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The Ridgewood Incline was an
inclined plane railroad
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 ...
in
Allegheny City, Pennsylvania
Allegheny City was a municipality that existed in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania from 1788 until it was annexed by Pittsburgh in 1907. It was located north across the Allegheny River from downtown Pittsburgh, with its southwest border formed by ...
, in what is now the
Perry South neighborhood of
Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...
. Built in 1886 and burned the next year, it was Allegheny's first
and shortest-lived
incline.
Description
From its upper station at the corner of Ridgewood and Yale streets, the incline descended at an angle of 32°31' for a distance of , crossing over Irwin Avenue by an iron girder bridge and terminating at Taggart Street (now North Charles Street), where passengers could access the Pleasant Valley Railway streetcar line.
[ The incline had a single track, with one car called to either end as wanted by an electric bell signal.][ Unlike most Pittsburgh-area inclines, it lacked a counterbalancing car and was thus not a ]funicular
A funicular (, , ) is a type of cable railway system that connects points along a railway track laid on a steep slope. The system is characterized by two counterbalanced carriages (also called cars or trains) permanently attached to opposite en ...
.
History
In the summer of 1886, a group of investors headed by real-estate broker Alexander Leggate formed the Ridgewood Incline Railway Company for the purpose of building and operating an "elevator incline railway".[ The work was carried out from the designs and under the superintendence of a local civil engineer named J.Ford Mackenzie.][ The railway opened to the public on 16 December 1886.][
A fire on 30 May 1887, possibly from a natural gas leak, destroyed the engine house and office along with some 30 or 40 feet of track. The incline is not known to have been rebuilt. It appears on an 1890 map with the label "Old Incline Plane (Burned)", hundreds of feet south of the newer Clifton Incline.]
See also
* List of inclines in Pittsburgh
Beginning in 1870, the city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania built numerous inclined railways to provide passenger service to workers traveling the steep hills to their homes; there were 17 built in the late 19th century. Following road building and gre ...
References
{{Attached KML
Inclined elevators
Railway inclines in Pittsburgh
Railway lines opened in 1886
1886 establishments in Pennsylvania
1887 disestablishments in Pennsylvania