Angels Flight is a landmark funicular railway in the
Bunker HillBunker Hill, in the downtown area of Los Angeles, California, is a short, developed hill with its peak located roughly around 3rd Street. It is located directly east of the Harbor Freeway. Due to the skyscrapers built on it, the hill stands out from the rest of the L.A...
district of
downtownDowntown Los Angeles is the central business district of Los Angeles, California, United States, located close to the geographic center of the metropolitan area...
Los Angeles, CaliforniaLos Angeles is the largest city in the state of California and the second largest in the United States. Often abbreviated as L.A. and nicknamed The City of Angels, Los Angeles has an estimated population of 3.8 million and spans over in Southern California...
.
The funicular has operated on two slightly different sites, using the same cars. The first Angels Flight operated from 1901 until it was closed in 1969 when its location was redeveloped. The second reopened nearby in 1996, and closed again in 2001 after a serious accident. The second funicular still exists but does not operate, and it has been scheduled to reopen on several occasions. In early 2008, the
Los Angeles Downtown NewsThe Los Angeles Downtown News is a free weekly newspaper in Los Angeles, California, serving the Downtown Los Angeles area.The newspaper focuses on general news with an emphasis on real estate and business...
reported that the railway would reopen "soon".
The first Angels Flight
Built in 1901 with financing from Colonel
J.W. EddyColonel James Ward Eddy was the builder of Angels Flight funicular railroad in Los Angeles, California.Eddy was born in Java, New York and matriculated at Genesee College in Lima, New York...
, as the
Los Angeles Incline Railway, running northwest from the west corner of Third and Hill Streets, Angels Flight consisted of two carriages pulled up a steep incline by metal cables powered by engines at the top of the hill. As one car ascended, the other descended, carried down by gravity. The two cars were named Sinai and Olivet. 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.
The first Angels Flight was a conventional funicular, with both cars connected to the same haulage cable. Unlike most more modern funiculars it did not have
track brakeTrack brakes are a form of brakes unique to railborne vehicles. The braking force derives from the friction resulting from the application of wood or metal braking shoes directly to the tracks...
s for use in the event of a cable breaking, but it did have a separate safety cable which would come into play in case of breakage of the main cable. It operated for 68 years with a good safety record.
The only fatality that occurred in the first Angels Flight took place on September 1, 1943, when a sailor attempting to walk up the track was crushed beneath one of the cars.
In November 1952, the Beverly Hills Parlor of the
Native Daughters of the Golden WestThe Native Sons of the Golden West is a charitable and fraternal organization founded in 1875 to promote the history and lore of the early days of the state of California...
erected a plaque to commemorate fifty years of service by the railway. It read:
Built in 1901 by Colonel J.W. Eddy, lawyer, engineer and friend of President Abraham LincolnAbraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through its greatest internal crisis, the American Civil War, preserving the Union and ending slavery...
, Angels Flight is said to be the world's shortest incorporated railway. The counterbalanced cars, controlled by cables, travel a 33 percent grade for 315 feet. It is estimated that Angels Flight has carried more passengers per mile than any other railway in the world, over a hundred million in its first fifty years. This incline railway is a public utility operating under a franchise granted by the City of Los Angeles.
The railway was closed in 1969 when the Bunker Hill area underwent a total redevelopment which transformed it from a declining community of mostly transients and working-class families renting rooms in run-down buildings to a modern mixed-use district of high-rise commercial buildings and modern apartment complexes. All the components of Angels Flight were placed in storage in anticipation of the railway's restoration and reopening.
The second Angels Flight
After 27 years in storage, the funicular was rebuilt and reopened in 1996 a half block south of the original site. Although the original cars were used, a brand new track and haulage system was designed and built, a redesign which had unfortunate consequences five years later. As rebuilt, the funicular was 91 meters (298 feet) long on an approximately 33-percent grade. Car movement was controlled by an operator inside the upper station house, who was responsible for: visually determining that the track and vehicles were clear for movement, closing the platform gates, starting the cars moving, monitoring the operation of the funicular cars, observing car stops at both stations, and collecting fares from passengers. The cars themselves did not carry any staff members.
Angels Flight was added to the
National Register of Historic PlacesThe National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
on October 13, 2000.
