Angels Flight, Los Angeles
I hope you are OK with my occasional forays into L.A. history - a subject that fascinates me. Today we're going to be revisiting one of the most beloved landmarks of the city, the Angels Flight funicular railway, which opened in 1901. I wish today's slides were dated, but no such luck. Do the cars help with a general year? They look 1940's-ish to me, but we'll need an expert like Nanook (the pressure's on, Nanook!).
Built in 1901 with financing from Colonel J.W. Eddy, as the "Los Angeles Incline Railway", Angels Flight began at the west corner of Hill Street at Third and ran for two blocks uphill (northwestward) to its Olive Street terminus. Angels Flight consisted of two vermillion "boarding stations" and two cars, named Sinai and Olivet, pulled up the steep incline by metal cables powered by engines at the upper Olive Street station. As one car ascended, the other descended, carried down by gravity. An archway labeled "Angels Flight" greeted passengers on the Hill Street entrance, and this name became the official name of the railway in 1912 when the Funding Company of California purchased the railway from its founders.
Angels Flight closed in 1969 as part of the massive development of the Bunker Hill area, but happily the trains and other paraphernalia had been saved, and the railroad opened one half block south of the original location in 1996, mid-block between 3rd and 4th Streets, with tracks connecting Hill Street and California Plaza. It closed again after a fatal accident, but is now operating, with a one-way ticket costing $1.00. (Sorry this next photo is so dark!).
16 comments:
There’s the old fashioned stop light—and, Major, your images caught a “GO” moment, and a “STOP” moment. Cool!
Being inside one of those buildings with a window at train-passenger-eye-level would be ‘interesting,’ to say the least. Being a passenger would be fun!
Thank, Major.
—Sue
Major-
Oh, the pressure... I think the newest these images can be is 1948. The 'lead' vehicle is a 1946-1948 Lincoln; and we can also see a 1946-1948 Plymouth back in the pack. So, probably sometime between 1946 and 1948.
Thanks, Major.
In addition to the old cars and old-style buildings, there are some other nice, old-timey things in these photos: Like the guy selling newspapers under the Angels Flight archway. And, as Sue noted, the traffic light with the "Stop" and "Go" flags that raise up and down; just like you see in cartoons of that era. The shadowy lighting adds to the old look and feel.
I always look forward to your Saturday/Anything Goes/Travelogues, Major.
Just like Randy Newman, I Love L.A.!
It looks like coins and stamps were being sold on the third floor of that building next to the Angel's Flight arch.
I wonder if anyone ever threw something out the window of an Angel's Flight car, and into an open window of one of those buildings....or vice versa?
I remember seeing the film, "Criss Cross" with Burt Lancaster and Yvonne De Carlo (they were in it, I wasn't with them) and there was a scene that takes place in one of those buildings. You can see the Angel's Flight car passing by outside the window. Although, I suspect the interior scene was shot on a soundstage, and the scene outside was "rear projection."
Thanks for some nice vintage L.A. today, Major!
Yes(!), TM! People were known to flick chili out the windows, on occasion.
Sue
Sue, maybe Walt had an apartment in one of those buildings!
I guess I have a "thing" about people throwing things out of windows, on upper floors of buildings, even though I have never done such a thing!
Not being from L.A., the first I heard of Angels Flight was in the Michael Penn song "Strange Season" which mentions them taking it apart. As it turns out, that album makes a lot of L.A. references that I didn't catch ("Bunker Hill" is snother song, for example), but his lyrics are so stream of consciousness, they seldom make objective sense anyway, lol! Anyway, the point is the Angels Flight always reminds me of that album. Not much of a point, really...
Such memories! My grandparents lived just a few miles from Angels Flight. When I would stay with them in the 50s I always asked my grandfather to take me there. We rode it many, many times. But the semiphore traffic signals were long gone by that time. Never saw one of those in person.
In the pawn shop scene from The Glen Miller Story with Jimmy Stewart you see Angels Flight out a window.
Thanks Major for the cool diversion into the pre-Disneyland world of vintage Los Angeles.
My Dad spoke of this place from his years living in LA. His telling the story might have been prompted by the dismantling. These photos are long past his time though. I know I never visited as a kid, but went with my kids many years later to the new location.
Modern-day Angels Flight features prominently in a season of the show “Bosch” (on Amazon & FreeVee), where detectives solve a murder on or near the train. It’s a great show, highly recommended, you can see a lot of the train and surroundings.
It’s also a scene in a Raymond Chandler novel where Philip Marlowe searches for clues in the nearby building. Seems like every detective in LA investigates there at least once.
The name may have inspired the brand of “disco pants” that were popular in the 70’s, but I can’t track it down for sure. I seem to remember the label had a rail car on it. I had a pair, ashamed to say.
Tokyo, I’m envisioning you in the theater sitting between Burt and Yvonne, tossing popcorn on the people in front.
