The Monongahela Incline is a funicular located near the Smithfield Street Bridge in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Designed and built by Prussian-born engineer John Endres in 1870, it is the oldest continuously operating funicular in the United States.
Lower station of the Monongahela Incline
Image: The Incline PA Edit
Monongahela Incline (right) and the Monongahela Freight Incline (left) in 1905. The latter has been demolished.
Interior of the lower station
A funicular is a type of cable railway system that connects points along a railway track laid on a steep slope. The system is characterized by two counterbalanced carriages permanently attached to opposite ends of a haulage cable, which is looped over a pulley at the upper end of the track. The result of such a configuration is that the two carriages move synchronously: as one ascends, the other descends at an equal speed. This feature distinguishes funiculars from inclined elevators, which have a single car that is hauled uphill.
Funicular in Baku, Azerbaijan
Bottom towrope
Funicular drive train
Petřín funicular wheelset with Abt rack and pinion brake