News-Pilot from San Pedro, California • 17

'Big Red Cars' were a prime factor in spread of LA By Tom Coulter Staff writer The time was spring of 1902 The first Cadillac chugged past a down-town trolley car in Los Angeles Electric Theater the first motion picture show house in the world was opened at 262 Main St Baseball fever hit a new high with the announcement the Pacific Coast League would be formed in another year And almost every one of Los 120000 citizens hailed the announcement of Henry vast interurban rail construction program as a vital impetus to Southern development The name Pacific Electric first appeared on an electric trolley car at the tag end of the horse car and cable car era just before the turn of the century Pacific Electric was to evolve from a series of consolidations which saw 72 separately owned rail companies spring up and fade away first completed interurban line was opened to Long Beach on July 4 1902 The following October the Pasadena Short Line was completed Los Angeles Pacific and Los Angeles Redondo lines were acquired from these companies Gradually the Pacific Electric tracks began to reach into outlying areas giving the basin its first mass rapid transit system The Monrovia Line opened in 1903 reached Glendora in 1907 The Whitter Line also opened in 1903 reached La Habra in 1908 The lines to Glendale San Pedro and Newport were opened in 1904 In 1905 the Santa Ana Line was opened and the lines to Sierra Madre and Pasadena via Oak Knoll were completed the following year In 1911 the Van Nuys Line was opened and the Glendale Line was extended to Burbank Lines reached Pomona in 1912 and San Bernardino in 1914 The last significant passenger rail line expansion was from San Gabriel to Temple City in 1922 Until the auto age outdated them the Red were a favorite means of regular travel and were patronized by sightseers to the Ostrich Farm San Gabriel Mission Lucky ranch Casa Verdugo Restaurant the Redondo Beach plung and Mount Lowe (until the tavern burned down in 1936) With the consolidation of all the systems in 1911 into a unified interurban facility Pacific Electric was to win fame as the largest electric interurban system It was a prime factor in the founding of numerous new settlements and in the development of existing cities and towns in its four-county territory Few visitors to when bus substitutions were made on six rail lines There are some who may remember the first electric car which was run between San Pedro and Los Angeles at 6 am July 4 1904 The small car skipping over the hills between' the infant metropolis-to-be and the embryo harbor was a veritable It was in those days that streetcar men with sporting blood and weapons caused to be written into the Los Angeles city ordinance a regulation prohibiting the shooting of jackrabbits from the rear platforms of streetcars Historians note with amusement the obstructions faced by the new Pacific Electric company from the older Southern Pacific Railroad Mainly because it later was shown that Pacific Electric was a subsidiary of Southern Pacific Pacific Electric was given a franchise up Beacon Street and wished to run its rails across the Southern Pacific tracks at Beacon and Fourteenth streets Southern Pacific officials made statements they would never let the Pacific Electric cross its tracks Laying of the new road was held up for some time but the company finally placed its rails on both sides up to the Southern Pacific tracks A cross track was then prepared so everything would be in readiness to jerk out a few feet of ties and place in the crossrails allowing both lines to use the tracks A time was set for the placing of the new cross piece and people from Los Angeles and San Pedro gathered from miles around to watch the dispute According to reports the scene was one of excitement as the Pacific Electric workers gathered to set the new track But Southern Pacific continued to run its trains on the track and the spectators grew tired and left When residents awoke in the morning the crosstie was in and no more was said about the fight It later became known Pacific Electric was owned by Southern Pacific The system flourished through World War II days After the war passenger traffic began to decline In 1953 Pacific Electric sold its passenger business to Metropolitan Coach Lines which immediately began to substitute buses for the big red cars The Metropolitan Transit Authority took over in March 1958 and substituted more buses for cars The Los Angeles-San Pedro line was the next to last 'to go Buses replaced the red cars on this line in December 1959 The last of the red car service was April 8 1961 when one of the cars made its final trek from Los Angeles to Long Beach Trolleys came