Oct. 10, 1891 

The Birmingham Railway and Electric Co. was incorporated on May 5, 1890, as a consolidation of the Birmingham Union Street Railway Co. and the newly incorporated Birmingham Electric Co., which had secured state charters to operate electric-powered streetcars in the city.

On Feb. 12, 1891, the company absorbed the Bessemer and Birmingham Railroad. That spring and summer, the first electric lines were strung along the lines from North Highlands to South Highlands and from Elyton to Avondale. The J.G. Brill Co. of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, ordered 24 small, two-ended covered cars. The first car went into service on the Highlands line on Oct. 10, 1891.

The Panic of 1893 left the company in financial straits. Voting control fell to a group of Nashville investors, who gradually expanded service to East Lake and bought the Birmingham, Powderly & Bessemer Railway.

Nat Baxter Jr., president of Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad Co., took control of the company. He arranged with shareholders of Consolidated Electric Light Co. and Birmingham Gas Co. to become part of Birmingham Railway, Light & Power Co. which was incorporated on Feb. 23, 1898.

Read more at Bhamwiki and Wikipedia. 

A mule-drawn street car on First Avenue North in downtown Birmingham in 1887. (From Encyclopedia of Alabama, courtesy of Birmingham Public Library Archives)

In 1886, Montgomery became the first U.S. city to initiate an electric streetcar system, the Capital City Street Railway Co. (From Encyclopedia of Alabama, courtesy of the Alabama Department of Archives and History)

For more on Alabama’s Bicentennial, visit Alabama 200.