Pittsburgh Funiculars

Pittsburgh is situated in a river valley surrounded by fairly steep hills.  Downtown Pittsburgh is in the valley, but there are neighborhoods up on top of the hills.  At the end of the 1800s the were many inclined plane railways - funiculars - to transport people, horses, carts, and freight to the hilltop neighborhoods.

There are 2 cars to each funicular.  John says that they work like a see-saw: as one car is going down it is pulling the other one up.  So that they only need a little external power to get them started.

The only surviving cable-powered inclines in Pittsburgh are the Monongahela (also known as the “Mon”) and the Duquesne.  They both connect the valley with South Side’s Mount Washington. We took the Monongahela Incline up  and the Duquesne Incline down.

Here are some photos of the “Mon” ...

And the Duquesne ...

 

That's coal down on the river.

Only in Pittsburgh can you see graveyards like this of old stuff.  Evidently these are abandoned funicular parts ... (Duquesne Incline in the background).