Bermuda the Motorless Eden

The Golden Era of Surrey-Fringed Carriages

By Martha Harris Myron

In 1908, while much of the world was embracing the arrival of gas-powered transportation, Bermuda took a very different path and banned private automobile ownership.

The Motor Car Act of 1908 was strongly supported by many local residents and wealthy visitors alike, who wanted to preserve Bermuda’s international reputation for idyllic charm, peaceful roads and tranquillity.

Bermuda became known internationally as the “Motorless Eden.”

For decades, getting around the Island meant relying primarily on two forms of personal transportation: the bicycle or the horse-drawn carriage.

Oscar-winning actor David Niven fondly recalled this bygone Bermuda in his 1971 memoir, The Moon’s a Balloon. Remembering his journeys around the Island in horse-drawn carriages with their distinctive fringed canopies, he described travelling along Bermuda’s white coral roads through a landscape of orchid farms, palms, oleander and giant hibiscus, accompanied by birdsong and the gentle clip-clop of horses.

For Niven, it represented something of a golden era: a Bermuda without cars or motorcycles, where bicycles and horse-drawn carriages ruled the roads and life seemed to move at an altogether gentler pace.

The Arrival of the Automobile

Times inevitably changed, and Bermuda’s “Motorless Eden” gradually gave way to the automobile in 1946.

But an important part of the Island’s transportation tradition survived.

Innovative local taxi and tour drivers adapted British and American convertibles by installing brightly coloured canvas awnings edged with distinctive fringe. These “surrey-fringed” canopies protected passengers from the intense Bermuda sun while still allowing the Island breeze to flow through the vehicle and providing unobstructed views of the scenery.

The result was a vehicle that became unmistakably Bermudian.

An Island Icon

During the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s, the iconic Bermuda surrey-fringed taxi appeared on postcards, travel brochures, calendars and souvenir china, helping to create an enduring image of an island where even getting from one place to another was part of the experience.

The design became so closely associated with Bermuda that, in 1962, British toy manufacturer Corgi produced its own die-cast “Bermuda Taxi” model, complete with the distinctive fringed canopy.

Eventually, however, modernization caught up with the surrey-fringed taxi as well.

The colourful cabs disappeared from Bermuda’s roads, but their memory remains part of the Island’s cultural heritage—a reminder of the days when Bermuda was celebrated around the world as the “Motorless Eden,” and of a golden era when visitors explored the Island beneath a fluttering fringe, with the breeze blowing in from the sea.

• Learn More About Touring Bermuda: https://bermudaheritagetours.com/best-bermuda-shore-excursions/
• More Bermuda Stories: https://bermudianhistory.com/exploring-the-gibraltar-of-the-west/