THE
QUEEN ANNE COUNTERBALANCE
The
railway on the street that was to become the Counterbalance
began life as part of the Front Street Cable Railway. Composed
of three
segments,
the
northern
and
last
to be finished
segment
ran from the cable car power house at 2nd & Denny north
up 2nd Ave. N. to Aloha, then west to Queen Anne Ave., and
then north to its terminus at Highland Dr. (Bradley St.). Completed
on March 1, 1891, the northward extension was separately incorporated
as the North Seattle Cable Railway. It was built with a cheap
and impermanent wooden conduit, forcing a replacement within
the first ten years of the line.
In
early 1893 David T. Denny and associates purchased a majority
interest in
the
cable car line, with the plan to incorporate it into another
downtown railway company they owned. Before that could happen,
the 1893 financial panic ensued and Denny lost control of
the company. The company struggled for years, finally going
bankrupt around 1898, due mainly to poor service and weak
financial
condition.
Sold
to the bondholders under foreclosure, the line was reorganized
as the First Avenue Railway, but could not compete with
the
parallel line electric railway running along 2nd Avenue (a
non-Queen Anne section of the route), and subsequently was
refused a franchise by the city to convert
to electricity, which forced the sale of the line to the Seattle
Electric Company in 1900.
In
order for the new electric cars to safely climb and descend
the steep hill on Queen Anne Ave., Seattle Electric installed
a counterbalance between Mercer and Comstock Sts.
As a car approached each end, it stopped, and the counterbalance
attendant
would hook up the car to the counterbalance, a heavy 16-ton
weight
attached to a cable that would move the opposite direction
to the travel of the street car. The weight aided
the electric cars in climbing the hill, as well
as
reducing the use of brakes on the downhill route. Once
in a rare while the counterbalance weight wasn't connected,
and downhill passengers were then in for quite a ride!
The
last counterbalance car climbed Queen Anne Hill in August,
1940.
View photos
of the counterbalance in action, or take a look at this map
of Queen Anne streetcar routes in 1910.
Article Source: "The Cable
Car in America" by George Hilton
