TRANSPORTATION · HISTORICAL MARKER
The Swiss Railway
Transportation
2
In 1909 Laurel Park founder W.A. Smith constructed the Swiss Railway as another attraction in his nature park. This incline railway used two tram-like vehicles on parallel tracks to ascend the mountain at a junction of the Dummy Line near Crystal Spring. Customers paid a minimal amount to ride up the steep mountain slope through thickets of rhododendron and mountain laurel. Riders emerged 200 feet higher in elevation at the nearly 40-foot-tall Park Heights Tower, and while people enjoyed the trip up, the steep slope made the ride down more novel and interesting.
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