2. History

2.1 First tests

The first experiments with horse-drawn streetcars, which were omnibuses on rails, took place from 1830 onwards in American cities such as Baltimore, New Orleans and New York. In some avenues, railroad rails were laid directly on the pavement. The result was that, thanks to the lower resistance of an iron-tired wheel on steel rails, on average, the number of horses harnessed to omnibuses running on dirt was halved. On the other hand, the rails protruded, creating an obstacle for pedestrians.

The promoters of these projects soon had a kind of "throat rail" invented, which was buried in the road surface. In France, the first "American railroad" was built in Paris in 1855, between Place de la Concorde and Quai de Billy.

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