My wife and I have visited Pompeii twice,
the last time being around 15 years ago. The entrance to Pompeii
is called Porta Marina. Prior to the eruption of Vesuvius this entrance
was lapped by the waters from the Bay of Naples hence the name Porta
Marina. The arched entrance on the left was for pedestrians while
the one on the right was for the horse drawn chariots. The cobble
stones in front of the chariot entrance has ruts 3" deep from
the wheels of the chariots. The spacing between these ruts was 4'
8 1/2".
When I was a young boy in 1939 A.D. we lived in the Roseville
section of Newark. At that time the trolley car could be boarded
on Orange Street to travel to Down Town. To the best of my memory
it entered Down Town on the right hand side of Raymond Boulevard.
It then went into the bowels of a building that was the equivalent
of a terminal.
We moved to Vailsburg in 1941 but the trolley didn't follow us.
South Orange Avenue had evolved from the trolley car to the electric
bus. The bus not unlike the trolley ran on D. C. electricity. On
the back of the bus were power antennae. These two metal conductors
would obtain power by contacting the overhead wires in the middle
of the street.
After the W.W.II the bus evolved into what we know it as today.
The tracks from its predecessor were retired in place. When I started
driving in 1952 I and others would use these tracks. The cobble
stones ( Belgium blocks ) were terrible to ride on. It was bumpy
and our old junks would rattle like mad. Riding on the trolley rails
would give a smooth straight unstoppable ride. Especially on a rainy
day.
Most of these tracks were removed or paved over. The last of them
to my memory were on Clinton Avenue in Irvington near Springfield
Avenue. The very last of them was at the entrance to Olympic Park
where it made a complete circle in front of the Park's entrance.
The railroad gauge ( distance between rails ) for trains is the
same as trolley cars. The width of trolley car wheels and automobile
wheels are approximately the same. One might wonder how come? Way
back in Pompeii one of the main modes of transportation was by chariot.
The distance was kept constant so the wheels of all wagons would
ride in the ruts less they get broken. The width of the chariot
wheels was determined by the width of the two horses pulling it.
The width of two horses is 4' 8 1/2".
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