page_title: Puget Sound Electric Railway
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Puget Sound Electric Railway / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Puget Sound Electric Railway—View Along the Interurban Line Near Tacoma1= Identifier: electricrailway341909newy (find matches) Title: Electric railway journal Year: 1908 (1900s) Authors: Subjects: Electric railroads Publisher: (New York) McGraw Hill Pub. Co Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries Digitizing Sponsor: Smithsonian Libraries View Book Page: Book Viewer About This Book: Catalog Entry View All Images: All Images From Book Click here to view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable online version of this book. Text Appearing Before Image: Seattle Electric Company—Exterior of Georgetown PowerStation Seattle Electric Company—Interior of North SeattleSubstation Plate XXX Text Appearing After Image: Puget Sound Electric Railway—View Along the Interurban Line Near Tacoma Plate XXXI Note About Images Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and appearance of these illustrations may not perfectly resemble the original work.
context_page_description: The Puget Sound Electric Railway was an interurban railway that ran for 38 miles between Tacoma and Seattle, Washington in the first quarter of the 20th century. Portions of the right-of-way still exist as multi-use trail through Milton, Washington, as well as from Pacific to Tukwila, Washington.
context_section_description: The PSE began operations on September 25, 1902 with a line that started in downtown Tacoma, ran along Pacific and Puyallup Avenues, followed the course of present day Pacific Highway through Fife and to Milton, turned southeast towards Puyallup and paralleled the path of today's SR 167 through  Pacific, Algona, Auburn, Kent, Orillia and Renton, then into Seattle on its own dedicated right-of-way, via South Park, from there running on surface streets to the area near Pioneer Square, where it interchanged with other interurbans in the area.
  Power was supplied via overhead wire in urban areas, and third rail in rural areas. The third rail was the cause of several accidents throughout the PSE's operations which involved livestock or people being electrocuted, and in some cases dead cows caused accidents involving the trolleys themselves.
  The railroad ran for 26 years, until competition from trucks, buses, and automobiles on an ever-expanding road network, as well as the steam railroads, led to reduced ridership in the early 1920s and a decision to shut down operations was made by the operators. Despite protests, the interurban was allowed to suspend operations by a federal judge in a ruling made on October 13, 1928. The final trains ran on December 30, 1928. The rails were not pulled up until 1930.
  It was headquartered in Kent, Washington.
caption: Puget Sound Electric Railway, the Interurban Line near Tacoma
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