![]() The efforts of organized labor simmered with the onset of World War I. Strikes and boycotts troubled the Pacific Electric throughout those years until they reached the height of violence in the 1919 Streetcar Strike of Los Angeles. Tensions between union leaders and like-minded Los Angeles businessmen were high from the early 1900s up through the 1920s. Huntington experienced periods of opposition from organized labor with the construction of the new railways. The company's first main project, the line to Long Beach, opened July 4, 1902. Using surrogates, the syndicate began purchasing property and rights-of-way. ![]() Hellman and his group of investors owned the controlling majority of stock (double that of Huntington's) and the newspapers of the time referred to it as the Huntington-Hellman syndicate. In that same year, Huntington and Hellman incorporated a new entity, the Pacific Electric Railway of California, formed to construct new electric rail lines to connect Los Angeles with surrounding cities. In May 1901, Hellman, who had been Southern California's leading banker for almost three decades (and owned much property down there), wrote Huntington that "the time is at hand when we should commence building suburban railroads out of the city." Hellman added that he had already tasked engineer Epes Randolph to survey and lay out the company's first line which would be to Long Beach. ![]() Huntington then decided to focus his energies on Southern California. When uncle Collis died, Henry lost a boardroom battle for control of the Southern Pacific to Union Pacific President E. The success of their San Francisco trolley adventure and Hellman's experience in financing some early Los Angeles trolley lines led them to invest in the purchase of some existing downtown Los Angeles lines which they began to standardize and organize into one network called the Los Angeles Railway. Hellman, the President of the Nevada Bank, San Francisco's largest, became one of the largest bond holders for these lines and he and the younger Huntington developed a close business relationship. Huntington, Huntington had a background in electric trolley lines in San Francisco where he oversaw SP's effort to consolidate many smaller street railroads into one organized network. As a Vice President of the Southern Pacific Railroad (SP), operated by his uncle, Collis P. The Pacific Electric Railway was created in 1901 by railroad executive Henry E. The top two (front and back views) between downtown LA and Santa Monica, the bottom for a transfer from Hollywood to the San Fernando Valley. Old Mission Trolley streetcar of the Pacific Electric makes a stop at Mission San Gabriel Arcángel, 1905. : 208 In 1895 the Pasadena & Pacific Railway was created from a merger of the Pasadena and Los Angeles Railway and the Los Angeles Pacific Railway (to Santa Monica.) The Pasadena & Pacific Railway boosted Southern California tourism, living up to its motto "from the mountains to the sea." Western District: Hollywood, Glendale/ Burbank, San Fernando Valley, Beverly Hills, Santa Monica, Manhattan/ Redondo/ Hermosa Beaches, Venice, Playa Del Rey.Įlectric trolleys first appeared in Los Angeles in 1887.Southern District: Long Beach, Newport Beach, Huntington Beach, San Pedro via Dominguez, Santa Ana, El Segundo, Redondo Beach via Gardena, and San Pedro Via Torrance.Eastern District: Pomona, San Bernardino, Arrowhead Springs, Riverside, Rialto and Redlands in the Inland Empire.Northern District: San Gabriel Valley, including Pasadena, Mount Lowe, South Pasadena, Alhambra, El Monte, Covina, Duarte, Glendora, Azusa, Sierra Madre, and Monrovia.The system shared dual gauge track with the 3 ft 6 in ( 1,067 mm) narrow gauge Los Angeles Railway, "Yellow Car," or "LARy" system on Main Street in downtown Los Angeles (directly in front of the 6th and Main terminal), on 4th Street, and along Hawthorne Boulevard south of downtown Los Angeles toward the cities of Hawthorne, Gardena, and Torrance.ĭistricts Los Angeles Pacific Electric (Red Cars) network ( interactive version) Organized around the city centers of Los Angeles and San Bernardino, it connected cities in Los Angeles County, Orange County, San Bernardino County and Riverside County. The Pacific Electric Railway Company, nicknamed the Red Cars, was a privately owned mass transit system in Southern California consisting of electrically powered streetcars, interurban cars, and buses and was the largest electric railway system in the world in the 1920s. Overhead line, 600 V DC, 1200 V DC (San Bernardino Line only) Los Angeles Metropolitan Transit Authority, Los Angeles Metro Rail (passenger)Ĥ ft 8 + 1⁄ 2 in ( 1,435 mm) standard gauge Pacific Electric Building and Main Street
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