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On 09/23/1884, the Seattle Street Railway Company, administered by the recent Boston transplant Frank Osgood (1852-1934) and financed by civic boosters Judge Thomas Burke (1849-1925) and David T. Denny (1832-1903), among others, began service on three miles of track. It had ten drivers of four coaches and twenty horses at the beginning. According to a newspaper article in the Seattle Times: "By the end of the 1885 the rails had reached a northern terminus at the intersection of High Street (Aloha Street) and Temperance Street (Queen Anne Avenue), arriving there by way of First Avenue West, with westward jogs at Depot Street (Denny Way) and John Street." (See "Horse Railway Popular," Seattle Times, 11/05/1973, p. D3.) Seattle street railway system grew rapidly in the late 1880s, with construction of a cable car line from Pioneer Square to Leschi Park in 1887 and the application of electricity to power coaches beginning reguular service on 03/31/1889. Seattle became a pioneer in the effort to electrify trolley service, becoming just the fourth city in the US to do so. (See Clarence Bagley, History of Seattle, Chapter XXIV, "Street Railways, Lighting and Power," (Chicago, IL: S.J. Clarke Publishing Company, 1916), p. 429-435.) Historian Walt Crowley said of street car expansion: "By 1892, Seattle was served by 48 miles of streetcar track and 22 miles of cable railways. Street railway trackage doubled during the 1890s, despite the economic Panic of 1893, which bankrupted many street railways. These early lines established much of Seattle's urban fabric, promoting new neighborhoods and business districts in 'suburban' areas such as Ballard, Greenwood, Rainier Valley, and West Seattle. Many of today's buses still follow routes established by the first streetcar and interurban lines." (See Walt Crowley, "Street Railways in Seattle," Historylink Essay #2707,Accessed 08/07/2012.) A number of electric and cable railways proliferated in the 1890s, their growth spurred and financed by real estate developers eager to bring potential buyers to new building sites. New companies emerged and merged with one another, changing names frequently. By 1899, Burke and Osgood had interests in different companies, Burke being a Trustee of the West Street and North End Electric Railway Company which operated 10 miles of track, and Osgood directing the Seattle and Renton Railway Company, having 12.75 miles of track. (See "American Street Railway Investments," supplement to the Street Railway Journal, 1899, p. 251.)

PCAD id: 18023