to San Pedro in early 1900s Los Angeles with its 3 million population today was only an infant a century ago In 1880 the city had 11000 people growing to 50000 people by 1890 And with the growth the citizens began to look at their urban needs: a harbor and better transportation In 1909 Los Angeles annexed by vote of the residents San Pedro and Wilmington A narrow neck of city land extending 22 miles over vacant farmland connected Los Angeles with the boundaries of the seaside towns Development of the Port of Los federal breakwater ensured a safe port for ships To bring passengers and freight from Los Angeles California Pacific in 1903 had built a narrow gauge line to San Pedro via Gardena Pacific Electric built competing tracks to San Pedro from Los Angeles in 1905 through its subsidiary Los Angeles Interurbans According to information contained in the Interurbans Magazine article of the Pacific Electric which was published in 1962 San Pedro was one of Pacific smaller local rail systems By 1926 there were three lines operating in San Pedro spurring out to Point Fermin La Rambla and the West Basin The West Basin Line was operated only during morning and evening hours to serve workers employed at oil refineries along the line It was not heavily used As of 1911 the Point Fermin Line ran from a connecting point at Sixth and Palos Verdes streets via Sixth Pacific Avenue and on some private property to a terminus at Point Fermin Park Built in 1905-06 it was extended from Fourteenth Street and Pacific Avenue to the point in 1907 It was extended in 1918 to Fifth and Front streets Unregulated bus competition siphoned much passenger traffic from the Point Fermin line Fort MacArthur personnel provided much of the use A short winding and scenic bit of private right of way carried the cars over the crest of the hill bringing them out on top of Point Fermin where they terminated at Pacific Avenue and Carolina Street opposite the park The slippage of Paseo del Mar in the 1930s resulted in the cars turning back a block east of the park Pacific Electric cars not only competed with paralleling bus routes but did so at a higher fare Historians say is was remarkable that the line survived as long as it did The end came on Oct 1 1934 The tracks from Sixth Street and Pacific Avenue were removed in 1935-36 The La Rambla Line extended from Sixth and Pacific north on Pacific to Fifth Street west on private right of way and then followed La Alameda to Bandini Street north to Santa Cruz The line was 152 miles in length and the running time was nine minutes La Rambla incorporated county territory was fortunate in that it did not have any bus competition While not as heavily used a line as Point Fermin it was i the last line to survive being abandoned on Jan 23 1938 SAN PEDRO V3A DOAAENGUEZ LENS UmiomOm Trolley car talk scheduled July 9 atSP museum The Big Red Cars another name for the Pacific Electric Line which carried passengers across the Los Angeles basin for more than half a century will be remembered at the July 9 meeting of the San Pedro Bay Historical Society William A Myers a sixth-generation Californian will recall the history of Los first mass rapid transit system during the 7:30 pm meeting at the Los Angeles Maritime Museum He has published Trolleys to the Surf a history of trolley lines in western Los Angeles From the Mountains to the Sea a comprehensive look at the earliest years of the red cars and Southern California Edison A History the first comprehensive history ever published of the utility Myers is working on a book about the little known trolley system in Santa Barbara He is also co-producer of several documentary films on urban rolley lines He is an associate member of the American Society of Civil Engineers and a life member of both the Railway and Locomotive Historical Society and the Orange Empire Railway Museum The meeting will be open to the public according to Art Almeida president of the historical society Southern California failed to take at least one of its famous excursion trips Motor coaches were introduced by Pacific Electric in 1917 on its San Bernardino Line In 1923 Pacific Electric and the Los Angeles Railway set up a joint operation as the Los Angeles Motor Coach Co which was split between the two companies in 1949 In 1930 Pacific Electric bought a two-thirds interest in in the interurban Motor Transit Co and in 1936 purchased the other one-third interest from Greyhound In 1939 these lines were wholly merged with Pacific Electric operations The rehabilitation program of 1939-40 further stimulated motor coach business i Oure Harbor sW 'Gov't BBAKWATt Photos and historical materials from files of San Pedro Bay Historical Society and from Everett Hager i.