The moment in 1872 when the first tram line was inaugurated in Barcelona was very Mediterranean: sunny and suffocatingly hot. It couldn't be any other way: it was five in the afternoon on June 27. It went from Drassanes to Lesseps, passing through Ramblas. The model had been provided by the British company Geo Starbuck. This vehicle circulated with four metal wheels on rails and was drawn by two horses or mules. It had two levels; The upper and uncovered floor was called the imperial one. This feminization matched that of the newest transportation system: “the tram-via.” The Royal Academy ended up imposing masculinization and Castilianization: the tram.
The image it offered, I insist, was very Mediterranean with that row of laterally oriented seats facing the landscape. It was very attractive to enjoy the urban panorama in this way, a kind of precedent for the tourist style.
It was bound to seduce the pioneers of the cinematographic camera. Ricardo de Baños did not resist taking his own and by simply placing himself in the driver's cabin he created a documentary so spectacular that it deserved tremendous success: it consisted of capturing everything that was happening during the entire long journey. It was 1908.
It is worth mentioning that prohibiting women from accessing the imperial school was considered; It is not possible to be thoughtful and suspect that this was to avoid falls when going up and down the devilish little staircase, since instead the intention was to avoid lascivious glances in the direction of the ankles, since higher up it was impossible.
Then another very nice model appeared: the planter, a popular and most justified name. It had its sides completely open and served every good month. It was a delight to enjoy the Carrer, not Carrier, ventilation during the summer heat.
The masterful pen of the journalist Gaziel at the service of the memoirist writer evoked with obvious affection the emotion that the spectacle of the garden gave him as a child, as if it were a true attraction.
In Barcelona, which is so Mediterranean, the imperial and the garden were an accurate and reasonable lesson in knowing how to take advantage of a pleasant climate. Even the older ones enjoyed it in this sense.
