The Meigs Elevated Railway—one of the world’s first monorail systems—looked like something out of a Jules Verne novel. But it was very real. In this week’s episode, hear how nineteenth-century Bostonians missed their chance to build a steam punk utopia.The monorail system was the brainchild of Joe Meigs, a Civil War veteran and tinkerer who had political and financial backing from Massachusetts governor Benjamin Butler. Meigs envisioned a system that would soar above the streetcar traffic clogging Boston’s streets. Beginning in 1884, thousands of people boarded his distinctive cylindrical train cars for 20-mph rides around a test track in East Cambridge, MA. The system was a technical success, and eventually Meigs obtained a charter to build miles of monorail track around Boston. But a fateful attack one winter night in 1887 dashed his hopes—and proved that the best technology isn’t always the one that wins widespread adoption.Featured guest: Charles Sullivan of the Cambridge Historical Commission. Charlie also provided key historical perspective in Soonish 1.09, A Tale of Two Bridges.Featured voice: Charles Gustine, producer, IconographyTo browse an extensive gallery of images of the Meigs monorail, check out our show notes.A full episode transcript is available in the Extras section of the Soonish website.Related episode: Soonish 1.02, Monorails: Trains of Tomorrow?We need your ideas to make the show better! Please take a few minutes to fill out our listener survey at soonishpodcast.org/survey.CHAPTER GUIDEThe Soonish theme is by Graham Gordon Ramsay. Additional music from Titlecard Music and Sound. For complete details on this episode go to soonishpodcast.org/302-the-track-not-taken.Soonish is a proud founding member of Hub & Spoke, a collective of smart, idea-driven nonfiction podcasts. Learn more at hubspokeaudio.org.Don't forget to fill out our listener survey at soonishpodcast.org/survey.If you haven’t already, please rate and review Soonish on Apple Podcasts / iTunes! The more ratings we get, the more people will find the show. See https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/soonish/id1185234753?mt=2You can also support the show with a per-episode donation at patreon.com/soonish. Listener support makes all the difference!Give us a shout on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram and sign up for our email newsletter, Signals from Soonish.