Climbing College Hill is a fact of life for Buck Buettner, a graphic design MFA student at Rhode Island School of Design. Buettner walks up the slope nearly every day.
“It gives you a lot of time to really think,” Buettner said with a laugh. “I was stressing about this project, but how serious is it really? I’m going to die on this hill.”
The slope has long been the subject of both jokes and gripes. In a 1790 account of George Washington’s visit to Brown University (then called “Rhode Island College”), the president’s group was “completely fatigued” by a walk around the town.
But going up College Hill hasn’t always been a trek. Rhode Islanders of the past looked for and built other ways up. Here’s an overview of the ways we’ve climbed College Hill.
1. Cable Cars
In 1873, San Francisco built a cable railway to replace the horse-drawn carriages that struggled up the city’s infamous inclines. The Clay Street Hill Railroad, as it was known, inspired others: cable cars spread across San Francisco and across the United States.
In Providence, horses had long struggled to get up College Hill. A horse railroad, made up of horse-drawn trolleys on rails, had to take the long way up College Hill: going down to Wickenden Street in Fox Point first, and then up the gentler slope of Governor Street.
“People used to quip and say you had to go by way of Warren to get to the east side,” said Scott Molloy, Professor Emeritus at the University of Rhode Island.
In the 1880s, the idea of building a cable car system up College Hill began to take hold, according to Molloy. Real estate interests saw the cable car as an opportunity to connect College Hill to the rest of the city and spur development. But other residents objected to the new mode of transportation.
“They didn’t want the riff raff coming from down on Canal Street flooding the east side,” said Molloy.
Ultimately, the real estate interests won out. A powerhouse was built on South Angell Street and 17,000 feet of cable was hauled into place by twelve horse teams. The route ran 2.3 miles long, from North Main Street to the Seekonk River.
In December of 1889, the cable car was tested by giving free rides to the public. On one journey, 130 people crammed onto a car built to carry 36, according to Molloy. Regular service began in January 1890.
Forty thousand people rode the trolley in the first six months. It was the only cable car in New England.
“It was as much an amusement,” said Molloy. “People just loved it!”
But the system had its drawbacks: namely, a difficult zig-zag in the route at Prospect and Waterman Streets.
“The thing you wanted for a cable car system was for the cable to run as straight as possible,” said public transit historian Daria Brashear.
Each turn required a giant wheel called a “sheave” under the street to guide the cable, Brashear explained. Sheaves wore down the cable and made constant inspections necessary to prevent accidents. As a result, Providence’s cable car lasted just five years.
“It was expensive and fragile technology, and so as soon as something better came along, lots of places stopped running their cable car systems,” said Brashear.
“While we look at things like San Francisco and say that it’s cute and quaint…if you don’t need to be running one of them, you’d really rather not,” she added.
2. Electric Streetcars
Despite the cost of maintenance, the cable car’s route up College Hill was seen as a success. Within the first year of operation, the top transit company in Providence, the Union Railroad, bought the cable car, according to the book “The Cable Car in America.”
After a few years, the company decided to update the system and have an electric streetcar run the route. However, the plan was easier said than done.
“The unfortunate thing was that you still needed the cable,” said Brashear.
Electric streetcars couldn’t make it up the hill because the trolleys’ metal wheels didn’t have enough grip on the rails, Brashear explained. As a result, the Union Railroad turned to a hybrid cable-trolley option. At first, cable cars would tow electric streetcars up the hill.
Then, in 1895, they tried out a “counterbalance” or “counterweight” system.
A track with a weight was built underneath the slope of College Hill. When trolleys went down, they were attached to a cable that would hoist the weight up the track. When a streetcar went up the hill, the counterweight would propel the trolley’s journey upwards.
The counterweight system ran from 1895 to 1914. Like its predecessors, it had downsides. An equal number of trolleys had to go up and down the hill, so that a counterweight would always be available. The system couldn’t adapt to rush hour, when more people want to go one way.
3. Tunneling
The counterbalance system ran until 1914, when a tunnel was built under College Hill.
It wasn’t the first time a tunnel had been considered. Providence attempted one in the 1870s, but was stymied by financing issues and a hard-to-penetrate ridge under the hill, said Scott Molloy.
But in 1908, a train tunnel was built on the east side (The tunnel still exists today, but was closed for safety concerns after a wild student rave in the nineties.) The passageway gave Providence the geological information needed to begin the east side trolley tunnel project, Molloy said.
In 1912, the city broke ground on the tunnel. Crews hammered away until 1913, when they broke through and connected the two sides, according to newspaper archives.
An article from The Providence Daily Journal described the moment the two sides were connected by a driller named John Blackman:
In August of 1914, as the first World War began in Europe, the tunnel officially opened to trolley transit. The historic moment garnered sparse attention: “there was but little ceremony” on the first official trip, the Providence Daily Journal wrote.
But of all the College Hill transit infrastructure projects, the tunnel would be the longest lasting. It was used for trolleys until 1948, when it went on to be used by trackless trolleys and buses.
4. Bus Cuts
Today, the east side trolley tunnel, now dubbed the east side transit tunnel, is still used for buses. But Rhode Island’s overall transit system recently saw the largest cuts in the agency’s history, according to Rhode Island Public Transit Authority (RIPTA) CEO Christopher Durand.
“They may as well have cut RIPTA’s throat,” said Scott Molloy. Molloy, who worked as a bus driver and union official before becoming a professor, has advocated publicly against the cuts.
The budget cuts total about $4.4 million dollars, according to RIPTA. According to advocacy group Providence Streets Coalition, bus services were reduced by 15% across the state.
Buses 32, 33, and 35 come less often through the tunnel. Reductions to many connecting lines are worse, according to the Providence Street Coalition’s Impact Report.
As for MFA student Buck Buettner, they consider all of the options each time they climb the hill.
“It’s part of … the RISD culture to find alternate routes. Obviously, the bus cuts straight through underneath the hill,” Buettner said.
But, Buettner adds, insiders on foot make use of shortcuts to avoid the climb.
“There are some buildings that you can take elevators and get at least halfway up,” Buettner said.“And you are considered upper echelon of the general public if you can find a shortcut to even slightly shorten your time.”
