At the end of the 19th century, Portland led the nation in the
development of interurban electric railways. The city became the hub of
an electric rail network that spread throughout the Willamette Valley.
This is the story of the pioneering local railways that started it all
as they built south along the Willamette River to Oregon City and east
to Estacada and Bull Run in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains. More
than 200 historic images illustrate Portland's Interurban Railway from
its rudimentary beginnings through the peak years, when passengers rode
aboard the finest examples of the car builders' art, to the sudden end
in 1958.