Almost a hundred years ago, Rochester became the smallest city in North America to build a subway. Then, less than thirty years later, they abandoned it. But it wasn’t your usual subway. The City of Rochester built the subway on the old right-of-way of the Erie Canal to accommodate streetcars, interurbans, and freight railroads and get them off of downtown streets. Its operations were similar to the Newark City Subway, where suburban streetcars ran into the subway to continue downtown.

But following the Second World War, the private automobile ate into the subway’s ridership. In 1955, the City of Rochester announced that subway operations would close on June 30, 1956. Thanks to that warning period, railfans flocked to the city to ride the subway streetcars for the last time. Richard Glaze was among them, and he brought his 16mm film camera. Now, 70 years later, we’ve scanned his footage at 4K resolution, so you can relive those last days.