This foray into cartography illustrates the final decades of San Diego’s streetcar network as lines were eliminated and newer cars were introduced in an effort to stay in business. Randolph Ruiz made this map to illustrate an article on the use of streamlined PCC streetcars by the San Diego Electric Railway. In 1936, San Diego was the first western city to feature the then revolutionary streetcars.
The map shows the all of the city’s streetcar lines along with the years in which each line was discontinued. Routes that used the PCC cars are identified in the legend. Streetcar service ended in San Diego in 1949. San Diego was later the first American city to build a modern Light Rail System in 1981.
While PCC cars still operate in a handful of locations, such as San Francisco, most of these cars are long gone. Two of San Diego’s PCC cars are preserved at the Orange Empire Railway Museum, outside of Riverside, California.