Seattle's streetcar history

From horse-drawn trolleys, to the Interurban, to the sleek new South Lake Union trains, streetcars have come and gone over the years.

1884

Frank Osgood, widely known as the father of Seattle's public-transportation system, begins operating a horse-drawn trolley on Sept. 23. Passengers pay a nickel for a trip along steel tracks, laid in the mud of Second Avenue.

1887

Osgood's horses — known also as "hayburners" — had trouble with Seattle's hills, so cars pulled by cables beneath the street are introduced. The Lake Washington Cable Railway, linking Leschi and Pioneer Square, is especially popular in the summer, when people ride along Yesler Way or Madison Street for a picnic at the lake.

1889

Osgood unveils Seattle's first electric streetcar, despite fears that the line would magnetize pocket watches and shock horses with stray bolts of electricity. On the first run, a car stalls, forcing passengers to push it to the end of the line.

Within days, horse-drawn trolleys are phased out, making Seattle the first West Coast city to offer fully electric streetcar service.

By 1891, streetcars and freight cars are sharing a precarious line to Interbay and Ballard.

1900

Boston-based Stone & Webster, which also controlled the city's electrical grid, buys up Seattle streetcar lines and wins a 35-year streetcar franchise. The Seattle Times publishes guides on how to greet strangers, share a newspaper or give up a seat to an elderly rider. The first automobile also arrives in King County, but it will be years before many Seattleites own one.

1902

Stone & Webster opens the Seattle-Tacoma Interurban Railway, which includes stops in Rainier Beach, Renton and Kent.

1910

The Interurban is extended to Everett. Two years later, a Mount Vernon-to-Bellingham line opens, but a link to Everett and Seattle is never completed.

1918

Seattle Mayor Ole Hanson agrees to buy Stone & Webster's Seattle lines for $15 million, three times the appraised value. A long decline begins, marked by poor equipment maintenance and money and labor troubles.

1928

Highway 99 is completed between Tacoma and Seattle, and North Coast Lines begins bus service between the two cities. The interurban train service to Tacoma ends.

1932

The state builds Aurora Bridge without streetcar tracks.

1939

Seattle-Everett interurban service ends. Seattle residents vote to retain local streetcars, but automakers block needed financing.

1940

Cable-car lines on Yesler, James and Madison streets are abandoned, despite citizen protests.

The federal Reconstruction Finance Corp. lends Seattle $10 million to retire streetcar debt, and to fund buses and trackless, rubber-tired electric trolleys.

1941

On April 13, Seattle's last streetcar rolls into the Fremont car barn after its morning run. The tracks are sold for scrap.

1974

Seattle City Councilman George Benson proposes a streetcar line; other council members are unconvinced.

1982

The 1.6-mile, $3.2 million Seattle waterfront streetcar along Alaskan Way begins service. Benson, its main advocate, traveled to Melbourne, Australia, to negotiate the purchase of the 1920s-vintage wood-paneled cars. The line was later extended a half-mile to Union Station.

2002

The waterfront streetcar line is renamed the George Benson Waterfront Streetcar Line.

2005

The waterfront streetcar's maintenance barn is torn down to make way for the Olympic Sculpture Park. Meanwhile, the Seattle City Council approves the finance plan for a new South Lake Union streetcar, including a tax on nearby landowners to pay half the $52 million cost.

2006

On July 7, the city breaks ground on the South Lake Union streetcar line.

2007

Testing begins in October for the new streetcar, to open Dec. 12

Compiled by Rick Lund and Mike Lindblom, Seattle Times staff. Sources: Seattle Times archives, HistoryLink.org and The Street Railway Era in Seattle by Leslie Blanchard