Since May 28, 1870, the Monongahela Incline in front of you has run continuously, the oldest operating funicular railway in the United States. It predates the Duquesne Incline by seven years and was built to solve the same problem: connecting the mill-and-river level of the city to the residential hillsides above. The Mon Incline was engineered by John Endres and originally ran steam-powered cable cars up a 35-degree grade, rising 369 feet over a horizontal distance of 635 feet.
It converted to electric power in 1884. The cars you ride today have been rebuilt multiple times over 150 years of continuous operation. At its peak in the early twentieth century, the Monongahela Incline carried 30,000 passengers a day — the primary transportation link between the hillside neighborhoods and the downtown valley.
Automobile ownership and improved roads reduced ridership through the mid-century, but the incline survived as both a commute option and a tourist attraction. The Port Authority of Allegheny County has operated the Mon Incline since 1964. Ride it and think about the steelworkers who rode it every morning going down to the furnaces, and every evening going back up to their families on the hill above the smoke.