Omaha Traction Company - History

History

Gurdon Wattles bought the Omaha and Council Bluffs Railway and Bridge Company, or O&CB along with several competing local lines and merged them into one unit called the Omaha Traction Company in the early 1900s. Wattles continued using the O&CB brand. In 1943 the company began training women as streetcar operators after many of its male drivers were called into military service during WW II. The women learned quickly and were paid the same wages as their male counterparts. The company disbanded with the creation of Metro Area Transit in the early 1970s.

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