STREET RAILWAYS.
On September 6th, 1876, a franchise was granted to a company composed of J. P. Smith. K. M. VanZandt, W. A. Huffman, Morgan Jones and Geo. Noble for a street railway from the court house to the Texas & Pacific depot. The contract for its construction was let to Morgan Jones and the work commenced on November 17th. The first car ran over the line on Christmas day and Mr. Walter A. Huffman officiated as conductor. The cars were about the size of an ordinary street omnibus and were propelled by one mule something larger than a west Texas jack rabbit. That the business was not very profitable is gathered from the report of the first year’s business, which shows that the gross receipts were $22.00 per day, showing the transportation of 440 persons each day.
In 1882 there was a spurt in street railway construction that is probably without a parallel. Every one that had any money, and some who had none, undertook to build a street railway. The two most important lines were the Queen City Street Railway and the Rosedale Street Railway with the road to Mistletoe Heights as a good third. The latter was constructed from Jennings avenue out Thirteenth street to Ballinger, thence south across the railway to Terrell Avenue, or in that neighborhood and thence west under the Fort Worth & Rio Grande to the Heights. These were where Westmoreland Place is now located. Then there was the Polytechnic Heights Street Railway and another across the river and way out towards Decatur somewhere. The present Traction Company runs over these two latter, and it owns all that was found of value of the Rosedale and Queen City lines. Then there was the “nine-mile belt” that ran all around over the South Side, crossed the Katy and Santa Fe tracks on Magnolia Avenue and wandered around through the Seventh ward somewhere.
Fort Worth was the first city in the United States to have all of its street railways equipped with electric appliances.