Thanks Major!
JG
When I was younger in LA....MUCH younger...Olvera Street (a neighbor of Angels Flight) was "LA Old"....and it still is...and hasn't changed much in over 200 years or so...we learned about it in school, and there was the field trip or two. We also drove past the Angels Flight "sight" which by then was not running anymore, and stored somewhere else. To me, that was LA "new"....as wasn't built from adobe. I have very distinct memories of going somewhere in downtown LA...or around there ....seeing the dusty train cars...that was in about 1980-81...I trolled around a lot in those days, and hung around someone that would go into any warehouse, be it open/closed/locked etc....we may have even been invited in...fuzzy memory, but not so fuzzy pictures in my mind of the top of the rail cars and me saying out loud: "Those are the cars for Angels Flight!!!" That being said, they moved the train a block away from the original site, re-did the tracks, (had some bad experiences) and now I'm happy to see that it's up and running again for $1, or (.50 if you have a transit card.) At some point I'll ride it. In grammar school I remember it being featured in a children's book. This area in downtown is pretty cool: with Grand Central Market, Bradbury Building, Million Dollar theatre, etc. I see on a map that it now has a Blue Bottle Coffee shop nearby, so looks like it's gone gentrified....back in my day in the 80's: it was not. Friends were mystified that I would even consider exploring that part of the world. LA: probably the inventor of TRE...but still many interesting/unique/historic places to discover. I don't 'Love LA" like TM (tm), but I do have a big soft spot...from a distance. In the words of a co-worker of mine: "Every time you come back to LA you behave like a MONSTER!" yes...it does that to me a bit...however, in short spurts...it's just fine. Fly in. See Angels Flight. Go home. Now I need to plan that. Thanks Major!
I've ridden funiculars in Pittsburgh and Niagara Falls, but Angels Flight is the Holy Grail. If I ever make it there I'll imagine it looking like this instead of how it actually looks today.
I recall all the controversy surrounding the dismantling of Angel's Flight. It was talked about for years before it actually happened, much like the redevelopment of Bunker Hill which at some point I thought would never occur in my lifetime. I think it was best as it was...tucked in that narrow pathway. But it is back and running again and so, in this case, I rescind my TRE designation about it. One of the very few times I have taken such action.
That old traffic signal was the first thing that popped out in these pics. Imagine having them today without the yellow light. Then again, so many are ignoring signals these days that any intersection seems hazardous with or without one. KS
Oh the runaway inflation! Upon Angles Flight brief comeback (“I hate that word, its Return”), before the accident closed it again, not too long ago, it still cost a quarter!
Fun thing about AF is the change all around it. Besides the two locations, its setting has been at least four completely different kinds of neighborhoods. There are photos if it on basically a barren slope; then the posh wooden Edwardian houses came along….which themselves became infamous flophouses found in noir. Then other images will show it surrounded by bigger brick apartment buildings, full of even seedier stories. Now of-course it is part of a high-rise towers complex and water plaza. Grand Central market just feet away from the base is a world class food hall.
Yes Blue Bottle coffee is a fabulous addition to the Bradbury Building, as it gives good use to the space; something to see and do there besides admire the light, ironwork and elevator, sussing out the Blade Runner scenes. Sure beats Sprint phones and Subway sandwiches, coffee smells better too.
MS
Tokyo, I’m envisioning you in the theater sitting between Burt and Yvonne, tossing popcorn on the people in front.
JG, and now for some reason, I'm envisioning Yvonne De Carlo showing up to all the revival theater showings of her old movies, wearing her Lily Munster costume!
That being said, they moved the train a block away from the original site, re-did the tracks, (had some bad experiences) and now I'm happy to see that it's up and running again....
Bu, I know that they have had at least one accident with the cars (Major mentioned it), if not two, but now I think I am remembering a problem they had when the station and the arch were sitting on a nearby piece of property, with a chain link fence surrounding them. This was before they ever reopened it. The structures had been moved out of storage and were both sitting out in the open. I think it was in preparation for the new construction. But even though they were fenced off, I seem to remember that someone set fire to them. Does that sound familiar?
That most recent accident involved free-falling cars, and the operator shoving a stick in the wheel to stop it! Yeah, CALOSHA wanted a good long look at everything after that.
MS
Speaking from experience both as an Angels Flight operator and an armchair historian on the railway who spends waaaaay too much time combing the internet for images and info, these are hands-down game-over some of the most amazing I've seen. So much so that I first thought they were AI-generated (or ultra-enhanced screengrabs from LA Noire) because they are just SO fantastic and unlike any of the hundreds and hundreds of vintage pix I've seen. I've shared two on my Instagram account (@saturdaystationagent) with a link back here and am eager to know any info you might have about them. Whatever the backstory or lack thereof thank you for posting them.
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