.
You were more than machine, my love,
a vein of progress, carrying dreams eastward.

[Verse 3]
By the early 1900s, you had woven the neighborhood tight,
with depots smelling of oil and metal dust,
brick barns where you rested at night.
George Washington Adair's visions complemented yours,
but it was you, streetcar, who made it real.

[Chorus]
Rumble to the east, my faithful one,
from Terminus to these budding streets.
You sparked the suburb's heart, in 1902 when lines consolidated,
Georgia Railway & Electric, your pulse in the overhead wires.
Electric hum, ozone scent in the air,
you blossomed Edgewood, petal by petal.

[Outro]

Now your echoes linger, in the BeltLine's path.
Thank you, old friend, for the rumble that built us.