Angels Flight

On New Year's Eve in 1901, Angels Flight opened at Third and Hill Streets as a two-car incline railway carrying wealthy residents of Bunker Hill's Victorian neighborhood between the hilltop and the flatlands. Its cream-colored wooden cars, Olivet and Sinai, traveled 325 feet on a 33% grade, operating 400 times a day for 18 hours out of every 24, seven days a week, at a fare of one penny each way. Created by Col. James Ward Eddy, a Civil War hero, former schoolteacher, lawyer, Illinois state senator, engineer, and friend of Abraham Lincoln, the funicular linked an isolated enclave of mansions with the shops and commerce below. Eddy also built 207 steps beside the line, while an observation tower at the Olive Street terminal, known as Angels Rest, offered panoramic views until sinking ground and dangerous conditions led to its removal by 1938. In 1909, the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks Lodge No. 99 built its headquarters atop Bunker Hill and funded a red beaux-arts arch and colonnade over the Hill Street entrance. Renovated in 1913, the railway continued serving neighborhood residents, including shoppers using Grand Central Market after it opened in 1917. In 1935, public protest stopped a plan to replace Angels Flight with a municipal elevator, but in 1969 the cars and tracks were dismantled for urban renovation. After decades of delays, disputes, and financial problems, service returned in 1996 on tracks relocated a half-block south of the original route, and Angels Flight became a beloved symbol of the city's past and urban life.

Los Angeles, California · United States