Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Angels Flight Returns -- March 16, 2010


On Monday, 15-March-2010, Angels Flight returned to operation. The original Angels Flight (no apostrophe) opened in 1901. Colonel J W Eddy, an old associate of Abraham Lincoln, built the line to carry passengers up to the splendid homes on Bunker Hill in Los Angeles. The fare was one cent. The two cars carried passengers without a single fatal accident until 1969, when the city redeveloped the area. The city saved the cars and other relics and promised to rebuild the line.

The new line, operated by the Angels Flight Railway Foundation, opened in 1996, about a block away from the original site. Critics charged that the new system left out some of the safety features of the old. A fatal accident in 2001, when one of the cars ran away, proved that the critics were right. The line sat in limbo for almost ten years, but the line has now been restored and the system redesigned to be safer.

I'm happy to see it back and I look forward to riding Angels Flight. Learn more about it on my Cable Car Home Page: http://www.cable-car-guy.com/index.html

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