Aberdeen’s Electric Ambitions
The Pacific Wheless Railroad Company secures a franchise to connect Aberdeen to Hoquiam, signaling the city's rapid expansion.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Aberdeen will soon be connected with Hoquiam on the west by an electric motor line. The Pacific Wheless Railroad Company have obtained franchises from both cities, and filed bonds in the sum of five thousand dollars that the work on this road will be begun at once and hurried forward as fast as men and money can push it until it is in operation. What the road will do for Aberdeen is already felt, to some extent, in the increased interest manifested in the territory it traverses.
“Hurried forward as fast as men and money can push it.”
This infrastructure project highlights the 19th-century 'growth machine' mentality that defined Aberdeen, where transit projects were often promoted as the savior of the local economy. Connecting these two waterfront cities remains a core focus of regional transit planning today.
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