Residents of the Brooklyn district were clamoring for streetcar service as early as 1900 and a franchise was granted to the City & Suburban Railway Company in December of that year, but it took until March 1902 for service on the line to be inaugurated.

The line originally served downtown via the first Morrison Bridge, which was in a parlous state of repair and in dire need of replacement. In February 1904, in preparation for construction of the new span, service across the old bridge was taken up by a transfer car that met all of the Morrison street lines at East Morrison and Water streets and took passengers across the bridge to Front Street. Pedestrians were prohibited from crossing the bridge, but could be taken across in the cars for a fare of two cents.

In October 1904, the old span was closed to all traffic and transfer cars operated via the Burnside Bridge instead. Although not explicitly stated in any articles I’ve seen so far, it seems reasonable to assume that Brooklyn cars traveled up Grand to Burnside to meet with the transfer cars there. This system remained in place until the second Morrison Bridge opened to streetcar traffic on January 16, 1905 and the original route was restored.

While all of the other southeastern streetcar lines were eventually standardized as standard gauge to allow them to operate out of the Sellwood car barn and cross the Hawthorne Bridge, the Brooklyn line remained narrow gauge to afford access to the Center Street shops for all of the other streetcar lines via a spur that ran south from Powell Boulevard on SE 16th Avenue to SE Rhone Street.

By 1927, the Portland Electric Power Company wanted to shut the Brooklyn line down, but met with stiff opposition at multiple council meetings. Finally, a compromise was reached in August: the “Brooklyn” name would be retired, but the Bridge Transfer line would be extended to run over the entire length of the old Brooklyn route south of the Morrison bridge on the east side.

See also: Bridge Transfer (1915–1940, 1942–1947)

Untitled