In case you don’t know, the tranvia is the grandfather of the modern-day LRT. Our ancestors would have remained dependent on the calesa or carruaje had Leon Monssour of Department of Public Works didn’t propose the construction of a streetcar system in 1878.

Monssour’s plan earned the government’s approval, but it only materialized when an entrepreneur named Jocobo Zobel de Zangroniz took over the project. Together with a Spanish engineer and a Madrid banker, Jacobo established the La Compañia de Tranvias de Filipinas in 1882.

Among the five routes, only the Malabon line ran on steam while the rest were horse-drawn. Therefore, it can be said that the first steam railroad in the country was a streetcar.