Gribblenation

In November 2018, a part of El Paso's past returned to the city's streets- the El Paso Streetcar.  Forty-four years after the last streetcar ran on city streets, the city inaugurated a new service. El Paso's first streetcar system began as horse-drawn cars in 1881.  Twenty years later, the first electric streetcars began operation.  The electric cars were operated by the El Paso Electric Railway Company.  At its peak, the El Paso Streetcar system consisted of 64 miles of track running seventeen lines. By the end of the Second World War, El Paso was down to a single line, the line that linked El Paso to Juarez, Mexico.  This line was the only local transit line to serve two different countries.  It was highly popular with tourists and residents of both cities. Well into the early 1970s, the streetcar was a popular option for travel from Juarez to El Paso and vice versa.  Here passengers board in El Paso bound for Juarez.  (Public Domain) The El Pas...

El Paso's scenery is a unique combination of desert and rugged mountains.  The city is located within the Chihuahuan Desert, features the peaks of the Franklin Mountains, and shares a border along the Rio Grande.  It is in this setting that over 700 thousand people live.   Sunset in El Paso Just north of Downtown, the Franklin Mountains begin to rise.  Along both Rim Road and Scenic Drive, there are many overlooks of the city, Ciudad Juarez in Mexico, and the Chihuahuan Desert. The most popular vantage point is the Murchison Park Overlook on Scenic Drive .  The idea of a sightseeing route along the base of the Franklin Mountains dates to 1881.  Nearly 40 years later, the 1.82-mile roadway opened to the general public.  During the 1930s, two projects paved the road and added drainage culverts. Nightfall in El Paso and Juarez. The scenic two-lane roadway winds to a point 500 feet above the city and the Rio Grande.  The drive offers breathtaking...