horsecar, street carriage on rails, pulled by horse or mule, introduced into New York City’s Bowery in 1832 by John Mason, a bank president. The horsecar, precursor of the motorized streetcar, spread to such large cities as Boston, New Orleans, and Philadelphia, then to Paris and London, and later to small cities and towns in the United States. A common variety of horsecar held 30 passengers and had one open compartment with transverse seats, a centre aisle, and front and rear platforms for the driver and conductor. There were also enclosed and double-decker horsecars. Small, low cars without a rear platform were called bobtails.
By the 1880s there were about 18,000 horsecars in operation in the United States alone. In the 1890s the horsecar gradually vanished in the United States and Europe because of the competition of cable and electric railways. Horsecars were also early railway carriages drawn by horses.