Streetcars of the Intermountain West

Over a century ago, streetcars dominated American cities. They were the primary means of transportation urban Americans utilized, and their expansion was instrumental in shaping the development of urban and suburban communities throughout the country. By the 1960s, the once formidable trolleys had all but vanished, their 17,000 miles of track either converted to bus routes or dismantled and scrapped altogether.

The first streetcars in America’s cities were horse-drawn, draft animals pulling passengers to their destinations along rail lines. Alongside these were cable cars, operated using massive pulley systems. In the 1880s, power consolidation and technological advancement allowed for the construction and operation of the first electric streetcars. As the electric trolleys proliferated, cities expanded and incorporated new developing communities. By the turn of the century, hundreds of cities depended on streetcar networks. Intra-city and interurban lines ferried millions of riders to and from their homes and desired destinations every year. Streetcar companies made such enormous profit from their operations that they frequently formed corrupt monopolies, and streetcar worker strikes were common after the turn of the century. In spite of these evident flaws, the trolley was an indispensably vital organ of American life.

The American streetcar died a slow death in the 20th century, for a multitude of reasons. The overarching challenge facing the trolleys was the rising popularity of automobiles, spurred by the assembly-line mass production model inherited from Henry Ford. As more and more Americans purchased automobiles, the streets became messy and chaotic, occupied by pedestrians, streetcars, and now personal motor vehicles. Street congestion led to a flurry of protests from automobile drivers, and road and track maintenance costs became exorbitant. Coupled with municipal policies that kept fares artificially low and government subsidies for road construction, the trolleys were unable to compete in an increasingly automobile-oriented street environment. Trolley companies went bankrupt as early as the 1920s, and by the 1950s, those that remained were on their last legs.

There was and is a paucity of large cities in the Intermountain West; the largest, Denver, just exceeds 700,000 people. But as with the railroads that knit the western and eastern halves of the nation together, electric streetcars were instrumental in the growth of communities in this unique region of the United States. This tour explores five sites in the Intermountain West that are demonstrative of the region’s storied but largely forgotten streetcar history. Through an investigation of the rise, decline, fall, and in some extraordinary cases revitalization of streetcars in our cities, we can better appreciate the integral role they have played in American history.