The Red Mountain Park that visitors know and love today was not a park, but part of a streetcar line that brought visitors to undeveloped over the mountain communities, hoping that they would buy a lot. The historic route that crossed Red Mountain was called the Edgewood line, which ran through Lone Pine Gap on the L&N railroad line near present-day Vulcan Park. What had been difficult land to reach, quickly developed as a result.
This streetcar route was built in 1911, and connected downtown Birmingham to the developing southern suburbs of Rosedale and Edgewood (Homewood) over the mountain. It began on 20th Street and 14th Avenue South, making its way via the 18th Street cut near Vulcan, and crossing Red Mountain to what is today, Homewood’s Central Avenue. (See pg. 112 in Birmingham by the Book for more information)
It eventually transitioned to buses and operations ceased in the late 1950s. But a visible segment sits in the middle of the Broadway and Oxmoor intersection. A 60′ stretch of the original 1920 steel rails and surrounding red bricks still remain paved into the asphalt. Thanks to the efforts of community support, when the tracks were paved over in 1968, a short section was preserved as a permanent reminder of the Birmingham & Edgewood Electric Railway.
