Crews uncover history with construction in downtown Salt Lake City
SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) — It’s spring here in the Beehive State, which means flowers are blooming, trees are getting their leaves, and roads are getting their orange cones. Construction season is here.
ABC4’s Craig Wirth actually finds construction exciting. According to him, when workers come and tear up the roads it gives us a chance to relive our history. And, in the last several years, he said crews have struck historic gold — finding forgotten trolley tracks.
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The biggest trolley track haul was along 9th South a couple of years ago — and last year they found even more along State Street.
Trolleys ran all the way out to Holladay from downtown Salt Lake City. They were last used in 1927, but started in what we know today as Trolley Square.
The trolleys rumbled, clanged, and shook, and people loved them.
“Well first off, you’re going faster than anything else you can go on at the time, except a train. And so for people, this was a quick, fast way to get someplace,” trolley historian Michael DeGroote said. “Faster than walking, faster than a horse, and they didn’t have cars — so it was great for them. They could go where they wanted as fast as they could.”
So, what happened that caused folks to bury the tracks?
“These tracks have been hidden since at least 1927. 1927 is the last year that they only had trolley cars here,” DeGroote said. “After that, they started using motor coaches, which were busses that used the overhead lines. And then they introduced in the 1940s the gas busses. And eventually, trolley cars went away.”
A storm flooded the city in 1945, and with that came the last of the few-remaining trolleys.
Watch Craig Wirth’s full Wirth Watching for more.
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