The Penn Incline, also known as the 17th Street Incline, was 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 ...

railroad that ran between the

Strip Strip or Stripping may refer to: Places * Aouzou Strip, a strip of land following the northern border of Chad that had been claimed and occupied by Libya * Caprivi Strip, narrow strip of land extending from the Okavango Region of Namibia to ...

and

Hill A hill is a landform that extends above the surrounding terrain. It often has a distinct Summit (topography), summit. Terminology The distinction between a hill and a mountain is unclear and largely subjective, but a hill is universally con ...

districts in

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 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 ...

. It operated from 1884 to 1953.

Description

The incline ascended from 17th Street between

Liberty Liberty is the ability to do as one pleases, or a right or immunity enjoyed by prescription or by grant (i.e. privilege). It is a synonym for the word freedom. In modern politics, liberty is understood as the state of being free within society fr ...

and Penn avenues in the Strip District to Arcena (Ridgeway) Street near Ledlie Street in the

Hill District The Hill District is a grouping of historically African American neighborhoods in the City of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Beginning in the years leading up to World War I, "the Hill" was the cultural center of black life in the city and a major cent ...

. It measured 840 feet in length with a vertical rise of 330 feet. It was structurally massive, with over 750 tons of bridge work carrying the two 10-foot-gauge tracks over the

Pennsylvania Railroad The Pennsylvania Railroad (reporting mark PRR), legal name The Pennsylvania Railroad Company also known as the "Pennsy", was an American Class I railroad that was established in 1846 and headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was named ...

yards, Bigelow Boulevard, and Liberty Avenue. A writer in the ''Street Railway Journal'' in 1891 believed that it was "probably the most heavily built plane in existence".

History

The incline was built to the design of

Samuel Diescher Samuel Diescher (June 25, 1839 – December 24, 1915) was a prominent Hungarian-American civil and mechanical engineer who had his career in the United States. After being educated at universities in Karlsruhe and Zurich in Europe, he immigrated ...

with the aim of hoisting 20-ton coal loads to the top of the hill. It entered service on 1 March 1884. While the coal traffic never materialized to expectations, railroad and business activity in the Strip District generated enough passengers and freight to keep the incline operating. Customers included produce merchants transporting their goods from wholesale markets in the Strip. A saloon and entertainment hall called the Penn Incline Resort existed for several years next to the upper landing. This resort, patterned after similar hilltop attractions in

Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...

, was built together with the incline to boost business. It enjoyed early popularity and according to ''The Pittsburg Dispatch'' was "a favorite resort for the better class of Germans". With the implementation in 1888 of Pennsylvania's Brooks High License Law, the resort stopped selling liquor and went into decline. The building was destroyed in 1892 by a fire that spread from the incline's boiler house. In 1927, a stunt driver guided a Willys–Overland Whippet automobile up and down the incline in a promotional spectacle to demonstrate the car's climbing and braking prowess. A plankway specially built for the occasion prevented the car's wheels from lodging between the rail ties. By the end of World War II, business was struggling. The incline was open only three hours in the morning and four hours in the afternoon when its last owner,

Pittsburgh Railways Pittsburgh Railways was one of the predecessors of Pittsburgh Regional Transit. It had 666 PCC cars, the third largest fleet in North America (after Toronto (745) and Chicago (683)). It had 68 streetcar routes, of which only three (until April 5 ...

, asked the state Public Utilities Commission permission to abandon it. Nobody opposed the request. The incline shut down on 30 November 1953 and within the next three years was dismantled. There has been talk among city planners of reviving the incline, but no such idea has come to fruition. In 2020, mayor

Bill Peduto William Mark Peduto (born October 30, 1964) is an American politician who was the 60th mayor of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania from 2014 until 2022. He was a Democratic member of the Pittsburgh City Council from 2002 to 2014. Before his election to ...

suggested relinking the Strip and Hill districts with a

gondola lift A gondola lift is a means of cable transport and type of aerial lift which is supported and propelled by cables from above. It consists of a loop of steel wire rope that is strung between two stations, sometimes over intermediate supp ...

that could also extend to the

Oakland Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third largest city overall in the Bay A ...

neighborhood.

References

{{Attached KML Railway inclines in Pittsburgh Defunct funicular railways in the United States 10 ft gauge railways in the United States Railway lines opened in 1884 Railway lines closed in 1953 1884 establishments in Pennsylvania 1953 disestablishments in Pennsylvania

Description

History

See also

References