The Ghostly Trolley of New Haven

Ghosts of New Haven Blog 8 The Ghostly Trolley of New Haven © 2017 by Dr. Philip Ernest Schoenberg, Ghost with a Blog # Ghost

Late on some moon-lit nights, the trolley still makes a stop on Chapel Street in front of what is now the Yale Center for British Art and dormitories of the Yale University Campus..  Once more you can see the rails in the street and the electric cables overhead.  The cable car gleams in the moonlight. Trolleys operated in New Haven between 1895 and 1948.

As you approach, you can see passengers alight—students, office workers, shoppers, laborers, and children.  Then you see they are dressed in the clothing of another era.  Then you even see the clothing is off by a season, always a season behind – wearing spring clothing during the summer.

Then as the trolley resumes its passage, tragedy takes place. A careless bicycle rider too impatient to await its transit tries to beat across its path and is thrown off his bicycle.  Before you can determine whether the consequences were fatal, the ghostly scene disappears, and we cannot resolve what happed.