I feel like we can blame the fact you came when the Mon Incline was closed on Caleb not doing his research

My favorite funicular is Haifa's Carmelit, named such because it goes up the religiously important Mount Carmel! It opened in 1959 and is quite the unique system since the oldest underground transit system in the Middle East is actually a funicular that's only 1.1 miles long but has a couple stations! Not to mention it serves the beautiful Baháʼí World Centre! Not the only underground funicular as another is Istanbul's Tünel which opened in 1875 and is the second-oldest underground urban railway in the world after the London Underground, and the oldest in Continental Europe since it predates the Budapest Metro! It was the idea of French engineer Eugène-Henri Gavand after a visit to the city and noticed how many tourists struggled going up and down Yüksek Kaldırım Avenue. From the late 1700s until 1876, Mt. Washington was known as Coal Hill, the main access point to the Pittsburgh Coal Seam. As Pittsburgh industrialized in the late 1800s, Mt. Washington coal was the fuel for its growth. A surge of steelworkers and their families migrated to the neighborhood. In total, eight inclines were built to haul residents and freight to and from the steel and iron mills below, two of these inclines of course remain. The bridge by the Duquesne Incline is the Fort Pitt Bridge which opened in June 1959 as a replacement for the Point Bridge! The Fort Pitt Bridge was the world's first computer-designed bowstring arch bridge! The other arch bridge in the background at 5:41 is the Fort Duquesne Bridge which was built between 1958 and 1963 to replace the Manchester Bridge but didn't open until 1969. It didn't open until 1969 because of delays when they were trying to acquire the ROW for the northern approach ramps. Because of this, it was known as the Bridge to Nowhere, and in December 1964, somebody actually drove a Chrysler station wagon through the bridge's wooden barricades, raced off the end of the bridge, and landed upside-down but unhurt on the other side!

I'm very glad you enjoyed Pittsburgh so much. Yes, the inclines are truly an awesome "travel" experience and one which I personally always loved, It's such a unique feature of this town and I'm really glad it was preserved. Your photography and narrative were top notch, as usual. Thanks for a great vid.

As listed at 4:11, the Duquesne and Monongahela Incline stand out in that they're the only ones in the US that use 1524 mm gauge, or part of Russian gauge! The gauge used to be more common in the US as many railroads in the southern states used that gauge, but in 1886, around 11,500 miles of it were converted to 4 ft 9 in (1,448 mm) gauge. The name Monongahela comes from the Unami language and roughly translates to "falling banks". The Mount Washington neighborhood reminds me of The Heights neighborhood of Jersey City located on top of the Hudson Palisades, except of course Jersey City doesn't have a funicular, and instead, an elevator is used for those in The Heights who want to access the HBLR at 9th Street-Congress Street station. Though at one point, Hudson County did have a sophisticated trolley network called the North Hudson County Railway where trolleys used funicular wagon lifts, an inclined elevated railway, an elevator and viaducts to reach those on top of the Palisades from the communities down below! The system originated in the 1860s and lasted until the 1940s when Public Service Railway, who eventually took it over, ended it! Samuel Diescher was Hungarian-American! Besides the Duquesne Incline, Samuel worked with George Ferris and designed the machinery for the Ferris wheel at the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago and was also the chief engineer of the Pittsburgh and Castle Shannon Railroad as well! The Pittsburgh and Castle Shannon Railroad used a coal mine under Mt. Washington as a tunnel to transport coal from Castle Shannon to Pittsburgh. Passenger traffic was added soon afterwards, and the train carried passengers during the day and coal at night. The Pittsburgh and Castle Shannon Tunnel was closed to passenger traffic in 1880, but coal trains continued to use it until 1912. The right of way, excluding the tunnel, was leased by Pittsburgh Railways in 1905, later purchased in 1950, and today forms part of the Pittsburgh light-rail from South Hills Junction to Library. Besides the Monongahela Incline, Caroline Endres also worked on the Mount Oliver Incline in 1872, but that one closed in 1951!

One of the things I really like is that even though the Duquesne Incline has been in preservation by a private society since 1963, it still takes PRT ConnectCards.

Classily whale + TRA = great video. I’ve already seen videos on the inclines but I still watched this!

I grew up in the South Hills of Pittsburgh. I have a great friend who works for the PRT as a technician

Loved where you can see the mechanics. In San Francisco you can see the actual cable at the Cable Car Museum/ Cable Car Barn

Ah yes, the Dookesney Incline, a marvel of engineering

This reminds me of the Angels Flight here in LA. It’s interesting seeing these type of vehicles

This funicular was so awesome!!! It’s amazing that something so old is still in use and still so functional. I’m so thankful that it has been historically preserved. That’s so awesome!!!

Fun program, thanks. In 1872 Cincinnati built their first incline, Mt. Auburn , copying Pittsburgh Four more were built , but sadly the final end came in 1948 when the Mt. Adams incline was closed and later dismantled. Cincinnati’s system was integrated with the street car lines which were being fazed out. Great ideas sacrificed to the automobile. Years ago when in Pittsburgh we rode both and enjoyed getting a feel for what earlier generations of Cincinnatians had and lost.

Oh my goodness. We got Classy Whale joining us.

Inclines (and trolleys) are part of a Yinzer's soul. They were here before we were born. They will be running after we are gone. Those sweet red cars remind us of home when we are far away. Like the cable cars of San Francisco, the inclines are who we are as Pittsburghers. And yinz are always welcome in our home tahn.

NOW that you’ve been to Pittsburgh, you have to go back in the summer and visit Kennywood!!

Seeing your previous clip, I was totally wondering where that nice Mr Whale was and here he is - definitely rounded out a delightful family trip \m/

Caleb is the BEST!

