A ride on the Internet trolley

By María Eugenia Guerra

I love the wild rides you can catch now and again on the Internet while researching a topic. Such was the ride I took researching trolley cars and the trolley that ran in Laredo until 1935. I found a great site specific to trolleys that ran from the U.S. to Mexico -- www.tramz.com/et/mx.html -- which took me to an old panoramic map of Laredo from the late 1890s. The site is written and maintained by Allen Morrison. The map, courtesy of the Laredo Real Estate & Abstract Company, allowed me to zoom in and out of sectors of the city and to discover some wonderful clues about the development of the city at the turn of the century, the route of the trolley, and the names of a number of businesses along the riverfront. I was able to click on particular city blocks to bring up renderings of bridges such as the Zacate Creek trolley bridge.

The map notes that the coal mines were 25 river miles upriver from what is now Laredo Community College . Coal, according to the map, came by barge down the river from the far reaches of the area now known as the Mines Road . That coal was touted on the old map with, “The Laredo coal fields contain the largest veins and the best quality of coal mined in the state of Texas .”

In the vicinity of Market Street and the Mexican National Rail Road , there was a tannery, a wool mill, Yguana Smelting & Mining, the powerhouse for the streetcars, the Laredo Improvement Corporation, and the M.T. Jones Lumber Company. The zoom feature on this map allows a really good look at a drawing of the railroad's roundhouse and other nearby structures. By clicking at an area west of the International Bridge, you can pick up the location of the Thaison Brickyard, the I & G Depot, Ft. McIntosh, the Laredo Seminary, and the U.S. Military Preservation. Additionally, the map allows a topographical perspective for why the Heights is called the Heights. Text on the map clearly spells out that the City was all about drawing development and new business to the area and offering generous incentives. To wit:

The drawings of old buildings like the Commercial Hotel, the Opera House, the Hotel Hamilton, the Masonic Hall, City Hall, and a handful of other old structures add to the wealth of information on the map, which touts Laredo as “the Gateway to and from Mexico.” In addition to all those features on so modest a map, there are population figures of 1,500 Laredoans in 1880; 3,000 in 1886; 6,000 in 1888; and 12,000 by March 1890.

Laredo in 1889 was in the throes of immense growth that resulted from being connected to the rest of the country and Mexico by rail service, a time considered by some the Golden Era in the City's history. The Laredo Improvement Company (LIC) contracted the Sprague Electric Railway and Motor Co. in New York to build an electric streetcar system in Laredo on a 1,219 mm (four feet) track. The J.G. Brill Company of Philadelphia built the tramways' seven new electric cars. The electric trolley was inaugurated on January 27, 1890, and three months later, on March 12, the LIC extended the service over the bridge to Nuevo Laredo. This was the first electric street railway system west of the Mississippi, and the world's first international electric tramway and the first electric railway of any kind in Latin America -- before Brazil (1892), Panama (1893), Trinidad (1895), Argentina (1897), and Mexico City (1900).

Other indicators that the City was experiencing growth was the establishment of the Laredo Electric Light Company which installed incandescent lights and doubled the size of its steam plant. There was also the Opera House with a seating capacity of 3,000, a City Market, a telephone exchange of 150 subscribers, three ice plants, a $40,000 refinery built by the Kansas City Ore Company, and three brick plants that manufactured more than five million bricks annually.

Digressing here just a little, as I went down yet another rabbit trail on the Internet I found that the old Laredo Real Estate & Abstract Company panoramic map of Laredo could be purchased at www.rainfall.com for about $15.

FACTS ABOUT LAREDO

(from the 1890 map)

Drainage excellent. Ample water power. Health and climate unsurpassed. Splendid business openings for men of push and energy. Sites for manufacturing establishments donated by the Board of Trade.

Laredo needs and will give substantial and hearty encouragement to Cotton and Woolen Mills, Iron Works, and Machine Shops, Paper Mills, Tanneries, Factories for the manufacture of wagons and carriages, Furniture and all kinds of Woodenware, and all other manufactured fixtures.

Manufacturing establishments exempted from taxation for ten years.