Page:Portland, Oregon, its History and Builders volume 1.djvu/426

 uired by

the Hill interests, and is to be extended across the Cascade range to a connec- tion with the Oregon Trunk Line. The cost of the work now in progress, it is estimated, will be about $400,000.

ELECTRIC LINES — THE STEEL BROTHERS.

The first electric line in the city, and which was also the first electric rail- road on the Pacific coast, was the Fulton Park line, from the south end of the city to Fulton Park, and on to the cemeteries; a very useful line and very much needed today. This road was projected and built in 1889 by Messrs. James and George Steel as the owners ; the civil engineering of the undertaking being in charge of Major A. F. Sears. The road was operated by the Metro- politan Railway Company, and after several years' operation, the bondholders of the Riverview cemetery bought up the stock and then moved the line from its higher location on the side hill, where the Oregon Electric to Salem is now located, down to the level valley and the town of Fulton, and extended the road to Riverview cemetery, and depriving the owners of the Hebrew, Masonic, Odd Fellows and Grand Army Veteran cemeteries of the accommodations of street railway access to those places of burial.

After building and putting in operation this first electric line, the Steel Brothers took up the project of building the electric line to Oregon City, which they completed and put in successful operation in 1891. These gentlemen are therefore to be recorded as the pioneers in electric railroad building and opera- tion on the Pacific coast.

After the Steel Brothers had shown how to make a passenger car climb the Portland hills with the invisible electric current, all the other city lines were changed from horse power to electricity; and the manifest advantages of the change induced a rapid extension of the lines and a healthy expansion of the street railway business.

One of these lines so changed was the old "cable" road, operated by an end- less steel wire cable by steam power generated at a power house which stood on Chapman street at the intersection of Market street, and at the foot of the hill where the cars were pulled by the cable up to the plateau of Portland Heights. This cable railroad idea was developed in San Francisco, to^ accommodate the people who lived on the heights of that city overlooking San Francisco bay ; and is still working in a modified form as aerial tramways in the mining re- gions for transporting ores from the mines to crushing mills or smelters.

Following up the application of electricity to the street car lines, came its adoption to general traffic. The first to use the electric power outside of the city lines was Mr. Fred Morris, who had succeeded to the ownership of the roads built by the Steel Brothers. Mr. Morris reorganized and enlarged the companies he took over, interested some Philadelphia capitalists in his venture, and built the first electric line for general freight and passenger business in the state from Portland to Cazadero in the eastern part of Clackamas county, thirty- seven miles.

This was followed up by the organization of the Oregon Electric Railway Company in May, 1906, by New York capitalists, working in the interest of the Hill roads, to build an electric railway from Portland to Salem. This road was built and put in operation in 1907, and a branch line from Garden Home to Forest Grove was added in 1908. This property was formally turned over to the management of Mr. Hill's agents in 1910, and arrangements made to extend the Salem line to Eugene City.

The Oregon Electric Railway Company was incorporated May 14, 1906, the incorporators being Thomas Scott Brooke, Henry L. Corbett and Robert W. Lewis. The capital stock was $2,500,000. The road was incorporated under the state laws of Oregon. The corporation was authorized to build a line from Portland to Roseburg, Douglas county, Oregon.,