A new electric streetcar passes an old cable streetcar at the corner of Spring and 1st Streets, downtown Los Angeles, 1896

A new electric streetcar passes an old cable streetcar at the corner of Spring and 1st Streets, downtown Los Angeles, 1896One name for this 1896 photo could be “Out with the Old, In with the New.” A new electric streetcar is passing an old cable streetcar at the corner of Spring and 1st Streets in downtown LA, looking south. And on the other side we can see horse-drawn carriages, which were the main form of transport before cable cars. The clock on the right shows the time to have been 8:17, so what we’re seeing here is peak-hour traffic, 1890s style. With so much hustle and bustle, it’s not hard to imagine the noise that must have been filling the air at that moment.

This is the view looking south down Spring St from 1st in May 2024.

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2 responses to “A new electric streetcar passes an old cable streetcar at the corner of Spring and 1st Streets, downtown Los Angeles, 1896”

  1. Al Donnelly says:

    Ahh, yes! The view is actually north up S. Spring with the intersection of E. First Street ahead of the camera. The sun is on the east side casting shadow marks to the west, so Martin’s conclusion about a morning hour on the clock is correct. There appears to be a post mounted sign for an apothecary on the corner past the shoe store with the awning down…so corner drug palaces were already a thing in the west by then. In east coast images we often find a food joint on the corners…no idea where they were stashing their drugs, legitimate or otherwise. I guess the British preferred to keep the old boozers on their corners.

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