In this circa 1905 photo, we’re looking along the streetcar tracks of the Pasadena and Pacific Railroad, east of West Hollywood, which back then was called Sherman. After this photo was taken, those streetcar tracks would become Santa Monica Blvd, which is why the boulevard (which is also part of Route 66) is so wide—it had streetcars running along it until the early 80s. But back at the turn of the century, it was a ride through the countryside.
Pasadena and Pacific Railroad tracks run along Santa Monica Blvd, east of West Hollywood, Los Angeles, circa 1905
This is an “improved” line at this point. Earlier images show a single line with catenary overhung on much small poles, all basically running in a gully jammed up against property lines on the south side. Here, they have obviously widened the right-of-way and centered new poles to support a two directional overhead. Not unlike a freeway, more capacity leads to more traffic which leads to a need for further investment in upgrades..and since it was privately financed it was headed toward declining returns of all of that financing. Add in the problem of auto traffic supported by the endless black hole of debt loaded government spending, you soon begin to see there was no future in providing this service. Too bad there was no way to hang on to this idyllic scene just the way it appeared…all the profit was in developing the real estate surrounding the routes, seeds of its’ own destruction sewn in from the moment they broke ground. Should have built a monorail!