Tampa's first electric streetcar lines built in 1892 quickly became an essential part of everyday life as workers took the streetcar downtown and to the cigar factories of west Tampa. And families climbed aboard for a picnic or ball game in DeSoto and Macfarlane parks.he first part of the second phase of the system is a â mile extension that extends the system north on Franklin Street to Whiting Street and the Fort Brooke parking garage. It connects the more than 35,000 people who work in the downtown area to almost every major downtown parking structure.