{"product_id":"rockford-interurban-railway-9781531669904","title":"Rockford \u0026 Interurban Railway","description":"With today's America dominated by the automobile, it is difficult to believe that until the 1920s nearly 100 percent of the US population traveled via rail. Conventional passenger-train service spread rapidly by the 1850s, but another form of rail transportation did not emerge until the turn of the 20th century: the interurban. Almost always electric, interurbans linked cities with burghs. Rockford, one of Illinois's three largest urban centers during the 20th century, enjoyed a system appropriately named the Rockford \u0026amp; Interurban, dating from the city's horse-drawn streetcars of the 1880s. By World War I, the Rockford \u0026amp; Interurban ran from downtown Rockford to Cherry Valley and Belvidere; Winnebago, Pecatonica, and Freeport; Roscoe and Rockton; and Beloit and Janesville, Wisconsin. The Rockford \u0026amp; Interurban enjoyed a supernova of success, rising quickly in popularity before slowly dying when the automobile became widespread in the 1920s; the Great Depression finished the job in 1936.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Arcadia Publishing Library Editions","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50351726788882,"sku":"9781531669904","price":23.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_1f0cd64f-5f33-414d-8df2-04fb3b8271cf.jpg?v=1728268100","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/rockford-interurban-railway-9781531669904","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}