>>1345860One of the coolest thing about Manhattan is that overhead wire was banned, so they had to use underground conduit power, with a shoe going down into a slot. This evolved from cable car vaults after a lot of cable lines were built in the early 1890s. London and Washington DC used similar systems. On light traffic lines in Manhattan there were horsecars and storage battery cars. Conduit was expensive to build and maintain but was safe and reliable.