On February 1, 2001, Angels Flight suffered a serious accident that killed passenger Leon Praport, 83, and injured seven others, including Praport's wife, Lola. The accident occurred when car Sinai, approaching the upper station, reversed direction and accelerated downhill in an uncontrolled fashion to strike Olivet near the lower terminus.
The
National Transportation Safety BoardThe National Transportation Safety Board is an independent U.S. Government investigative agency responsible for civil transportation accident investigation. In this role, the NTSB investigates and reports on aviation accidents and incidents, certain types of highway crashes, ship and marine...
(NTSB) conducted an investigation into the accident, and determined that the probable cause was the improper design and construction of the Angels Flight funicular drive and the failure of the various regulatory bodies to ensure that the railway system conformed to initial safety design specifications and known funicular safety standards. The NTSB further remarks that the company that designed and built the drive, control, braking, and haul systems,
Lift EngineeringLift Engineering, based in Carson City, Nevada and more commonly known as Yan Lifts, was one of the major ski lift manufacturers in North America, before the firm's bankruptcy in 1996....
/Yantrak, is no longer in business, and that the whereabouts of the company's principal is unknown. The founder, Yan Kunczynski, moved to La Paz, Mexico to avoid any possible prosecution, and is in the process of selling the YANTRAK facilities in Carson City, Nevada. He is also working on
desalinationDesalination, desalinization, or desalinisation refers to any of several processes that remove excess salt and other minerals from water. More generally,desalination may also refer to the removal of salts and minerals, as in soil desalination....
technology.
Unlike the original, the new funicular used two separate haulage systems (one for each car), with the two systems connected to each other, the drive motor and the
service brakeA brake is a device for applying a force against the friction of the road, slowing or stopping the motion of a machine or vehicle, or alternatively a device to restrain it from starting to move again. The kinetic energy lost by the moving part is usually translated to heat by friction...
by a
gear trainA gear train is a set or system of gears arranged to transfer rotational torque from one part of a mechanical system to another.Gear trains consists*Driving gears - attached to the input shaft*Driven gears/Motor gears - attached to the output shaft...
; it was the failure of this gear train which was the immediate cause of the accident as it effectively disconnected Sinai both from Olivet's balancing load and from the service brake. There were
emergency brakeEmergency Brake is the generic term for the maximum available braking force that a train can apply. Different countries use a manner of different systems and expressions, but usually the emergency brake applies considerably more braking force than the standard 'full service brake'...
s which acted on the rim of each haulage drum, but due to inadequate maintenance the emergency brakes for both cars were inoperative, which left Sinai without any brakes once its physical connection to the service brake was lost. Contrary to what might be expected, the new funicular was constructed with neither safety cable nor track brakes, either of which would have prevented the accident; the NTSB was unable to identify another funicular worldwide that operated without either of these safety features.
Records indicate that the emergency brake had been inoperative for 17 to 26 months due to the fact that a normally closed hydraulic solenoid valve had been placed in a location where the design called for a normally open valve, and that the regular analysis of oil-samples was discontinued in May of 1998, despite the fact that the company performing the tests recommending that the rising particulate level in the oil samples warranted the test occurring more frequently. During the 17 to 26 months that the emergency braking system was not operating, the braking system was tested daily, but since the service brake and emergency brake were tested simultaneously, there was no way to tell if the emergency brake was functioning without looking at the brake pads or hydraulic pressure gauges during the test. The test was always performed with the Sinai train car traveling up-hill, which meant that when the power was cut and the brakes applied (as part of the test), Sinai's momentum caused the car to continue moving up-hill a short distance (slackening the cable) and then to roll back from gravity, jerking the cable tight. If the emergency brakes had been functional, then they would have caught Sinai when the cable snapped tight, but without the emergency brakes, the force of the jerk caused by the daily test was directed through the spline (the part that failed) and to the service brake. In addition, it was found that the original design called for the spline to be made of AISI 1018 steel on one drawing, and of AISI 8822 steel on a different drawing, but it is unlikely that this ambiguity in the design contributed to the accident.
Besides the design failures in the haulage system, the system was also criticised by the NTSB for the lack of gates on the cars, and the absence of a parallel walkway for emergency evacuation. The funicular suffered serious damage in the accident.
The death and injuries could have been avoided if any one of the following had taken place:
- The 1996 renovation had included installing track brakes or safety cables.
