News of the Arroyo
Title: | Pride goeth before a fall for first inter-urban streetcars |
Subtitle: | |
Date: | 2005-06-27 |
Summary: | June 26, 2005 - Here's th story of the street cars that bridged the Arroyo and connected Pasadena and Los Angeles as far back as 1895. |
Author: | Emanuel Parker, Staff Writer |
Publication: | Pasadena Star News |
Content: | Sunday, June 26, 2005 - PASADENA -- Pasadenans were greatly excited in May of 1895 when the first inter-urban street car service opened between Pasadena and Los Angeles. Excitement turned to dismay 11 days later when two cars collided head-on on the Garvanza Bridge that crossed the Arroyo Seco in South Pasadena. On the afternoon of May 17, as two crowded cars rounded a curve on the east side of the bridge on the single-track line, one going up, the other down, they suddenly saw each other. The Pasadena Star said, \"The motorneers did not jump, but as the cars came together passengers sitting on the outside leaped in all directions while the crash sent those who retained their seats lurching forward. A Los Angeles saloon keeper was the most seriously injured with broken leg bones. Bruises and cuts from glass were common.\' The Star went on, \"The matter is now being inquired into and the result will doubtless be the discharge of several employees and the making of more rigid rules to govern future running. The incident certainly proves a lack of good judgment on the part of somebody.\' About a year earlier, a group of businessmen formed the Pasadena and Los Angeles Electric Railroad Company and raised enough capital to start laying track, which was intended to connect with a line that would run all the way to Santa Monica. One of the investors was Col. Green of Hotel Green fame who contributed $50,000. The cars were shipped from the East over the Central Pacific Railroad. Each car was 35 feet long, weighed 21 tons and carried 44 people, 32 inside and 12 outside. A powerhouse was built on Fair Oaks Avenue. Steam was developed by burning crude petroleum in three boilers, which supplied two steam engines that drove one Westinghouse and two Edison dynamos, generating 500 volts of electricity to power the trolleys. Officials from Pasadena and Los Angeles gathered at the Hotel Green on May 6 to make speeches and take the first official rides on the line. Fare to South Pasadena was 5 cents, to Los Angeles city limits, 10 cents, and beyond that, 15 cents. The Pasadena Star reported, \"On the line workmen are busy setting down the double track between Sycamore Grove and Garvanza, and the whole line is to be double-tracked as soon as possible.\' Pasadena Museum of History volunteer Sid Gally researched this story. |
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