After publishing the articles Edmonds: Entering the automobile age and the Edmonds 1911 Monorail, I was asked by several people to write about the Seattle-Everett Interurban Railway regarding when it was in operation, where it was located and its impact.

This is a brief look at its 30-year history.

In the 1890s, there was a lot of frustration regarding the difficulty of travel between the region’s larger cities. Steamboats and the Great Northern Railway’s limited passenger train service were not able to meet the demands of the expanding population. Furthermore, transportation between the cities was on rough dirt roads cut through heavy woods that at times were impassable due to the weather and road conditions. Paved roads (with bricks laid down) were not the norm, and would come much later. As a result, civil leaders were looking for other economical and reliable alternatives.

In Seattle and Everett, electric streetcars were just being introduced. Some believed the use of electricity via overhead wires and steel rails would also be able to power larger and heavier cars in between cities via an interurban railway.

 Seattle streetcars before 1900  

Frank Osgood is often recognized as the father of Seattle’s public transportation system. He began operating a horse-drawn trolley on Sept. 23, 1884. The trolley was pulled by a team of horses along steel rails which had been laid in the mud.

Osgood’s horses, which were often referred to as “hay-burners,” had difficulties towing the trolleys up Seattle’s hills, so cables beneath the street were introduced to pull the trolleys up the steeper inclines.

In 1887, Osgood — working with entrepreneurs Fred E. Sander and Jesse Murdock Thompson — introduced Seattleites to its first electric streetcar. Naysayers said in the Seattle newspaper: “the electricity will magnetize people’s pocket watches and horses most likely will be injured or killed by stray bolts of electricity.”

Despite the objections, the electric streetcar system proved to be a massive success. A cable car line was first established along Yesler Way to Leschi, and then a second line ran from the downtown area to Georgetown. By 1891, both passenger and freight cars were also sharing a line between the northern part of downtown Seattle and Ballard.

Author’s note: According to some estimates, there were over 130 miles of track and over 60 streetcars running on a daily basis within the Seattle city limits by 1900. Much of the system had been built by a number of small streetcar companies serving different portions of the city and specific neighborhoods. All were powered by electric current, which was collected by an overhead trolley wire. The cars made contact with the overhead electrical wires through the use of a trolley pole or a pantograph affixed to the top of the car.

Fred E. Sander – entrepreneur and founder of the Seattle-Everett Interurban Railway

While working on Seattle’s streetcars in the late 1890s, Sander also constructed the first six miles of what was to become the northern portion of the Seattle-Tacoma Interurban, which opened in 1902.

But by 1900 Sander had turned his attention to building an interurban railway between Seattle and Everett. He initially founded The Everett and Interurban Railway Company in 1900, but later in the year reorganized the company to attract further investment and renamed the company, The Seattle-Everett Interurban Company.

Sander’s Seattle depot was located in the lobby of the Shirley Hotel on 5th Avenue between Pike and Pine. From the depot, the Interurban used the established streetcar rails out to Ballard. From Ballard, Sander took the next six years to complete a six-mile rail line northward to Bitter Lake (130th Street in North King County). The route followed 15th Avenue uphill to 85th Street, jutted east to near Greenwood Avenue, then turned north from where it followed a private right-of-way.

By the end of the following year (1907), the rail line had been extended to Hall’s Lake (212th Street) in Snohomish County. From 85th Street, the trail went along the west side of today’s Aurora Avenue up to 155th Street, where it crossed to the east side of the road. The trail then proceeded northward to Echo Lake, where it jutted east around the lake (Echo Lake is located just south of 200th Street – Aurora Village), then headed back westward to the road. From there it continued northward, passing Lake Ballinger on the west and then heading east to Hall’s Lake.

During the construction, the Interurban was successful carrying both passengers and freight along the portion of the line that had been completed. Freight was primarily transported at night, avoiding any conflict with passenger train schedules.

Stone & Webster – Consolidation and completing the Everett connection.

In 1900, Seattle’s electrical grid was owned and controlled by a Boston-based consulting and management firm, Stone & Webster. Once they had control of the electrical grid, they began buying up all the small streetcar lines and were able to secure a 35-year franchise agreement with the City of Seattle for the operation of the streetcar system.

In 1908, Stone & Webster also bought Sander’s company. Wanting to eventually build and operate an interurban system reaching from Tacoma to Bellingham, Stone & Webster quickly went to work extending the railway the additional 14 miles from Hall’s Lake to Everett through dense, old-growth forests.

Under Stone & Webster’s management, the trail headed northeast, closely paralleling today’s Interstate 5. The trail passed west of both Martha Lake and Silver Lake and then zigzagged westward to downtown Everett.

