Columbia Pike Bus Line
They operated the bus service between their home in Barcroft and Washington, DC
On June 21, 1921, Bob May and his wife started Arlington's first bus service consisting of one bus and one driver - Bob May, himself
On June 21, 1921: Bob May and his wife started Arlington's first bus service. It consisted of one bus and one driver who was Bob May, himself. They operated the bus service between their home in Barcroft and Washington, DC. It was known as the Columbia Pike Bus Line, and the first Barcroft-to-Washington trip was made June 21, 1921. In 1924 service from Washington to Alexandria was added and the line became the AB&W Rapid Transit Company.
Soon after Washington-Lee (now Washington Liberty) High School opened as the first high school in the county in the mid-1920s, parents found that students could reached it by bus or trolley from north sections of the County but kids in south Arlington could not. The segregated school persuaded Bob May to devote one his Columbia Pike Line buses to be operated as a school bus for white South Arlington pupils. The Mays had just expanded their fleet of buses so May turned over his very first bus, an old model to serve as the first school bus. It had a seating capacity of about 25 and resembled a large, dark red pumpkin.
John DeLashmutt, a student in the Class of 1928, was the first bus driver. Riders of the original bus recall that if Courthouse Hill was icy, the bus would stop at the foot of the hill, the riders would disembark and walk up the hill, while the driver slowly maneuvered the empty bus to the top. One day, as the bus lumbered up Glebe Road, the right front wheel fell off and preceded the careening bus up the road for several yards as the lurching vehicle came to a sudden halt. Fortunately, no one was hurt in the incident.
The following school year, starting in September 1928, Julian Nelson, a senior, became the driver of a newer, larger May school bus.
When the Great Depression began, the Mays acquired the Washington, Alexandria and Mount Vernon Railway at a foreclosure sale in 1930 and replaced it with buses. May incorporated the Alexandria, Barcroft and Washington Transit Company in 1934. This company continued independent operation until February 1973, when the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority or WMATA acquired it.
(Photos: Bus Drivers: students Joe and Hyman Sher; Mays 3rd bus)
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