Puget Sound Power and Light Company

Puget Sound Power & Light Company dominated the power and transportation business in the Pacific Northwest region during the first half of the twentieth century.

The origins of "Puget Power" are connected to the early activities of Massachusetts-based Stone & Webster Engineering Consulting Corporation. In the first decade of the twentieth century, Stone & Webster initiated aggressive expansion of the company's interests in Washington State. Its acquistion and consolidation of streetcar and power companies in Seattle, Bellingham and around the Puget Sound culminated with the incorporation of the Puget Sound Traction, Light & Power Company in 1912, which re-incorporated as Puget Sound Power & Light Company in 1919. Puget Power and its subsidiaries were responsible for the construction and operation of interurban railways running from Seattle to Tacoma, Seattle to Everett, and Mount Vernon to Sedro Woolley. In the 1920s, growth of automobile travel led to a gradual decline in public streetcar use. The corporation increasingly focused its interests on Puget Sound power distribution and acquisition of Washington utility companies, and divested its railway interests. In 1997, Puget Sound Power & Light merged with the Seattle gas distributor, Washington Energy Company to form Puget Sound Energy.

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