each passenger carried on its competitor's cable system." Denver Tramway began to expand into the suburbs and buy up independent operators such as the Denver and Berkeley Rapid Transit Company and the Highlands Street Railway Company which operated in Berkeley and Highland respectively. While continuing to buy up competitors, the Tramway company also continued to lay track and by the end of this period it owned and operated over a hundred miles of electrified track and was firmly entrenched in political circles. Expansion and political connections The company was no stranger to controversy and had been taken to court a number of times. However, they cultivated a relationship with the local city counsels which often would amend the terms of their franchise to permit their activities. When the Colorado Supreme Court ruled in 1893 that Tramway's perpetual franchise was unconstitutional, the company used all of its political might to have the case retried. Upon re-examination the Supreme Court reversed it earlier ruling and found that the Denver Tramway Company's perpetual franchise was constitutional. By 1893, Denver Tramway had electrified its entire system and was continuing to expand. The owners of the Denver Tramway Company consolidated their two nominally independent companies - the Denver Tramway Company, which served Denver proper, and the Metropolitan Railway Company, which served the suburbs - into The Denver Consolidated Tramway Company. Despite their power and influence, however, their main competitor was still the Denver City Cable Railway Company. Then the panic of 1893 struck and industrial stagnation provided an opportunity to drive out competition. In November 1893, the Denver City Cable Railway Company went into receivership and reorganized under the slightly different title The Denver City Cable Railroad Company. The Tramway company used its connections with the city counsel to grant itself a franchise the Denver City Cable Railroad Company couldn't compete with and the two companies merged to become the Denver City Tramway Company. The company now held a monopoly on Denver's street railway service and claimed an exclusive perpetual franchise. Advertisements for the companies stock read, "The Denver City Tramway owns and controls the entire city railway system of the city of Denver comprising in all 156 miles of track serving a population of about 175,000 and has a franchise without limit to time and therefore perpetual." A true monopoly, a faltering reputation With its monopoly on the railways and its power in the