Sometimes children are unhappy on the road. They complain about the bumpy ride, the motion sickness, the fact that you can't see out of the window and the fact that the journey takes so long. To find out what public transport was like a hundred years ago, take your child to the Frankfurt Transport Museum, located in the old tram depot.
The museum's exhibition is dedicated to the history of public transport. It dates back to 1872, when the Frankfurt Tramway Company built a horse-drawn tramway, or concours, around the city. The first horse-drawn tram has a place of honour in the museum: it may have been clumsy and slow, and it may have had hard wooden seats, but it allowed ordinary people to travel around the city for a small fee, and not just on foot.
The museum also shows the subsequent history of the tram: a brief period of steam-powered transport, followed by electric trams — the first were built in Berlin in 1881, while Frankfurt got one three years later. It was a really bumpy ride, rattling when the road got rough and scaring inconsiderate pedestrians with its high-pitched horn. On the other hand, you can see what levers the driver used to control the trams.
The museum has more than 30 vehicles, including a collection of city buses. The construction of Frankfurt's underground railway is highlighted, and historical maps show how this functional transport system was built, station by station. The highlight of the collection, in contrast to today's exhibits, is a steam locomotive from 1900. Other highlights of the museum include a collection of railway tickets. You can also see the uniforms worn by transport workers at different times.
The tram shop sells postcards of old trams. A small zoo, Kobelt Zoo, is 250 metres from the Transport Museum, where you can continue your walk.
