A short-lived and unloved line that was probably the victim of street railway company consolidation. Originally planned to be the Portland Railway Company’s grand line up to Sunnyside along SE Salmon Street (competing with the Hawthorne and Mount Tabor lines, each just a few blocks north and south), construction delays meant the initial segment only opened in late 1904, just before the competing companies merged. The extension up to Sunnyside was no longer deemed necessary, so the line remained as a stub. The line south and east of the intersection of East Burnside and Tenth is scrubbed out on a 1911 city engineer’s map of Portland, indicating that the franchise has been vacated.

Richard Thompson’s text: Service on the Burnside Line was inaugurated in 1903 by the first Portland Railway Company. Original operation was from East Burnside Street and Union Avenue to SE 18th Avenue and Stark Street. In August 1907 PRL&P extended the route to the westside, crossing the Burnside Bridge to 16th Avenue. But in 1911 it was reduced to shuttling between 5th and 16th Avenues on West Burnside. The line was dropped in Dec. 1915.

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