- The biannual oil analysis tests had not been discontinued in May of 1998 (which would have shown rising levels of particulate material in the oil and may have caused a full inspection of the system to take place).
- A single haulage system, similar to the first Angels Flight, had been used rather than the system that had separate cables for each car.
- The emergency brake hydraulic solenoid valve had been installed according to the design (as normally open).
- The technician installing the solenoid valve had contacted the engineer for a new design when the solenoid did not fit, instead of forcing it in with pliers (A valve with the dimensions called for in the design was no longer manufactured, and tool marks on the valve show that it was forced in).
- The daily brake test had included testing the service brake and emergency brake separately instead of testing them simultaneously (which made it impossible to confirm that they were both working).
- The daily brake test procedure had included looking at the brake pads and the hydraulic pressure in the emergency brake system to confirm it was operating.
- The pressure gauges for the hydraulic brake systems had been placed on the operator's control panel instead of in the equipment cabinet.
- The daily brake test had involved applying the brakes more gradually so that the up-hill-bound car would not have the momentum to produce slack in the cable and roll backwards, jerking the cable tight.
- The splines (the part that failed) had been designed to be extraordinarily strong to withstand the excessive force that occurred when the brake test was performed and the emergency brake was inoperative (which resulted in the force of the cable being pulled tight to be directed to the service brake through the splines, rather than to the emergency brake which was before the splines).
Several reopening dates have been announced, but none have come to pass. In early 2008, the railway president indicated that the railway would open soon. The
Automobile Club of Southern CaliforniaThe Automobile Club of Southern California was founded December 13, 1900 in Los Angeles as one of the nation's first motor clubs dedicated to improving roads, proposing traffic laws and improvement of overall driving conditions.-Early years:...
reported that Angels Flight would open in late 2008.
On November 1, 2008 both of the repaired and restored Angels Flight cars were put back on their tracks and, on 16 January 2009, testing began on the railway; however Angels Flight has not yet reopened to the public.
The City of Los Angeles commissioned conductor David Woodard to compose and perform a memorial suite honoring Praport and the funicular's quaintly named cars. It was performed on March 15, 2001 by the Los Angeles Chamber Group as
An Elegy For Two Angels.
In popular culture
- It appeared in the opening scenes of the film The Glenn Miller Story
The Glenn Miller Story is a 1953 American film directed by Anthony Mann and starring James Stewart in their first non-western collaboration.-Plot:...
in full operation.
- It appeared in the Perry Mason television series in which Perry's car was "stripped." The 1966 episode, the only one of the original series filmed in color, was called "The Case of the Twice Told Tale."
- In the 1966 movie, The Money Trap
The Money Trap is a 1965 drama film starring Glenn Ford , Elke Sommer and Rita Hayworth and directed by Burt Kennedy....
, Glenn FordGwyllyn Samuel Newton "Glenn" Ford was a Canadian-born American actor from Hollywood's Golden Era with a career that spanned seven decades. Despite his versatility, Ford was best known for playing ordinary men in unusual circumstances.-Early life and career:Born Gwyllyn Ford at Jeffrey Hale...
rides down Angels Flight while tailing the daughter of a suspect, with the camera showing the view as a passenger would experience it.
- Angels Flight is shown in Robert Aldrich's Kiss Me Deadly
Kiss Me Deadly is a film noir drama produced and directed by Robert Aldrich starring Ralph Meeker. The screenplay was written by A.I. Bezzerides, based on the Mickey Spillane Mike Hammer mystery novel Kiss Me, Deadly. Kiss Me Deadly is often considered a classic of the noir genre...
(1955) and The Indestructible ManIndestructible Man is an American black and white science fiction film, an original screenplay by Vy Russell and Sue Dwiggins for producer-director Jack Pollexfen and starring Lon Chaney, Jr.. It was produced independently, and picked up after completion for distribution in the United States by...
(1956). It is also seen in detail in The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed Up Zombies (1965).
- Angels Flight
Angels Flight is the seventh novel by American crime author Michael Connelly, and the sixth featuring the Los Angeles detective Hieronymus "Harry" Bosch.-Plot summary:...
was also the name and locale of a 1999 Harry Bosch crime novel by Michael ConnellyMichael Connelly is an American author of detective novels, notably those featuring LAPD Detective Hieronymus "Harry" Bosch....
.
