several detached houses from the late 19th century, by Lane and others, dot the streets of Eckington. The first three decades of the 20th century brought a boom in rowhouse construction to Eckington as it did in many parts of the District of Columbia. Truesdell placed restrictive covenants in the deeds of Eckington's residential properties that required that each house cost at least $2,000 and be set back from the building line. There was to be no manufacturing. The Union Army veteran did not place racial restrictions in the deeds, although as late as 1930, there were no African American families living in Eckington. The Eckington & Soldiers Home Railway Company began service on October 17, 1888. It was Washington's first electric railway and followed by just a few months the first practical electric railway in Richmond, Virginia. The line ran from Seventh Street and New York Avenue NW to Fourth and T Streets NE in Eckington, then was extended in 1889, up Fourth Street to Michigan Avenue and The Catholic University of America. Col. Truesdell's subdivision straddled the narrow tracks of the Metropolitan Branch of the B&O Railroad. The Met Branch was a line that brought commuters into the city from Maryland beginning in 1873. In 1888, the B&O bought just north of Florida Avenue and built a passenger station. Passengers were to disembark and ride the new electric line into the city. A few years later, the B&O built a huge freight depot next to the passenger station. This freight center spurred the development of manufacturing and warehousing along the west side of the tracks from Florida Avenue north to Rhode Island Avenue, Truesdell's covenants notwithstanding. The National Biscuit Company (Nabisco) was at 4th and S Streets and Judd and Detweiler printers was at Florida Avenue and Eckington Place. There were as many as 20 warehouses, mostly for groceries and home and building supplies. When the tracks were greatly expanded after the construction of Union Station, the east side of Eckington disappeared under them, including two of Truesdell's original houses. In 1907, a bridge at 4th and T St. NE was built over the tracks to connect Eckington with the Brentwood neighborhood to the east. It was designed to carry motor traffic and pedestrians. A trolley connection at the west end of the bridge stopped in 1962, and the bridge was demolished in the late 1960s. Although the