← Ancestral Findings
Ancestral Findings
AF-1144: Morgantown’s Futuristic Ride | Postcards from the Past
00:04:55
Some postcards capture landscapes or landmarks; others capture a moment of pride. This one from Morgantown, West Virginia, does both. On the front, a yellow Personal Rapid Transit (PRT) car glides along its elevated guideway, the Appalachian hills...
Loading summary
Transcript2 lines
- [00:01]
A
Welcome back to the Ancestral Findings podcast. This week, I want to share something from my postcard collection that's really special. It's a card from Morgantown, West Virginia, showing the Personal Rapid Transit System, or prt. On the front, you see one of those little yellow cars gliding along an elevated track with the Appalachian hills behind it. On the back, someone carefully wrote the date on October 3, 1994. The card was published by Page Creations in Morgantown, and the photo was taken by Janet Page Bonsal. To me, that's the charm of postcards. They're not just souvenirs, they're little storytellers. Now, if you've never heard of the PRT, it really was something unusual. Built in the 1970s, it wasn't a bus or a train. It was an experiment in futuristic transit. Instead of steel wheels on rails, the PRT used rubber tires running inside concrete guideways, and the cars were controlled by computer. You'd step into one, push a button for your stop, and it would carry you directly there without pausing at other stations. It was like having your own private taxi, but gliding on an elevated roadway. Plenty of other cities dreamed of systems like this, but Morgantown was the only place where it actually happened. And that's largely thanks to Dr. Sammy G. Elias, a professor and chair of industrial engineering at West Virginia University. He was the one who secured a federal grant back in the late 1960s to study transit options for the growing campus traffic problem. He chose the Alden Star car design that became the basis for the prt, and he rallied political support to get it funded. Even President Richard Nixon gave his approval, seeing it as a symbol of American innovation. Without Elias's vision, it's doubtful Morgantown would have been chosen as the home for this experiment. And it's still there today. As of 2025, the PRT is the oldest continuously operating automated transit system in the world. It's carried millions of passengers, and though it's had its breakdowns and its critics, it survived for 50 years. Just last year, in fact, it received a $6.4 million federal grant to keep it strong for the future. Students at WVU still use it every day, and visitors still marvel that this futuristic idea lives on in a small Appalachian town. I remember riding it myself in the summer of 1989 when I took classes at WVU. I thought it was kind of neat at the time. The doors would close with a hiss, the car would hum to life, and before you knew it, you were gliding above the streets and hillsides. It reminded me a little of the Disney monorail. Of course, Disney's version is sleeker and grander, but the feeling was the same. That little thrill of stepping into the future. That's why this postcard means something. Someone in 1994 thought enough of the PRT to mark the date, maybe after their first ride, or maybe a return visit. They kept that moment by writing it on cardstock. And here we are, 30 years later, still able to hold that memory in our hands. The PRT was built as a glimpse of tomorrow, but this postcard shows us the power of yesterday. One is still moving people across Morgantown. The other is moving us through time with a picture and a few words in ink. For me, it brings back that summer of 1989, when I felt like West Virginia had its own little version of the Disney monorail. And I'll tell you, that's what I love about collecting postcards. Each one has its own life. Someone picked it out, wrote on it, mailed it, or tucked it away. And when we look at them today, we see not just the picture, but the pride and the memory that came with it. If you've got postcards lying around that you'd like to share, I'd be thrilled to add them to my collection. Just head over to ancestralfindings.com click on Contact, and I'll send you my mailing address. So here's to Morgantown's prt, part transportation, part experiment, and in this case, a postcard memory that's still rolling along 50 years later. If you've got a hard to find ancestor you're stuck on, I'd love to hear about it. Just head over to ancestralfindings.com and click on Contact to send me a message. Well, while you're there, take advantage of our free weekly genealogy lookups, explore thousands of articles, and enjoy hundreds of podcast episodes. We've been helping family history researchers since 1995. And if you're looking for even more, check out our Genealogy Gold Q and A series over on Patreon. Thanks for listening, and as always, happy searching.
- [04:54]
B
Marketing is hard, but I'll tell you a little secret. It it doesn't have to be. Let me point something out. You're listening to a podcast right now, and it's great. You love the host. You seek it out and download it. You listen to it while driving, working out, cooking, even going to the bathroom. Podcasts are a pretty close companion. And this is a podcast ad. Did I get your attention? You can reach great listeners like yourself with podcast advertising from Libsyn Ads. Choose from hundreds of top podcasts offering host endorsements or run a pre produced ad like this one across thousands of shows. To reach your target audience in their favorite podcasts with Libsyn ads, go to libsynads. Com. That's L I B S Y N Ads. Com Today.