Serviços de transportes na cidade baixa da Bahia: o quebra-bondes e trabalhadores em cena (1900-1915)

Abstract

The present work aims to discuss the "Quebra Bondes" movement, which took place in 1909, in Salvador, Bahia. For this, it is necessary to know how the services of tram transport in the city. Since its emergence in Bahia, in the middle of the nineteenth century, trams represented an effective means of transport and moved daily thousands of people. Until the first decade of the 20th century, they were powered by animal traction. As the decade progressed, the Companies responsible for supplying the transport put into practice the tramway electrification project. That change, however, does not cancel out the persistence of criticisms that were often in the city's newspapers. The trams, even based on electricity, continued to present serious problems that put the routine and lives of Bahian citizens at risk. The "Quebra Bondes", therefore, is part of a powerful popular movement that took shape in a conjuncture of political changes and evidenced the performance of male and female workers seeking to guarantee their rights.