Angels Flight, Historical funicular railway in Bunker Hill, Los Angeles, United States
Angels Flight is a 762 mm narrow-gauge funicular on Bunker Hill whose 91 m track climbs 29 m between Hill Street and California Plaza. Its two cars, Olivet and Sinai, share one cable and pass at a mid-track siding on three rails. The cars are orange with black roofs and window frames, and the upper car carries a metal arch with a small yellow pennant.
The railway opened in 1901 as Los Angeles Incline Railway, connecting the growing city with residential neighborhoods on the hill. After 68 years of operation, it closed in 1969 due to Bunker Hill redevelopment and was later rebuilt at a new location.
The cars are named Olivet and Sinai after the biblical mountains, and the railway took its present name from the archway that greeted riders at Hill Street, made official in 1912. A 1931 oil painting by Millard Sheets, showing two young women looking down from a car platform, hangs in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
The 298-foot track climbs 96 feet between Hill Street and California Plaza, mid-block between 3rd and 4th Streets. The cars are small and the ride is short, so expect queues at peak times; a folding metal gate and control lever sit at the front doorway. Fares are paid at the station, with reduced rates for TAP card holders.
The 1952 plaque by the Native Daughters of the Golden West calls Angels Flight the world's shortest incorporated railway and estimates it carried over a hundred million passengers in its first fifty years. The cars Sinai and Olivet were stored at 1200 S. Olive Street after the 1969 closure.
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