- There are references to Angels Flight in the song "Strange Season" on Michael Penn
Michael Penn is an American singer and songwriter. He is the son of the late actor/director Leo Penn and actress Eileen Ryan, and the brother of actors Sean Penn and Chris Penn.-Career:...
's 1992 album "Free-for-All," and the cover features images of the line and a ticket stating, "Good for one ride".
- A scene in Hollow Triumph
Hollow Triumph, also known as The Scar in the United Kingdom, is a film noir released in . It was directed by Steve Sekely and stars Paul Henreid and Joan Bennett.-Plot:...
(1948) features Paul HenreidPaul Henreid , whose birthname was Paul Georg Julius Hernreid Ritter von Wassel-Waldingau, was an Austrian actor and film director.-Early life:...
escaping from pursuers on one of the cars.
- There is also a scene in Robert Siodmak's 1949 film noir Criss Cross
-People:*Kris Kross, an American rap duo*Criss Cross Jazz, a jazz label*Chris Cross, bassist for the UK band Ultravox*ChrisCross, an American comic book artist...
where the gangsters are planning the armored car heist. The cars can be seen through a window going up and down, first in daylight, then in darkness, to illustrate the passage of time.
- The funicular's debut on film was probably "Good Night, Nurse" in 1916, but it got its first reel close-up in a 1920 one-reel comedy of errors, All Jazzed Up, in which a bride honeymooning in Los Angeles can't stop thrill-riding up and down on Angels Flight. Her husband leaps from one car to the other to reunite with her at the end.
- The opening scene of Impatient Maiden
Impatient Maiden is a 1932 drama film made by Universal Pictures, directed by James Whale, and starring by Lew Ayres and Mae Clarke. The screenplay was written by Richard Schayer and Winifred Dunn, based on novel "The Impatient Virgin" by Donald Henderson Clarke.-Cast:*Lew Ayres as Dr...
, directed in 1932 by James WhaleJames Whale was a British film director, theatre director and actor. He is best remembered for his work in the horror film genre, having directed Frankenstein , The Old Dark House , The Invisible Man and Bride of Frankenstein , all recognized as classics of the genre...
of FrankensteinFrankenstein, or, The Modern Prometheus, generally known simply as Frankenstein, is a novel written by Mary Shelley. Shelley started writing when she was 18 and the novel was published when she was 21. The first edition was published anonymously in London in . Shelley's name appears on the second...
fame, is shot all around Angels Flight, including the Third Street steps and the Olive Street Station.
- An entire list of over 20 movies shot on and around Angels Flight (complete with over 100 stills) is at [www.electricearl.com/af].
- In the game Tony Hawk's American Wasteland
Tony Hawk's American Wasteland, also known as THAW and unofficially as Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 7, is a video game that has been released for the PS2, Xbox, Xbox 360, Nintendo GameCube and PC. Part of the Tony Hawk series, the game was developed by Neversoft and published by Activision. The PC...
, Angels Flight is a gap where the player can grind up or down the rails, the gap being called "Angel Going Up!" or "Angel Going Down!"
- It was shown at the opening to an episode of Dragnet
Dragnet may refer to:*A type of fishing net also known as a seine*Dragnet , any system of coordinated measures for apprehending criminals or suspects*Dragnet , a 1979 album by The Fall...
, with Jack WebbJohn Randolph "Jack" Webb was an American actor, television producer, director and author, who is most famous for his role as Sergeant Joe Friday in the radio and television series Dragnet...
's voice-over: "...for five cents, ride the shortest railway in the world."
- Angels Flight was also the name of a 1980's-1990's Hair metal band based in McKinney, Texas.
- It was in the 1965 children's book Piccolo's Prank by Leo Politi
Leo Politi was an Italian-American artist and author who wrote and illustrated some 20 children's books, as well as Bunker Hill, Los Angeles , intended for adults. His works often celebrated cultural diversity, and many were published in both English and Spanish.Leo Politi’s life was the stuff...
.
- Joseph Losey
Joseph Losey was an American theater and film director. After studying in Germany with Bertolt Brecht, Losey returned to the United States, eventually making his way to Hollywood....
's 1951 film MM is the thirteenth letter of the basic modern Latin alphabet. Its name in English is spelled em.-History:The letter M derives its shape from the Phoenician Mem, via the Greek Mu . Semitic Mem probably originally pictured water. It is known that Semitic people working in Egypt c...
features Angels Flight in several shots.
