Electricity lights the business thoroughfares and many of the stores, while gas illuminates other portions of the city. The gas works were built in 1884, and the electric light plant, now having twenty miles of wire, was put in by a responsible company in 1887. There is, also, an excellent telephone service, with an extended circuit reaching Puyallup valley. In its water works it is especially fortunate. The system was built in 1884, at a cost of $300,000.00, and consists of eleven miles of mains, supplied with pure water by an aqueduct ten miles in length. The lower portion of the city is supplied by direct pressure from the reservoir, two hundred and sixty-two feet above the harbor, while the upper levels are served by powerful Holly pumps. A splendidly equipped fire department gives the city ample protection from the destroying element. In the matter of the improvement of its streets the city has done more to show its progressive and metropolitan character than in any other way. The leading thoroughfares are macadamized, and throughout the entire city streets are graded and in good condition. There are thirty-five miles of graded streets and fifty miles of sidewalk within the city limits. A horse car line runs the entire length of Pacific avenue from the water front, and a motor line runs out to Division avenue and Tacoma avenue, and along the latter both north and south for a long distance.