Trolley-Ayatollahs

There are good reasons why private automobiles should not be allowed unfettered movement inside national parks. Harper’s Ferry (HF) WV, the tiny national park that commemorates the historically important, if militarily quixotic, anti-slave rebellion of John Brown whose body “lies amouldering in his grave” etc, is also a delightful little corner of 18th and 19th century architecture in a splendid natural setting at the confluence of the Shenandoah and Potomac rivers where they break through the main range of the Appalachians. The old canals and millworks are amazing. The National Park Service sensibly has gotten rid of one of those informal carparks that just grew right alongside the armory, and spread to the point where parked cars dominated the historic monument itself. The park service now has visitors leave their cars in a new parking lot on the far side of US-340 from where they have a beautiful 15min walk or a shuttle bus to Harper’s Ferry itself. At Yosemite and the Grand Canyon they are applying the principle of subordinating the car on a larger scale.

But at the Grand Canyon they are taking this to crazy lengths. They are talking of a trolley system to take visitors around, and according to Sec of Interior Bruce Babbitt it will one day virtually eliminate the need for cars here... AP quoted him as saying at the dedication of an information plaza where the trolley will operate: “It represents ... a vision which says we are going to restore the encounter with God’s creation.” (AP 10/30/00)

So trolley and rail is Godly! And the automobile apparently is the work of the devil? Spiritual redemption for enviro-evangelists like Babbitt involves the banishment of automobiles.

But even if private cars are banished how will the park staff get around? Police and firefighters? And how will goods deliveries be made? And trash taken out? Telephones serviced?

By road of course. So if there are still roads there’s the infrastructure already in place for transporting visitors by buses and vans. These are mass-produced vehicles that are an order of magnitude more economical than trolleys. But we have a Sec of the Interior who sees rail as inherently capable of allowing some godly encounter.

We’re dealing with something wierdly irrational here. With crazies? Religious nuts?