History
The first proposals for a tramway in the area were made by the Lebanese engineer George Franjieh in November 1892, about nine weeks after the inauguration of the Jaffa–Jerusalem railway. The plan called for a main line between southern and northeastern Jaffa, with spurs to the harbor and the eastern orchards. The plan was considered uneconomical and was shelved. A later plan called for a light railway from Jaffa to the nearby settlements of Rishon LeZion, Petah Tikva and Wilhelma.
A Decauville light railway was built in Jaffa and Tel Aviv in World War I, connecting the port with the Yarkon River. It was used for about a decade after the war, and dismantled at a later date.
A subway system was first planned in the mid-1960s, and in 1967 a station at the Shalom Meir Tower was inaugurated in the presence of then Prime Minister Levi Eshkol. However, financial difficulties forced the abandonment of the project, and Shalom Meir remains the only subway station in Tel Aviv, disconnected from other transport links.
Read more about this topic: Tel Aviv Light Rail
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“The history of the world is the record of the weakness, frailty and death of public opinion.”
—Samuel Butler (1835–1902)
“The history of medicine is the history of the unusual.”
—Robert M. Fresco, and Jack Arnold. Prof. Gerald Deemer (Leo G. Carroll)
“Social history might be defined negatively as the history of a people with the politics left out.”
—G.M. (George Macaulay)