As that work was progressing northward, Stone & Webster moved the southern portion of the railway from the original route through Ballard to a more direct route following Greenwood Ave down to 47th Street and then southwest down Fremont Avenue, and across the Fremont Bridge. Once across the bridge, the railway continued south along Westlake Avenue to 5th Avenue to the Seattle depot.

Author’s note: The original depot in the Shirley Hotel was moved to a converted trolley barn on 6th and Olive and later to a new building on 8th and Stewart, which became the home of the Greyhound Bus Company from 1930 to 2014.

Stone & Webster completed the Interurban trail to Everett in early 1910. At the time, the Everett streetcar depot was located at the corner of Colby Avenue and Wall Street, but Stone & Webster moved the Interurban depot one block south to a new two-story brick building at the corner of Colby and Pacific Avenues. From this new depot, the inaugural run south occurred on April 30^, 1910, and the passengers were comprised of Everett city leaders and railway dignataries.

When the work was completed, the Seattle-Everett Interurban covered 29 miles and had 30 stops or stations along the way. Most of the stations were small, and people had to wave from the station’s platforms to get the trains to stop. At night, passengers waved a kerosene lantern to signal the train to stop.

The nearest stops to Edmonds were at the Seattle Heights Station, which today would be located just east of Highway 99 on 220th Street Southwest, or the Esperance Station, which would be located just east of Highway 99 on 228th Street Southwest.

Author’s note: The two stations were more than three miles southeast of downtown Edmonds. If you had to walk to the stations, it was a long uphill trek on a dirt road under varying weather conditions. Frances Anderson, famous Edmonds educator, in her oral history recounted: “My brother and I every morning and evening would walk from our home to the interurban station to catch the train to and from the University of Washington where we were going to school. During the wet weather we would have to sit and clean the pounds of mud and manure off our boots before we were allowed on the car”.

In 1913, a jitney bus was introduced to carry people from the Edmonds downtown area to the train stations, but it was discontinued 14 months later due to a lack of ridership.

The Seattle-Everett Interurban schedule called for the trains to leave both stations every half hour from 5 a.m. until 7 p.m. and then every hour until midnight. Freight was additionally transported between midnight and 5 a.m.

Most stations had just a few travelers, which was a good thing in a way, as the trains worked on a tight schedule. To ensure a fast trip, the trains would reach speeds of 55 mph in some of the more remote areas along the route. At the higher speeds, the trains were said to have rocked or swayed, similar to riding in a boat on the Puget Sound. But the passenger cars themselves were large and extremely comfortable.  The cars could seat 40 passengers, and had a separate room for men to stand in and smoke. There were no seatbelts back then.

At the opposite end of the car was a rear door and platform where passengers boarded and disembarked the train.

Successes and challenges during the Seattle-Everett Interurban’s 30-year history.

From the beginning, ridership had its ups and downs.

At first, the line was a hit due to its newness, but five years later it started to face increased competition from rural bus companies, including the Yost Bus Line out of Edmonds, that had more flexible schedules and routes.

The preparation for and entrance into World War I increased the Interurban ridership. For several years, the trains acted as troop carriers for soldiers traveling back and forth from Seattle to Everett and beyond.

In the summertime, ridership increased each year as hundreds of riders were attending activities at the Playland Amusement Park in Bitter Lake and the Snohomish County Fair. These were, however, short-lived seasonal increases.

One of the largest positive impacts on ridership began in 1917 when Puget Mill, a large lumber company, decided to sell a large portion of its logged-off land,and subdivided it into 5-acre parcels. The company additionally built a 30-acre demonstration farm adjacent to the Interurban to show prospective buyers how they could grow fruits, vegetables and poultry and make a good living.

Puget Mill advertised extensively, and hundreds of people rode the Interurban out to the demonstration farm and ended up settling in the area that we now know as Alderwood Manor. A large number of the new farmers also continued to use the Interurban in the following years to take their products to waiting markets. Unfortunately, as The Great Depression intensified, many of the farmers ended up closing down their operations, reducing ridership.

In addition, the Interurban was instrumental in the growth of other rural areas around Martha Lake and Silver Lake as it was the primary means of comfortable and reliable travel.

The Interurban also encountered other operational challenges besides maintaining ridership.

Here are a few examples:

The trains had “cow catchers” on the front for a reason. There was more than one occasion when the train struck an animal on the tracks, resulting in damage to the train and the demise of the animal. One incident involved a large lynx that was hit and killed. The body was taken to a taxidermist and was later put on display at the Everett Depot.

