Nathan Gonzales

Biography

Horse-drawn streetcars first appeared on the streets of Stockton, Calif. in April, 1874. Routes connected Main Street with Central Pacific and Stockton & Copperopolis railroad depots and with the steamboat levee. The following year a northbound second line was begun connecting downtown with the Stockton Insane Asylum. This system operated until replaced by the Stockton Electric Railroad (July 1892). Company owners replaced the old narrow gauge rails, added and extended routes in 1905-06. The California Traction Company, an electric railway that operated trains between Stockton and Sacramento, also provided street rail service to some Stockton locations during this period. In 1912, Henry Huntington of the Southern Pacific Railroad bought a controlling interest in both companies and soon arranged for SER to lease the CCT's Stockton tracks (1915). In 1924, Stockton Electric laid its last new tracks to the recently established campus of the College of the Pacific. Stockton streetcars survived the Depression, although the Company abandoned certain lines. Southern Pacific sold out to Pacific Lines during the 1930s and this company operated the Stockton Electric Railroad until it finally gave way to buses in 1941.