Trolley Tuesday 2/18/20 - The Birth of the Seattle Electric

Like many big cities, Seattle has had a long and storied history with the streetcar going back to 1884, now served by a modern system from the late 20th and early 21st century. Formed from many companies under one conglomerate owner, Seattle's street railways served dutifully until the eve of World War II, when buses replaced all streetcars in 1941. Today, we take a brief look at how the interurban and street railways were born in the Emerald City until 1918, when the system became city-owned.

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The first horsecar to run in Seattle, Sept. 23, 1884
(Historylink.org)

Frank Osgood, real estate investor and
HG Wells impersonator
(Bagley, History of King County)

Horsecars began running in Seattle on September 23rd, 1884, when the 2nd Avenue Line in downtown Seattle was established by entrepreneur and real estate venture capitalist Frank Osgood. Osgood was the first man to run a streetcar in Seattle, but not the first to propose one; Irving Ballard obtained a franchise to run the 1st Avenue line in 1879, but nothing ever came of it. At this time, Seattle streets were about as muddy and unpaved as any other booming city and horses would have a hard time navigating the thick mire, as well as people trying to walk down the street.


For a nickle, people could shed the mud from their boots and ride aboard smooth rail, which made the 2nd Avenue Line an instant hit. Spurred by the success, Osgood was able to invest enough capital to electrify the horsecars and gave Seattle its first electrified streetcar line by 1889. Mass transit began to boom shortly after as J.M Thompson and a familiar Fred Sander (who would establish the Puget Sound Electric Railway) founded a cable car line from Pioneer Square to Leschi Park via Yesler Way and Jackson Street. Based on the San Francisco conduit system, the new cable connected Puget Sound ferries at Elliot Bay with Lake Washington Ferries on the other side of the city. Not only was this the first cable railway in Seattle, it was probably the first intermodal transit system in America!

Yesler Way "California Car" at Forston Square and 2nd
Avenue, 1912
(Historylink.org)

Despite the yahoos on Wall Street bringing the American economy to its knees and crashing many street railway startups, Seattle trackage doubled by 1893 and helped establish new neighborhoods in Ballard (after Irving Ballard), Rainier Valley, and the bustling port outcropping of West Seattle. With so many franchises being awarded to the 22 independent streetcar lines, it seemed inevitable that investors would invade the city, seeking to consolidate and connect everything.

This period of conglomeration would begin in 1898, when Jason Furth began buying up all 22 companies on behalf of his employer, Stone and Webster. As mentioned before, Stone and Webster (S&W) also gained ownership of Sander's Seattle Electric Railway (SE) and completed its construction, but the city looked none too kindly upon its new transit owners. In 1900, the city granted S&W a 40-year franchise, and immediately people began yelling that they were under a monopoly, fighting words in the Gilded Age. Nothing ever came of this, and S&W were allowed to consolidate their holdings into the Puget Sound Power, Light, and Traction Company.

A streetcar belonging to the Seattle Central Railway, 1901
(Seattle Municipal Archives)

There was brief competition with the private Seattle Electric, as West Seattle purchased a private line in 1902 with the intention of running city-owned public transit against privatised public transit. While West Seattle was able to hold the distinction of being the first city-owned street railway (way before San Francisco established the MUNI), it only lasted until 1907, when it was annexed to SE. Perhaps West Seattle had something going for it, as by 1911, the entire city was pissed off with Seattle Electric's antics.

In 1911, Seattle Electric failed to buy the Seattle-Renton Interurban Railway (on the South Tip of Lake Washington). Passengers were already not pleased with the street railway's doings, citing aging equipment and erratic schedules, and the mandated nickel fare (which blocked fare increases), streetcar strikes (the biggest of which occured in 1917), and competition from jitney and city buses forced S&W into a quandry. The establishment of the first municipal car line, the Municipal Street Railway, or Seattle Muni) between Downtown and Ballard certainly did not help, as what West Seattle started was soon growing support all over the city.

Mayor Ole Hanson, photographed in 1919
(Seattle Municipal Archives)

By 1918, S&W decided to cede the Seattle Electric streetcars, and the Puget Sound Electric Interurbans, to the City of Seattle to cut their losses and move on. Mayor Ole Hanson agreed to buy the system for $15 Million, with the cost footed by taxpayers who approved the bill of sale that same year. The deal all but broke the Minicipal Street Railway from the get-go, with the State Supreme Court being none-too-merciful in denying any subsidies to aid the system. By the turn of the Roaring Twnties, Seattle had a streetcar line to call its own, but it would take a long time before the railway could move past the red and into the black.

A 1909 Seattle Electric guidebook, published by Stone and Webster
(HistoryLink.Org)

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Thank you for reading today's Trolley Tuesday! on Thursday, we look back on the interesting dilemma a city faces with its own street railway and maybe even glimpse some of the cars used in operations. This Friday, we'll also have two bonus From the Archives posts (which will now be a regular thing, if I wanna move all my posts from Twitter on here.) Until then, ride safely!