From the archives: Montreal's crowded first trams set off in 1861

This story was first published on Nov. 26, 2011, in the Montreal Gazette.
At 7 a.m. the cars proceeded for the first time to ply along the road for traffic and ran the whole day up to 10 o’clock last night.
The Gazette, Thursday, Nov. 28, 1861
The debut of public transit in Montreal 150 years ago tomorrow went off without a hitch [note: this is a 2011 story, so it was 156 years ago]. Montrealers filled the trams to bursting, probably as much to experience the novelty that first day as to g