Railroads & Streetcars 1868-1920s L.A.'s First Railroads
Since its inception, one of Los Angeles's greatest challenges was how to transport goods between the city center and the port at San Pedro - a staggering 21 miles away. In the Pueblo days of the late 18th century this was done with oxcart. Through the mid-nineteenth century Alta California and Los Angeles changed hands between Spanish, Mexican and eventually American rule, yet by the early 1860s the trade route between the city and the port was still occupied by oxcarts and eventually some horse-drawn carriages. [2] |
The tiny San Gabriel steam locomotive - the first to transport goods and passengers on the Los Angeles & San Pedro Railroad. Image courtesy of the Photo Collection, Los Angeles Public Library. [1]
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Finally an entrepreneur and California state senator named Phineas Banning set out to build the city's first railroad between the downtown and the port. Banning had already conducted numerous improvement projects on the port (including building a new wharf, dredging the channel and establishing the port community of Wilmington), so when Banning introduced state legislation to establish the railroad the city of L.A. obliged. The new railroad was constructed between 1868-1869, and the Los Angeles & San Pedro Railroad officially opened for business on October 26, 1869. Service began with a tiny San Gabriel steam locomotive which transported passengers and freight to and from the port, but by 1872 the San Gabriel had been replaced by two larger locomotives. [1] This better access to the port gave Angelenos increased access to the regional economy, but the real economic and human stimulus that would jump start the city's growth was yet to come later that decade.
1905 stereo photo courtesy of the David Boule Collection. [1]
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Arrival of the Southern Pacific Railway: LA Finally Connects to the Rest of the County
On September 5, 1876, the Southern Pacific Railroad company finished laying tracks between Yuma, AZ and LA (across the Colorado River), and Los Angeles became the western termination point of the southern transcontinental railroad. The city did so at great cost however, having competed with San Diego for the honor and ultimately spending $610,000 on the project (much of it paid for with Los Angeles & San Pedro stock, which Southern Pacific ultimately acquired). [1] The transcontinental link was ultimately worth it. It forced all commercial freight to be routed through Los Angeles, which was hugely successful for local businesses. It also enabled what would become an expansive southern California citriculture industry by linking the orange groves with an easy means to export their product across the rest of the country. Finally, the increased access to 'the land of year round sunshine' led to extensive real estate speculation, which promoted sprawl away from the urban center, and ultimately caused a population boom in the 1880s. [1] Author Scott L. Bottles explained it best: "Los Angeles led the national trend toward decentralization despite the fact that it did not evolve into a major metropolitan area until after 1900. Founded in 1781, Los Angeles remained an isolated small town until the 1880s when the arrival of the Southern Pacific Railroad linked it with the rest of the country. From that point forward the greater Los Angeles region grew rapidly. By 1910, the city boasted impressive streetcar and interurban systems that allowed much of the population to move into suburban developments outside of the downtown area. Los Angeles therefore never existed as a true walking city." [3] |
The LARy "yellow car" - a single end P.C.C. car type "P." Image courtesy of the Metro Transportation Library and Archive. [4]
The Streetcar
Several small (and mostly unsuccessful) cable car and electric street car companies began to emerge in the 1880s and 1890s, but the quintessential Los Angeles streetcar company was the Los Angeles Railway (LARy). Founded in 1895, LARy (also known as the "yellow cars") was purchased by railroad tycoon Henry E. Huntington in 1898 and began service in 1901. LARy's yellow cars predominantly served downtown Los Angeles and the surrounding neighborhoods, and at its peak in 1924 there were over 624 miles of track, 20 streetcar lines and 1,250 trolleys. Huntington ran the company until his death in 1927, and his estate sold LARy to National City Lines (which was renamed Los Angeles Transit Lines) in 1945. [5] It's worth noting that National City Lines was the company - backed by General Motors and Firestone Tires - accused of carrying out the "General Motors Streetcar Conspiracy," in which electric traction companies were bought up and converted into bus systems in the late 1940s and 1950s. While the LARy streetcar lines were in fact systematically shut down and converted into buses between 1945 and 1963, whether the motive was conspiratorial or simply economic remains controversial. [6]
Huntington also founded the Pacific Electric Railway (PERy - aka the "red cars") in 1899. The PERy red car system differed from the LARy yellow cars because it was meant to be a larger interurban network linking the four counties around Los Angeles, Orange County and the Inland Empire. The increasingly interurban nature of the PERy trolley system further enabled the decentralization of the Los Angeles metropolitan area, as people were free to live further away from the city center. Since it competed with conventional railroads, Southern Pacific Railroad company bought PERy in 1911 and combined it with seven other small streetcar companies in what would be called "the great merger." The new company continued to operate as "Pacific Electric" until it was again sold in 1953, and the last Pacific Electric Railway route was converted to bus in 1961. [7]
