Passing of the Street Car

Denver ran on rails for almost eighty years and then not at all. Horsecars began the system in 1871, cable lines followed in the late 1880s, pulled by powerhouses that kept miles of steel rope moving under the streets, and electric cars replaced the cable. The plaque was presented on the day the last streetcars ran and buses took their routes. For forty-four years the city had no rail transit, until the Regional Transportation District opened its first light-rail line in October 1994. One cable powerhouse, at Eighteenth and Lawrence, still stands.

What the plaque says

This tablet is the property of the State of Colorado This plaque was presented to the City of Denver by the Colorado State Historical Society and the American Pioneer Trails Association on June 3, 1950, the day street cars were retired and the city's transit system was converted to rubber-tired vehicles. The plaque commemorates the passing of the street car which served the city's transit needs for nearly 80 years starting with the horse car December 17, 1871. The plaque is placed here near the site, at the corner of Colfax and Broadway, of the large cable house which provided power for transit lines during the era when the Welton Street line was one of the longest street car cable lines in the world, 65,600 feet. Placed by the State Historical Society of Colorado through the Mrs. J. N. Hall Foundation 1950

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Colorado State Capitol — steps away
  A capitol of Colorado granite, marble, onyx and gold, with three different steps claiming to stand exactly a mile high.
• Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge — 7.7 mi
  Mustard gas, nerve agent and pesticides for forty years, then bald eagles, bison and black-footed ferrets on the same ground.
• Dinosaur Ridge — 11 mi
  A hogback near Morrison with the bones of 1877 on one flank and the footprints a road crew blasted open in 1937 on the other.
• Red Rocks Amphitheatre — 13 mi
  Walker's Garden of the Titans, finished by the CCC between Ship Rock and Creation Rock and dedicated on June 15, 1941.

More markers nearby

• Smoky Hill Trail — steps away
• Sand Creek Massacre — steps away
• Silas S. Soule — 0.7 mi
• The Rocky Mountain News — 0.9 mi