{"id":31455,"date":"2014-03-05T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-03-05T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beirut.com\/31455\/ten-things-you-probably-dont-know-about-lebanons-old-tramway"},"modified":"2023-08-11T03:32:54","modified_gmt":"2023-08-11T03:32:54","slug":"ten-things-you-probably-dont-know-about-lebanons-old-tramway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beirut.com\/en\/31455\/ten-things-you-probably-dont-know-about-lebanons-old-tramway\/","title":{"rendered":"Ten Things You (Probably) Don’t Know about Lebanon’s Old Tramway"},"content":{"rendered":"We here at Beirut.com have been fascinated with our long-lost tramway system<\/a> for some time — and we\u2019re certainly not alone! In fact, the plain shock of realising that it ever even existed was one of the first points made by Lawen Ray7in?<\/i><\/a>, the transit advocacy campaign launched in 2012.


(Photo via Facebook<\/a>)

But how much do you really know about the old trams of Beirut? Here are our top ten favorite factoids!

10. The tramway made the city — and the region — much more interconnected.<\/big><\/big><\/b>

This map shows the extent of the tramway electrique network in 1912:


(Photo via lib.utexas.edu<\/a>)

The network was composed of five lines that connected Horsh Beirut, Nahr Beirut, the Lighthouse and the Port, with Sahet al Burj as their central hub. There was also a link to the train station in Mar Mikhael, which meant that, by the time that map was drawn, Beirutis were infrastructurally well-connected to cities like Tripoli, Sidon and even Damascus.

9. So it was kind of a big deal at the time…<\/big><\/big><\/b>

The tramway was inaugurated on January 9, 1907, which just so happened to be the Ottoman Sultan\u2019s birthday. Here\u2019s the the birthday boy himself, as he (sort of) looked that year:


(Photo via commons.wikimedia.org<\/a>)

Abdulhamid II<\/a> wasn\u2019t actually at the inauguration, of course, since pretty much everything<\/a> the Ottomans unveiled that year was in his honor. In fact, almost everything they ever built in Beirut was meant to show off the might of their Empire — even drinking fountains!

8. Though the Ottomans took the credit, it was the Belgians<\/a> who actually did it!<\/big><\/big><\/b>

(Photo via blaalv.com<\/a>)

Yes, the nation that gave us Tintin and the Smurfs was also behind the trams. The Franco-Belgian company that constructed the tramway system had also installed Beirut\u2019s first gas-powered street lamps in 1889, which is why the tram operator was called La Soci\u00e9t\u00e9 des Tramways et de l’\u00c9clairage<\/i>. This is also the reason why, after a long history<\/a> of policy changes in the electricity and public transport sectors, the old tram depot is now the site of the \u00c9lectricit\u00e9 du Liban\u2019s<\/i> headquarters.

7. Ottoman, Belgian.. Who cares? The tramway was 3anjad \u00e0 la Libanaise<\/i>.<\/big><\/big><\/b>

(Photo via razanalsalah.com<\/a>)

Even though the name \u201cTramway Libanais\u201d<\/i><\/a> refers to a different section of Lebanon\u2019s old rail network, it was the tramway of Beirut that was truly \u00e0 la Libanaise<\/i>. One urban history book<\/a> describes how, just like in today\u2019s bostas and vans, \u201cthe system of timetables and stops was undermined by passengers who stopped the carriages midway and forced them to wait for them to embark and disembark\u201d (p. 55).

In another history book<\/a>, Samir Kassir quotes a French observer who described another familiar practice: \u201cRather than have a ticket punched, one claims to be a subscriber [and] presents to the conductor, who understands at once, a case of visited cards with a one-pound note inside\u201d (p. 302).

6. …but it wasn\u2019t all rainbows and puppy dogs…<\/big><\/big><\/b>

(Photo via skyscrapercity.com<\/a>)

As much as it was a killer app<\/i>, the tramway was also what we\u2019d call today: a disruptive innovation<\/i>. Some people just didn\u2019t like it, calling it douleb el shaytan<\/i><\/a>, or Satan\u2019s wheel. The drivers of horse-led carriages also hated it, for obvious reasons. They were going out of business! Protests against the trams were at times so violent that the company had to employ abadayet<\/i>, or local tough guys, to protect its assets.

There were also incidents of pickpocketing and sexual harassment on the trams, and even some hijackings. The tramway was also accelerating life a bit too rapidly for some people, as Jens Hanssen writes in Fin de Siecle Beirut<\/i><\/a>: \u201cFamilies who happened to live on the tramway line suddenly found themselves exposed to journeying crowds. As a passive form of protest…they moved out of their houses towards infrastructurally more remote areas of the city\u201d (p. 104).

5. The trams were even boycotted — twice!<\/big><\/big><\/b>

These boycotts happened in 1909 and 1931, under both the Ottomans and the French. In both instances, people\u2019s anger was sparked by a price hike. Beirutis were so angry the second time that they boycotted the trams for three months!

4. …and this helped popularize the service taxi.<\/big><\/big><\/b>

(Photo via YouTube<\/a>)

By the 1930s, the service, or shared taxi, was already popular for inter-city travel, but the tramway boycott helped bring this now iconic mode of transport into the heart of Beirut. And it hasn\u2019t left since!

3. The very last tram ran in 1965.<\/big><\/big><\/b>

(Photo via skyscrapercity.com<\/a>)

So why was the tramway dismantled? I think Jumana Nabti<\/a> said it best: the tramway \u201cbegan to be perceived as obstructions to traffic flow…rather than the traffic itself.\u201d (p. 21).


(Photo via english.al-akhbar.com<\/a>)

Where\u2019s the undo<\/i> button on this thing??

2. In the end, some carriages were turned into a restaurant.<\/big><\/big><\/b>

(Photo via ddc.aub.edu.lb<\/a>)

But alas, even that didn\u2019t survive… And today, we only have our imagination to feed our nostalgia<\/a>.

1. BUT IT\u2019S OK DON\u2019T BE DEPRESSED – THERE\u2019S STILL ONE MORE AMAZING THING:<\/big><\/big><\/b>