Street Railroads

Postcard with view of East 6th Street Austin, Texas. You can see streetcars and people riding horses in the street.

Photographs documenting the Austin Street Railway Company from the Austin Files collection. n February 7, 1940, the intersection of Congress Avenue and 6th Street was closed. A temporary platform was erected, around which crowds gathered to witness ceremonies marking the end of the streetcar era in Austin. The streetcar had been traveling through the very intersection that people were crowded into for 65 years. From 1875 - 1940 the streetcars were fundamental to Austin’s landscape, shaping the city they operated in by driving people’s decisions of where to live and work, serving as a battleground for racial conflict, and influencing city transportation policies. A ubiquitous feature of the city since the first mules pulled their cargo of passengers past the wagons and trolleys on the dirt lanes of Austin as a frontier town before electricity powered them across a city crowded with automobiles. The streetcars rolled across the city as a symbol of Austin’s growth, bearing more than witness to her development but playing a critical role in it as well. The routes of their tracks drove more than passengers. From Hyde Park to Travis Heights and from Lake Austin to East Austin, residential development across the city can trace its roots to the streetcar lines.

Photographs documenting street cars from the Austin Files collection. n February 7, 1940, the intersection of Congress Avenue and 6th Street was closed. A temporary platform was erected, around which crowds gathered to witness ceremonies marking the end of the streetcar era in Austin. The streetcar had been traveling through the very intersection that people were crowded into for 65 years. From 1875 - 1940 the streetcars were fundamental to Austin’s landscape, shaping the city they operated in by driving people’s decisions of where to live and work, serving as a battleground for racial conflict, and influencing city transportation policies. A ubiquitous feature of the city since the first mules pulled their cargo of passengers past the wagons and trolleys on the dirt lanes of Austin as a frontier town before electricity powered them across a city crowded with automobiles. The streetcars rolled across the city as a symbol of Austin’s growth, bearing more than witness to her development but playing a critical role in it as well. The routes of their tracks drove more than passengers. From Hyde Park to Travis Heights and from Lake Austin to East Austin, residential development across the city can trace its roots to the streetcar lines.