In the Lee of “the Modern Breakthrough”

From the autumn of 1875 Sophus and Anna’s residence was the Tandbergs’ løkke30 or summerhouse estate on Drammensveien, and they would continue to live here for over four years. They took an apartment on the second floor of the house of the Tandbergs. The husband died a couple of years later, and in the census, “Housewife Charlotte Tandberg” was redesignated as “Landlord”. The well-off citizenry owned their rows of houses and summer places out along Drammensveien, which was the main arterial road for traffic in and out of the city. Much of the new construction and expansion faced other streets and areas. This autumn was to see the first tramlines in the streets of the capital. The cars went from Homansbyen (in the region of today’s Bislet Stadium) to the downtown Stortorvet (Main Square) and on to (old) Oslo in the east, on elevated tracks. These cars were drawn by horses. The tram line concession had been granted on the understanding that they would function with horsepower, and not steam, for which also an application had been made. The tramline’s inauguration on October 6th was an event that caused a sensation, and drew a large crowd. The cars were fully loaded. During its first year the tramline conveyed one and a half million passengers. Horse trams were a step in the direction of modernity, and this improvement in communications naturally led to urban development a couple of years later, which in turn brought the population of Christiania to over one hundred thousand inhabitants.