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Into History.

com. It's late evening on July 5th, 1952,

it's late evening on July 5th, 1952 in London, England.

A tired banker stands in an unusually long and animated line at a tram stop.

He's had a long day at work and is eager to get home. For as long as he's worked

in London's financial district, the banker has used the city's electric-powered trams to commute between his office

and home.

But this evening, the banker has been joined by a throng of cheerful Londoners who want to

mark the end of an era and it's making his commute home difficult.

Today is the last day before London's trams are

withdrawn from service. Three years ago the city's transport bosses

announced that the expensive tram network would be scrapped, opening up London's roads to a fast-growing alternative

mode of transportation, the automobile.

But tonight many Londoners have abandoned their cars and flocked to the city's tram stops

instead, hoping to take one last ride before the tram is consigned to history.

A cheer ripples through the crowd as one of the trams appears in the distance, ringing its bell as it approaches.

As it near as the banker sees that the tram is jammed back.

Passengers wave out of windows and hang off the platform at the back, and when the tram pulls up to the stop nobody gets off they're all too busy

enjoying their very last ride. The banker realizes there's no chance he and the

...