When I visited Pittsburgh in 2015 I actually went up the Mon incline and down the Duquesne incline, taking in the views the whole way.

Great to see a collab between two of my favorite channels. I've never ridden an incline/funicula but the inclines will be a defnite stop for me if visit Pittsburgh!

When I visited Pittsburgh, I rode the one you could not. It was the first time for me to ride a funicular system. But I think I know why I do not see things like this more oftenly... because cable car(I mean skyway type) is cheaper to build. On the other hand, you showed us the freight trains in Pittsburgh briefly in this and the last video... I wish you shortly mentioned what they are carrying and where are they heading to.

Oh, yes. If I ever go to Pittsburgh, I'll be checking this out...especially the machinery room.

Underrated city, The Duquesne incline is cool...haven't done the other one or the light rail yet.

Funiculì Funiculà, the Italian song, dates to that same era and is about a just-built incline going to the top of Mount Vesuvius-- some fellow is trying to convince his girlfriend to join him and see the view (ignoring that it's a volcano and might have something of a brimstone smell when you get there).

This kind of reminds me of the Fenelon Elevators in Dubuque, IA and the Lookout Mountain Incline Railway that I live by in Chattanooga now that I’ve already been on them. The incline railway goes the farthest because it’s on Lookout Mountain and goes all the way up top. It doesn’t go that fast and takes up to 10 minutes to ride it entirely in a single direction.

There is a steeper funicular 90 minutes east of Pittsburgh, in Johnstown, PA.

Hi Thom, that looks like scary fun 😅 If you haven't already, you should ride and do a video of the Roosevelt Island Tram... If I'm not mistaken, it's the only one of its kind in the US. Even more ironic is that I myself have never rode it😕 Thanks for the fun post☮️

Great video! I love that they let you see the machinery up close!

Great vlog, enjoyed it thanks Thom

Now all we need is a video Collab with both classy whale and Miles in transit and the whole YT transit vlogers will be complete

Thank you for this wonderful video ! I will have to re-visit Pittsburgh ! The views from the funicular car were stunning, especially the confluence of the two rivers. I wonder how you reached Pittsburgh - did you travel from D.C by Road, or fly ?

It is truly fascinating how the two inclines are connected in that regard. Some say love conquers all, which I guess extends to preservation

I was really hoping to see a bus video from Pittsburgh - they have dedicated busways to connect parts of the cuty very quickly.

I always ask university students who live in Pittsburgh whether they like the Duquesne or Monogahela incline better; everyone always says Duquesne for some reason. There’s a great hiking trail around the back of Mount Washington that starts right near the Duquesne Incline that I did once; I loved, great views and great workout.

Very cool! I wish I knew about the mechanism observation area when I rode the two inclines.

Great video! You should come back to downtown Pittsburgh over July 4 weekend, you'll see some fun sights. :-D

Last year, I took the Cape Flyer to Hyannis, and @ClassyWhale was on it. He interviewed the kids who were sitting a row or two in front of me for part of the ride (I didn't know who he was then, but since have become a fan). On the way back a few days later, Petru Sofio, a Boston-based pedestrian, bike and transit advocate was on it, thought I didn't recognize him until after the video was posted on his friend's youtube channel, @BostonByRails (I can be seen in the background because they were a few rows in front of me). The prior time I took the Cape Flyer, in 2021, @MilesinTransit and his friend Nathan were on both the train and the connecting Peter Pan bus to Provincetown. They sat right in front of me on the bus and I can be seen in his video, albeit briefly (I didn't know who he was then either, but began following not too long after, and didn't discover the video with me in it until I was going through some of his old videos a few months ago). So, if you ever do a Cape Flyer video, there's a chance I'll happen to randomly be on it, even though I've only taken it three times...

Rreally cool video thom keep it up

Reminds me of the cliff lifts some UK seaside resorts have, or the Montmartre funicular. One of Whitby's is disappointing as it's just a normal vertical lift though.

Brilliant video sir, good to see you AND Caleb being supervised by, both lynsdey and your mum

This is an awesome and classy video.

A perfect collab!

Thanks for the ride 👍👏🙂❤️

I did 2 different funiculars in the same day in Scarborough, England although they have a third one too and although it still has it's tracks it doesn't function the carriages being used as a cafe.Is a funicular a train?Well it runs on tracks and is often called a funicular railway.

Wow, excellent video of the Duquesne incline It would actually be nice if they would be able to improve pedestrian access to the Duke incline somehow, I prefer the Duke incline over the Monongahela incline

What a neat video! And so romantic! And a shout out to Lindsey for mentioning the Angels Flight Funicular here in Los Angeles!

Thanks Thom!

Great video on Pittsburgh

👍 Good Engineering Back In 👌 1800s . 😊 Thanks. Outstanding Video. 😅😊🎉

I enjoyed the video👍👍

Great videos

Huge collab

You should do a collab with lone star trip reports now! I enjoyed this video, great work!

Y’all are friends ❤ I watch both your channels and play cities skylines. 😊

Who manages the incline? in Chattanooga, TN, the local transit agency manages their incline.

Maybe once Caltrain electrification starts service you can join me. I welcome projects with content creators with open arms.

Remind me: have you done a video yet about the funicular elevator at the Huntington Yellow Line station?

Funiculars unfortunately seem to be a forgotten part of modern city transport.

Nice vid

Transit marvel crossover event

MR. ROGGERs... Looks like Trolley but not

8:19 that means that the Portland Aerial Tram is a funicular, right?

Best part of the incline: not having to drive on pittsburghs wild road infrastructure

The dusqene incline cars are old streetcars

The incline is terrible. I road a month ago. It took an hour and half to et up. It's slow.

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