There were several collisions with automobiles over the years. The worst occurred in 1916 when one man was killed and six injured when an Interurban car struck a car at the Esperance station southeast of Edmonds. All of the passengers were thrown from the car and the car was totaled. The location of the accident was described in the Edmonds Tribune-Review as “one of those abominable crossings where an approaching car can’t be seen until it is within but a few feet.”

There was also one unfortunate incident in 1927 when a man who worked in an Everett barbershop was struck and killed on the railway. No one was aware of the accident until the man’s body was found lying next to the tracks.

In the spring of 1919, two trains crashed head-on when one of the motormen on the southbound train failed to make a required stop, rounded a curve and ran head on into the northbound train. The gentlemen in the smoking room of the northbound train suffered the worst injuries, but fortunately no one was killed.

As reported in the Edmonds Tribune-Review, on at least on two occasions a night Interurban train near Edmonds was boarded by highway men who robbed passengers and crew of their possessions, and then disappeared into the darkness of the woods.

Extreme weather could and did cause havoc. Windstorms knocked down trees across the railways and in some years heavy snowstorms dropped up to 2 feet of snow, shutting down the system for several days.

There were also occasional operational problems with the rails, the cars and the overhead wires, but as a rule the Interurban was reliable and a blessing for those who did not own a car or have access to a bus line.

As the years went by though, the biggest challenge facing the railway was the increased number of automobiles, trucks and buses that were now traveling on much improved roads. Automobiles provided drivers/riders with the freedom to go where they wanted, when they wanted and no longer needed to be reliant on someone else to transport them.

Author’s note:  Stone & Webster built an interurban railway between Mount Vernon and Bellingham during the same period as the Seattle-Everett Interurban. They had also previously purchased the Seattle-Tacoma Interurban system. Due to lack of financial viability, Stone & Webster closed the Mount Vernon-Bellingham operation in 1930 and the Seattle-Tacoma Interurban the following year.

By the late 1930s, the “writing was on the wall” for the Seattle-Everett Interurban as well. In 1932, the George Washington Memorial Bridge (Aurora Bridge) opened, providing an easy, direct route into downtown Seattle for motorists. Four years later, the City of Seattle began converting the city’s streetcars to electric buses, and in so doing removed rails and overhead wires that the Interurban needed to function.  These factors, combined with the economic factors surrounding the Great Depression, forced the company to discontinue operations.

The company announced the closure on Jan. 20, 1939. The Everett Daily Herald’s headline simply read: “Once Busy Interurban Line to Discontinue Service”.  The article was rather harsh in its announcement, stating: “The Everett-Seattle Interurban, once part of an ambitious dream of railroad builders to girdle the state with electric railways, has succumbed to changed transportation methods”.

The final southern run occurred on Feb. 20, 1939 and a crowd of over 2,000 people gathered to bid the train a final farewell.

Remembering the Seattle-Everett Interurban today: 

You may think that there is probably nothing left of the Interurban today, but that is not accurate. The original Everett Depot building is still standing on the northwest corner of Pacific and Colby. A third story was added to the building in the mid-1930s and for many years it was the home to a variety of businesses. Sadly, today the building is boarded up and I have not been able to find out its disposition through the City of Everett.

Those of you who are walkers, runners or bikers may be familiar with the 24.6-mile Interurban Trail that starts in Seattle and ends in Everett. In Snohomish County, the trail heads north on 76th Avenue West from the section in Shoreline at State Route 104, continues to the old rail corridor at McAleer Way and follows the corridor to 228th Street Southwest, where it connects with the new southern terminus of the Mountlake Terrace trail. The trail also includes a spur that connects to Mathay Ballinger Park.

The route, which follows the original railway, is owned by the Snohomish County PUD, which operates power lines along the trail.

Also as a potential matter of interest are the abutments to the walking bridge at 155th and Aurora in north Seattle. These are the original abutments to a trestle that the interurban train traveled across.

Author’s final notes:  The Seattle-Everett Interurban’s story is more complex and compelling than this short narrative. If you want to learn more about its history, I highly recommend the book, Seattle-Everett Interurban Railway: Images of Rail, written by Cheri Ryan and Kevin K. Stadler. I would also encourage you to visit the Lynnwood-Alderwood Manor Heritage Museum as they have one of the original cars and lots of information regarding the interurban and its effects on the growth of Alderwood and the surrounding areas. The Shoreline Historical Museum also has additional information regarding the Interurban and its impact on their area.

This article was researched and written by Byron Wilkes. Thanks go to the Edmonds Historical Museum, the Shoreline Historical Museum, the Snohomish Historical Museum, the Museum of History and Industry, the Everett Library: Northwest Room, the University of Washington Digital Collection and especially the staff/volunteers at the Lynnwood-Alderwood Manor Heritage Museum for their assistance.