- Jim Dawson
Jim Dawson is a Hollywood, California-based author who has written two books about farting, including the best-selling 'Who Cut the Cheese?' His third, titled 'Did Somebody Step on a Duck?,' is due out in May 2010...
's Angels FlightAngels Flight is a landmark funicular railway in the Bunker Hill district of downtown Los Angeles, California.The funicular has operated on two slightly different sites, using the same cars. The first Angels Flight operated from 1901 until it was closed in 1969 when its location was redeveloped....
(2008) from Arcadia PublishingArcadia Publishing is an American publisher of local history. It was founded in Dover, New Hampshire in 1993 by United Kingdom-based Tempus Publishing, but became independent in 2004....
tells the complete story of the funicular and Bunker Hill, complete with 200 photos.
- Angel's Flight is a low-budget 1965 film noir
Film noir is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and sexual motivations. Hollywood's classic film noir period is generally regarded as stretching from the early 1940s to the late 1950s...
about a Bunker Hill serial killer, shot on and around Angels Flight in both the downtown and Bunker Hill neighborhoods.
- There are at least five novels titled Angel's Flight or Angels Flight
Angels Flight is a landmark funicular railway in the Bunker Hill district of downtown Los Angeles, California.The funicular has operated on two slightly different sites, using the same cars. The first Angels Flight operated from 1901 until it was closed in 1969 when its location was redeveloped....
, all with scenes that take place on the funicular and use it as a symbol of some kind. The first novel, by Don RyanDon Ryan is a Democratic Party member of the Montana Senate, representing District 10 since 2000.-External links:* official MT State Legislature website* profile*Follow the Money - Don Ryan** campaign contributions...
, was published in 1927. The most famous was Michael ConnellyMichael Connelly is an American author of detective novels, notably those featuring LAPD Detective Hieronymus "Harry" Bosch....
's 1999 best-seller.
- Among the novelists who included Angels Flight in their works are John Fante
John Fante was an American novelist, short story writer and screenwriter of Italian descent.-Life:Born in Denver, Colorado, Fante's early years were spent in relative poverty...
and Raymond ChandlerRaymond Thornton Chandler was an Anglo-American novelist and screenwriter who had an immense stylistic influence upon the modern private detective story, especially in the style of the writing and the attitudes now characteristic of the genre...
. Chandler visited the funicular in The High WindowThe High Window is a 1942 novel written by Raymond Chandler. It is his third novel to feature Los Angeles private detective Philip Marlowe.-Plot introduction:...
(1942) and in the 1938 novella The King in YellowThe King in Yellow is a collection of short stories written by Robert W. Chambers and published in 1895. The stories could be categorized as early horror fiction or Victorian Gothic fiction, but the work also touches on mythology, fantasy, mystery, science fiction and romance...
.
- Angel's Flight is the title of a famous 1931 oil painting by Millard Sheets
Millard Owen Sheets was an American painter and a representative of the California School of Painting, later a teacher and educational director, and architect of more than 50 branch banks in Southern California.-Early life:...
that hangs as part of the permanent collection in the Los Angeles County Museum of ArtThe Los Angeles County Museum of Art is an art museum in Los Angeles, California. It is located on Wilshire Boulevard along Museum Row in the Miracle Mile vicinity of Los Angeles, adjacent to the George C. Page Museum and La Brea Tar Pits....
. It shows two young women on the funicular's upper platform looking down on the nearby houses of Third Street, but the funicular cars themselves are out of the frame.
Design details
- The correct name for the railway is Angels Flight, which is grammatically incorrect as there is no possessive apostrophe
The apostrophe is a punctuation mark, and sometimes a diacritic mark, in languages that use the Latin alphabet or certain other alphabets. In English it has two main functions: it marks omissions, and it assists in marking the possessives of nouns and some pronouns...
before or after the 's'. The film of the same name, however, does include an apostrophe.
- The decorative Beaux-Arts archway entrance and station house were added around 1910. The original archway was a simple cast iron pipe structure with a two-feet-high cherub and the name Angel's Flight (with an apostrophe) above it.
- The initials that appear on the archway, 'BPOE', stand for the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks
The Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks is an American fraternal order and social club founded in 1868...
, who once had a lodge in a large building adjacent to the top of the original flight.
See also
External links