Angel's Flight
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Angels Flight Railway (Sinai and Olivet)
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Angels Flight in November 2008
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| Location | Hill Street, Los Angeles, California |
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| Coordinates | 34°3′4.82″N 118°15′0.76″W / 34.0513389°N 118.2502111°WCoordinates: 34°3′4.82″N 118°15′0.76″W / 34.0513389°N 118.2502111°W |
| Built | 1901 |
| Architect | Merceau Bridge & Construction Co.; Train & Williams |
| Architectural style | Beaux-Arts, and other. |
| NRHP Reference # | 00001168 |
| LAHCM # | 4 |
| Significant dates | |
| Added to NRHP | October 13, 2000 |
| Designated LAHCM | August 6, 1962 |
Angels Flight is a landmark 2 ft 6 in (762 mm) narrow gaugefunicular railway in the Bunker Hill district of Downtown Los Angeles, California. It has two funicular cars, Sinai and Olivet, running in opposite directions on a shared cable on the 298 feet (91 m) long inclined railway.
The funicular has operated on two different sites, using the same cars and station elements. The original Angels Flight location, with tracks connecting Hill Street and Olive Street, operated from 1901 until it was closed in 1969, when its site was cleared for redevelopment.
The second Angels Flight location opened one half block south of the original location in 1996, with tracks connecting Hill Street and California Plaza. It was shut down in 2001, following a fatal accident, and took nine years to commence operations again. The railroad restarted operations on March 15, 2010. It was closed again from June 10, 2011, to July 5, 2011, and then again after a minor incident on September 5, 2013. The investigation of this 2013 incident led to the discovery of potentially serious safety problems in both the design and the operation of the funicular. Before the 2013 service suspension, the cost of a one-way ride was 50 cents (25 cents for Metro pass holders). Angels Flight service has been suspended since that time. In March 2017 an announcement was made that the line would be reopened later in the year after safety enhancements are completed.
Although it was marketed primarily as a tourist novelty, it was frequently used by local workers to travel between the Downtown Historic Core and Bunker Hill. In 2015, the executive director of the nearby REDCAT arts centre described the railroad as an important "economic link", and there was pressure for the city to fund and re-open the railroad.
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.
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