- City:
- San Antonio, TX
- Site Type:
- Roads, Bridges, and Tunnels, Infrastructure and Utilities
- New Deal Agencies:
- Work Relief Programs, Works Progress Administration (WPA)
- Completed:
- 1940
- Quality of Information:
- Minimal
- Marked:
- No
- Site Survival:
- No Longer Extant
Description
The Works Progress Administration project 65-1-66-2583 removed the streetcar rails from Houston and Commerce Streets in downtown San Antonio in 1940.
San Antonio streetcar service began on June 22, 1878. San Antonio’s streetcar system reached its peak at ninety miles of track in 1926. As the Great Depression took hold, the declining amount of people living in downtown San Antonio, where the bulk of the streetcars’ ridership occurred, were less able to buy tickets. Buses and automobiles were also adding to the competition for riders. San Antonio became the first major U.S. city to abandon streetcar service. The last car ran on April 29, 1933.
Source notes
Note cards on historical photographs from the National Archives and Records Administration digitized by the Historic Sites and Structures Program, Texas State Parks (Texas Parks and Wildlife Department):
(https://www.flickr.com/photos/141324854@N04/albums/72157666249762361), accessed April 6, 2018.
TX Transportation Museum: (https://www.txtransportationmuseum.org/history-streetcars.php), accessed April 6, 2018.
Site originally submitted by Larry Moore on April 6, 2018.
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