rev:text
| - As part of my job, sometimes I have to do home visits. I had to do one today on Mount Washington, and as it turned out, the Monongahela Incline was the best way to get there. The Monongahela Incline and its counterpart, the Duquesne Incline, are both a sort of combination cable car/elevator that go up Mount Washington. Per the Port Authority's website and brochure, the Mon Incline is the oldest one in the world, built in 1870. It was built so residents of Coal Hill, now called Mount Washington, could get to the city and their jobs below.
How the Mon Incline survives today is a matter of forward thinking and location, location, location! The company that owned it was going to abandon it too, but instead decided to modernize it. Then, in the 1970s and 1980s, two events helped secure its future. The Station Square Mall and was built out of the old railroad station and facilities located at Carson and Smithfield Streets, right across the street from the incline's lower station. Then, when the light rail system was built, a major station was built a block east of the incline. Plus, it's handy to reach the bars and restaurants up on Shiloh Street.
So not only is the Monongahela Incline popular with tourists, it is a practical way for people who live up on Mount Washington to get Downtown or to the South Hills. There are overlooks up on the cliff just to the west of the upper station. On one of our earliest dates, my now-husband and I went strolling up there. If you have out-of-town guests, or are visiting Pittsburgh, there is no better way to see the city, especially at night.
|