Angels Flight
In the Bunker Hill district of
downtown Los Angeles, California is
the Angels Flight landmark cable car
railway. There really is no
apostrophe in the name. For only 25
cents you can ride one of the two
orange and black rail cars and go on
what is known as "The Shortest
Railway in the World". Angels Flight
dates back to 1901, at a time when
Bunker Hill was L.A.'s most
fashionable neighborhood.
The cars, the Olivet and the
Sinai, usually carried prominent
citizens up and down the 350 foot
slope between Hill and Olive
streets. With the development of the
district in 1969, the beloved
structure was dismantled then
refurbished and transferred to an
area adjacent to California Plaza in
1995. Though short, this train is
part and parcel of the L.A.
experience.
The Community Redevelopment Agency
approved final plans for the
California Plaza, which incorporated
a newly restored Angels Flight
twenty years later. Reconstruction
began in 1995 amid bureaucratic red
tape and took another six years. On
February 24, 1996 Angels Flight was
re-opened, approximately half a
block from its first site. Angels
Flight, at Fourth and Hill Streets,
is open daily from 6 AM to 10 PM.
The one-way fare is just 25 cents. |
