DIVISION SIX — BUSINESS. 437 



cemetery ; and westward to Devil's Gate — this latter branch being operated 

 by a steam dummy motor for some months, at a loss to the company, and 

 was finally abandoned. The cemetery branch also never paid running 

 expenses, although car service once a day, and twice on Sunday, was kept 

 up until 1894, when the whole business was sold to the Pasadena and I^os 

 Angeles Electric Railway Co., and merged into their general combination. 



THE HIGHLAND RAILROAD. 



The Pasadena Union "Supplement" of date April 23, 1886, refers to 

 an article in their paper about eight months previously in regard to reach- 

 ing the top of the mountains by way of L,as Flores canyon, and says : 



"We showed that the water coming down the canyon could be utilized 

 to drive the machiner}^ for a cable road. * * ^ vertical fall can be ob- 

 tained of any amount from one hundred to three hundred feet ; and it is 

 not iynpossible that with this power a cable road or elevator may be carried to the 

 top of the mountains'^ as well as for the down slope line. Our article was the 

 Urst public suggestion that S2uh a thing was within bou7ids of practical possi- 

 bility, and most people laughed at it as a purely visionary scheme ; but now 

 measures are in progress to make it a reality." 



Then nothing more appears in regard to this road until June \ i , when 

 the Union says : 



" On Wednesday George A. Swartwout secured the franchise for the cable 

 railroad up Prospect Avenue (Lake Avenue) to Las Flores canyon. At 

 Colorado street it will connect with the street railway, and at Olivewood 

 with the San Gabriel Valley Railroad, and at Las Flores with a mountain 

 pack train, or eventually with some kind of mechanical up-you-go to the top 

 of the mountain." 



The next mention occurs December 18, 1886, when the same paper says : 



" The right-of-way has been secured for a street car line from Colorado 

 street along Euclid Avenue to Walnut street, thence along Los Robles Ave- 

 nue to Villa street, along Villa to Lake Avenue, and up Lake Avenue to 

 the Highlands." 



The chief promoter of this enterprise was George A. Swartwout, who 

 was then cashier and manager of the Pasadena National Bank. He owned 

 and resided on a small fruit farm on the east side of North Lake Avenue ; 

 through this he opened New York Avenue, running eastward from Lake 

 Avenue, and built the railroad up to this point. The Highland Railroad 

 Company was incorporated March 2, 1888. Its line was extended down 

 Broadway to Glenarm street near Raymond station ; and later it crossed from 

 Broadway to the Grand Opera House on Palmetto street, thence up Ray- 

 mond Avenue to Colorado street. But it was never a paying enterprise ; 

 Mr. Swartwout lost all his property in the " boom," the road was taken by 

 his creditors and kept running just enough to hold the franchise. It was 



*As "coming events cast their shadows before," so the Mount Lowe " Great Incline " was here 

 dimly previsioned six or seven years before its advent. Both this article and the one referred to were 

 written by Dr. H. A. Reid, who served as a sort of incognito assistant editor of the Union for a year or 

 two about that time. 



