"The street railway system came to West Olympia in 1890. They were two horse cars whose lines extended from Puget Street west to Main Street south to Maple park and finally to Tumwater and West Olympia. In 1892, the Olympia Light & Power Co. unveiled an electric-powered street car. This was powered by a Maptha motor shipped from Chicago in January, 1892. The cars were elegantly trimmed in gold and were white in color. The street cars soon were in operation in July, 1892. Olympia's soggy weather soon turned the elegant cars' interiors in wet messes. The cars also displayed colorful beams of electricity as they discharged wherever a good connection was made."

"The cars ran right up the middle of the Fourth Avenue Bridge, a fact remembered well by Red Isom, who wrecked his little roadster in a head-on collision with one."

"The clattering streetcars ran fairly successfully though noisily until the Depression slowed them down, and in 1933 they were replaced by the present Olympia Transit System."

"The following story was generously and clearly written for us by Mr. Dan Cushman, who lived in West Olympia during the hey-day of the trolley:"

"'A lot of people in Olympia don't seem to realize that this town once had a Rapid Transit System. It was the Olympia Traction Company and it was commonly called a Street Car System. There were steel rails on Fourth Street, Capitol Way, and up Harrison Hill on the West Side. They turned and ran north on Rogers St. to the Westside Grocery, which in those days was owned by Shorty Halliday. I can vividly recall the fine cane seats that we sat upon. It was fun to watch the conductor switch the trolleys at the end of each run. The conductor was Mr. Potter. He was a very tall, slender and dignified man and moved with great deliberation. Mr. Potter would get out of the street car at the end of the line and walk to the end of the car and pull down the trolley and secure the ropes. Slowly he would go to the other end of the car and release the rope and engage the trolley at that end of the car.'"

"'I recall a couple of winter storms with snow and ice on Harrison Hill sending the big old street car off the tracks and cross-wise on the street, blocking all traffic. A couple of PHT tracks were used to pull the street car back on the tracks.'"

"'My favorite story about the street car concerned a Halloween prank. Several of the neighborhood boys with names like Lynch, McCarty, Bean, Havens, Barns and Cushman put some very slippery grease on the tracks on Harrison Hill. When Mr. Potter approached this portion of the track the wheels began to spin but the car would not move. When he failed to proceed after several attempts, Mr. Potter backed the car a short distance down the hill. Very slowly he removed himself from the car and walked up the tracks carrying a small container in his hand. Very methodically he sprinkled sand up and down the greased portion of the tracks. Grandly he reentered his street car and proceeded smoothly and successfully to negotiate the hill. Up in the Scotch Broom and blackberries on the hillside above the tracks were a small throng of pranksters cheering Mr. Potter's success.'"