Streetcars played a key role in the frenzy of development that followed
completion of the first bridges across the Willamette River in Portland
in 1887. As carlines radiated eastward, a revolutionary shift in
population saw suburban neighborhoods like Sunnyside spring up
overnight. In 1888, the first steam streetcars expanded the city of East
Portland beyond the limits imposed by horse-drawn transportation. Within
a year, motor lines were running north and south of Mount Tabor and
local entrepreneurs, prompted by opposition to locomotives rumbling over
city streets, were experimenting with new-fangled battery, gasoline and
electric-powered streetcars. In 1889, Southeast Portland residents
raised their own money to fund one of the first electric street railways
in the country. By 1891, rival companies had merged to form the largest
streetcar system in the West. The process would continue into the early
twentieth century, as Portland built the third largest system of its
type in the United States. Most of its carlines would serve Southeast
Portland, operating from the city's largest carbarn complex. This is the
colorful story of those sixteen lines, from the first steam dummy to
Sunnyside in 1888 to the last trolleys to Mount Tabor and Montavilla
sixty years later.