The Meigs Railway System: The Reasons For Its Departures From The Ordinary Practice. The work was published later in 1887, and followed by a privately published booklet, The Mechanics of the Meigs Railway, in 1888. However, no urban rapid transit company outside the Boston area made use of the system. The Lake Street Elevated Railroad of Chicago intended to use it when chartered in 1888, but changed its policy and settled on a conventional design before beginning construction. Some international interest was demonstrated in the same year by the publication in Paris, France of a work by Charles Thirion entitled Nouveau Système de Chemin de Fer Aérien Monorail. Nothing came of this, either. This book shows an early use of the term "monorail" to describe the system. Also the Massachusetts charter was renewed in 1888, but in December of that year the first electric streetcar line in Boston was opened. The experimental establishment at East Cambridge was mothballed in 1891. Meigs continued campaigning for a line of his system from Boston to Cambridge, but was hostile to the new electric traction. In 1893, he published a booklet entitled True Rapid Transit wherein he rejected both the building of subways and the use of electric power, insisting that steam engines were more economical. In April of that year, the Cambridge experimental train made a single trial trip which was its last. The line was dismantled in 1894, not because of failure but because it had performed its function and Meigs expected to begin construction of a Boston to Cambridge line soon. Failure In July 1894, the Boston Elevated Railway company was incorporated to build a conventional elevated line from Boston to Cambridge, Roxbury, Charlestown and South Boston. Meigs acquired the franchise, but continued to refuse to countenance the use of electric power. This alienated investors and the public, and he was unable to raise any funds for construction. So, in 1896 he sold the franchise and gave up. The final failure of the Meigs Elevated Railway was owing to its being rejected by Boston investors. When the Boston Elevated Railway reverted to a conventional layout, the money problem went away and the first stretch of elevated line was opened in 1901. Joe Meigs died of a stroke at home in Charlestown in 1907, and was buried according to the rites of the Unitarian Church. Remembrance The Meigs system involved two lower