Several small (and mostly unsuccessful) cable car and electric street car companies began to emerge in the 1880s and 1890s, but the quintessential Los Angeles streetcar company was the Los Angeles Railway (LARy). Founded in 1895, LARy (also known as the "yellow cars") was purchased by railroad tycoon Henry E. Huntington in 1898 and began service in 1901. LARy's yellow cars predominantly served downtown Los Angeles and the surrounding neighborhoods, and at its peak in 1924 there were over 624 miles of track, 20 streetcar lines and 1,250 trolleys. Huntington ran the company until his death in 1927, and his estate sold LARy to National City Lines (which was renamed Los Angeles Transit Lines) in 1945. [5] It's worth noting that National City Lines was the company - backed by General Motors and Firestone Tires - accused of carrying out the "General Motors Streetcar Conspiracy," in which electric traction companies were bought up and converted into bus systems in the late 1940s and 1950s. While the LARy streetcar lines were in fact systematically shut down and converted into buses between 1945 and 1963, whether the motive was conspiratorial or simply economic remains controversial. [6]
Huntington also founded the Pacific Electric Railway (PERy - aka the "red cars") in 1899. The PERy red car system differed from the LARy yellow cars because it was meant to be a larger interurban network linking the four counties around Los Angeles, Orange County and the Inland Empire. The increasingly interurban nature of the PERy trolley system further enabled the decentralization of the Los Angeles metropolitan area, as people were free to live further away from the city center. Since it competed with conventional railroads, Southern Pacific Railroad company bought PERy in 1911 and combined it with seven other small streetcar companies in what would be called "the great merger." The new company continued to operate as "Pacific Electric" until it was again sold in 1953, and the last Pacific Electric Railway route was converted to bus in 1961. [7]
Pacific Electric Railway route map, circa 1920. [8]
References
1. Nathan Masters, "Photos: L.A.'s First Railroads Connected the Region to the Global Economy," KCET, March 14, 2012, http://www.kcet.org/updaily/socal_focus/history/la-as-subject/photos-las-first-railroads.html (accessed on July 29, 2013).
2. Franklyn Hoyt, "The Los Angeles & San Pedro: First Railroad South of the Tehachapis," California Historical Society Quarterly 32, no. 4 (1953): 327.
3. Scott L. Bottles, Los Angeles and the Automobile: The Making of the Modern City (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1987), 14.
4. Metro Digital Resources Librarian, "LARY Streetcars," Metro Transportation Library and Archive, http://www.flickr.com/photos/metrolibraryarchive/sets/72157627708572712/ (accessed on July 30, 2013).
5. Metro Digital Resources Librarian, "Los Angeles Railway 1895-1945," Metro Transportation Library and Archive, http://www.flickr.com/photos/metrolibraryarchive/collections/72157617150277264/ (accessed on July 30, 2013).
6. Mark Hendricks, "The GM Trolley Conspiracy: What Really Happened," CBS News, September 3, 2010, http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505143_162-46240131/the-gm-trolley-conspiracy-what-really-happened/ (accessed on July 30, 2013).
7. Metro Digital Resources Librarian, "Pacific Electric Railway 1899-1953," Metro Transportation Library and Archive, http://www.flickr.com/photos/metrolibraryarchive/collections/72157617190097302/ (accessed on July 30, 2013).
8. O. A. Smith, "Relief map of territory served by lines of [the] Pacific Electric Railway in Southern California; largest electric railway system in the world," UCLA, Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, c1920, http://content.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/hb638nb72q/ (accessed on July 30, 2013).
2. Franklyn Hoyt, "The Los Angeles & San Pedro: First Railroad South of the Tehachapis," California Historical Society Quarterly 32, no. 4 (1953): 327.
3. Scott L. Bottles, Los Angeles and the Automobile: The Making of the Modern City (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1987), 14.
4. Metro Digital Resources Librarian, "LARY Streetcars," Metro Transportation Library and Archive, http://www.flickr.com/photos/metrolibraryarchive/sets/72157627708572712/ (accessed on July 30, 2013).
5. Metro Digital Resources Librarian, "Los Angeles Railway 1895-1945," Metro Transportation Library and Archive, http://www.flickr.com/photos/metrolibraryarchive/collections/72157617150277264/ (accessed on July 30, 2013).
6. Mark Hendricks, "The GM Trolley Conspiracy: What Really Happened," CBS News, September 3, 2010, http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505143_162-46240131/the-gm-trolley-conspiracy-what-really-happened/ (accessed on July 30, 2013).
7. Metro Digital Resources Librarian, "Pacific Electric Railway 1899-1953," Metro Transportation Library and Archive, http://www.flickr.com/photos/metrolibraryarchive/collections/72157617190097302/ (accessed on July 30, 2013).
8. O. A. Smith, "Relief map of territory served by lines of [the] Pacific Electric Railway in Southern California; largest electric railway system in the world," UCLA, Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, c1920, http://content.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/hb638nb72q/ (accessed on July 30, 2013).