Site of Gyeongseong Electric Railway - Seoul, Korea
Posted by: 
silverquill
N 37° 34.260 E 127° 00.618
52S E 324287 N 4160079
This marker for the old Gyeongseong Electric Railway is located across from the great East Gate, Korean Treasure Number 1, in Seoul, Korea. Boasting hundreds of cars and miles of track, it was a major supplier of transportation for three decades.
Waymark Code: WM7684
Location: South Korea
Date Posted: 09/07/2009
Views: 2
Text of the marker:
(loose translation)
Site of Gyeongseong Electic Railway
From 1930 to 1961 this was the origin of the Gyeonseong Electric Railway to Dukseom and Gwangnaru. This line provided both passenger and freight service. It was an important link to the outer areas of the city.
Excerpts from
The Rise and Fall of the Seoul Tram
By Dr. Andrei Lankov
On May 17 in 1899 when the first tram departed Jongno for Cheongnyangni amidst great fanfare, Seoul became only the second East Asian city to acquire this wonder of modern technology.
The tram service was the brainchild of two enterprising American businessmen, Henry Collbran and Harry Bostwick who secured the right to establish a tram service in the city of Seoul. The businessmen were also required to install electric lighting in downtown Seoul as part of the agreement. . . .
In 1909 Henry Collbran was forced to sell his company to the Japanese who by then had established a near stranglehold over the Korean economy. This takeover did not adversely influence the future of the tram. Throughout the colonial era the tram network continued to grow. In 1910 Seoul boasted 37 tramcars while by 1935 their number had increased to 154. By 1935 some 150,000 people rode the tram every day or a fifteen-fold increase in 25 years! Trams ran from 5 a.m. to 12:30 a.m. and welded the rapidly growing city into a coherent whole.
During the Korean War Seoul changed hands four times. Needless to say, the military operations nearly wiped the entire urban transportation system. In 1951, the Gyeongseong Electric Company which operated the trams had 111 tram carriages, but on any given day less than half of this number was able to leave the depot
By the early 1960s the municipal tram company's fleet had expanded to the grand total of 213 carriages. On the average day some 350,000 people used the trams. At the time the trams were often described as "the feet of the people of Seoul.
The last tram traveled the Seoul streets on November 30, 1968. After 69 years, 6 months, and 13 days (from its first run), the tram stopped operating, and only few people remember the large cars which once traveled Seoul streets.
Another interesting article on the history of transportation in Korea can be found in a publication from Ewha Womans University Press 2007 by Choi Woun Sik entitled
Modes of Transportation in Korean Traditional Society.