The Mount Beacon Incline Railway was a

narrow gauge A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge narrower than standard . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with tighter curves, smaller structu ...

incline railway Incline, inclined, inclining, or inclination may refer to: *Grade (slope), the tilt, steepness, or angle from horizontal of a topographic feature (hillside, meadow, etc.) or constructed element (road, railway, field, etc.) *Slope, the tilt, steepn ...

Beacon Mountain Beacon Mountain, locally Mount Beacon, is the highest peak of Hudson Highlands, located south of Beacon, New York, City of Beacon, New York (state), New York, in the Fishkill (town), New York, Town of Fishkill. Its two summits rise above the Hud ...

near

Beacon, New York Beacon is a city located in Dutchess County, New York, United States. The 2020 census placed the city total population at 13,769. Beacon is part of the Poughkeepsie– Newburgh– Middletown, New York Metropolitan Statistical Area as we ...

. A popular local

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, it operated for much of the 20th century, providing sweeping views of the

Hudson River Valley The Hudson Valley (also known as the Hudson River Valley) comprises the valley of the Hudson River and its adjacent communities in the U.S. state of New York. The region stretches from the Capital District including Albany and Troy south to Yo ...

. Efforts to restore it continue today. The

Otis Elevator Company Otis Worldwide Corporation (trade name, branded as the Otis Elevator Company, its former legal name) is an American company that develops, manufactures and markets elevators, escalators, moving walkways, and related equipment. Based in Farming ...

and Mohawk Construction opened the 2,200' gauge railway on

Memorial Day Memorial Day (originally known as Decoration Day) is a federal holiday in the United States for mourning the U.S. military personnel who have fought and died while serving in the United States armed forces. It is observed on the last Monda ...

, 1902. Sixty thousand

fare A fare is the fee paid by a passenger for use of a public transport system: rail, bus, taxi, etc. In the case of air transport, the term airfare is often used. Fare structure is the system set up to determine how much is to be paid by various pa ...

s were sold in its first year; two decades later that had almost doubled. Riders were often day visitors from

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

who came up the

Hudson River The Hudson River is a river that flows from north to south primarily through eastern New York. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York and flows southward through the Hudson Valley to the New York Harbor between N ...

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to Newburgh and then took the Newburgh-Beacon Ferry across the river. After a trolley trip to the base station on Wolcott Avenue (today NY 9D), the railway would take them up to the northern summit via an average gradient of 65% (33°) and a maximum

gradient In vector calculus, the gradient of a scalar-valued differentiable function of several variables is the vector field (or vector-valued function) \nabla f whose value at a point p is the "direction and rate of fastest increase". If the gradi ...

of 74% (36.5°), the steepest in existence while the railroad operated. As was the case of so many other period incline railways, the Beacon funicular was in reality a means to a larger end. The panoramic views from the summit of Beacon Mountain and natural setting would be the lures to get tourists to the doorstep of several profitable attractions the railway's backers built atop the mountain, including the Beaconcrest Hotel, a Casino, and a private cottage community following land sales. The hotel and casino were in place by 1926, which proved a banner year, with 110,000 passengers riding to the top. Tragedy struck the next year, with fire consuming both the hotel and casino. Though they were rebuilt within a year, this proved the turning point in the rail's history, with the tourism-dampening Great Depression and World War II to follow. Thanks to the automobile replacing historic mass transit to the area - which had brought passengers en masse up the river in excursion boats, via the railroad, and thence trolley right to the base of the lift - recreational patterns changed and the Beacon attraction never regained its popularity. Financial problems and more fires plagued the concern, which was unable to maintain necessary maintenance on either the railway or the summit attractions. In 1978 the railway ceased operations. In 1982 it was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

. A fire attributed to vandalism the next year completely destroyed the trackway and consumed the lower station, following which the only remaining structure at the top, the powerhouse, was raised. The route still remains and is visible from much of the city. The Mount Beacon Incline Railway Restoration Society is working to rebuild the railroad and restore service. Image:MtBeaconInclinedRR.JPG, From a 1907 post card File:Mt Beacon Postcard 06.jpg, The railway's two cars passing each other in this circa 1905 postcard File:Mount Beacon Incline Railway Track.jpg, Derelict track at the former lower station File:Mount Beacon Incline Railway Powerhouse.jpg, Abandoned powerhouse at the former casino

References

External links

Mount Beacon Incline Railway Restoration Society
{{Rail trails in New York Defunct funicular railways in the United States Transport infrastructure completed in 1902 Hudson River Beacon, New York National Register of Historic Places in Dutchess County, New York 3 ft gauge railways in the United States Railway inclines in the United States Cableways on the National Register of Historic Places Rail infrastructure on the National Register of Historic Places in New York (state)

See also

References

External links