Very interesting. But, I had to laugh every time you said "Monongahela" because it sounded so funny. You forgot to say 'non' in the middle. Mah-non-ga-hell-ah. But needless to say, my husband who was born and raised in Pittsburgh, learned somethings. Very, very interesting. Thank you.
I've ridden it, but I bailed on this RU-vid by the 3rd time he tried to pronounce "Monongahela". Maybe he should take up like the locals and abbreviate it to "Mon". I've also ridden an inclined railroad at Niagara Falls, but that's a cogwheel road rather than a passively driven cable vehicle as in Pittsburgh.
While both inclines still exist, the Monongahela has been modified quite extensively. The Duquesne is basically unmodified and still operates with its old, original mechanism. It is fascinating to watch. This makes the Duquesne Incline an original piece of history and my favorite of the two.
As a yinzer living right up on Mt Washington, I love to see a spotlight on the inclines! You nailed the Duquesne incline, but I gotta call out the pronounciation of Monongahela - it's closer to mononga-HAY-luh when spoken by locals (perfect example here ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Am9_rjpdV2Y.htmlsi=wF0BM5fYJl_huXIn ). They just finished up a rehab project earlier this year to the Mon incline that added LED track lighting - I recommend anyone visiting the Burgh to take either of the inclines up to catch the breathtaking view up on the Granedview overlook. If you're driving, I can also recommend driving up the PJ McArdle Roadway since it feels like you're driving straight up to the sky; that road's completion was the true death knell for many of the inclines in the area.
Lmao dude, how do you spell Duquesne right but shit the bed on the name of your own daughter's extremely illustrious school, to whom i assume you pay tuition??
For about two years I commuted daily on the Duquesne incline. Best commute of my life. I lived a block away from it at the top, and I worked downtown near the point. There's a downstairs area at the lower station where you can wait for a bus into town, there's even a mirror to help you watch, and a button to push to flash a light to make the bus stop. It's on the West busway so buses come very frequently. However, I'd usually get into town on foot using the Fort Pitt bridge, which has amazing views. Just bring noise cancelling headphones since the bridge does carry the Parkway. I'd meet tourists almost daily, and they'd always ask me if I was afraid it would break. I never was afraid, it was built by Germans 150 years ago. It's not going anywhere. The Mon is more useful as a commuter shuttle because there's more population density at the top and it's an even quicker walk into downtown, but the Duquesne does serve a solid handful of regular commuters.
Living here for over 50 years its always exciting an interesting to see how much history this city has that I STILL don't know about. It true a person is NEVER to old to learn something new.
Same here as a person born in the Mount Lebanon hospital in Jan 1972. For the first 31 years of my life I lived close to the Liberty Tunnels but since then I am on top of the hill close to the S curve on 79 above Neville Island.
Ryan, I happen to be a decedent of Samuel Diescher. Still living in Pennsylvania, my family and I have visited the inclines and it warms my heart to enjoy the awesome video that you have created. Interesting note, Samuel married Caroline Endres, the daughter of John Endres, she was also trained as an engineer in Europe. I will be sure to subscribe to your channel and share it with others. Thank you!!!
As a Pittsburgher, I was 19 before I was ever on one of the inclines. I've been on both, but it has probably been 15-20 years now. Anyway, at the top of the Duquesne Incline, you can go under the station (but still inside) and see the mechanics of it. I think it costs extra--like $0.50 or $1.00.
The Castle Shannon Incline also had a rather interesting story only touched on... started out as a coal mine going straight through "Coal Hill" (Mt Washington) until it reached the other side, and then the Pittsburgh & Castle Shannon narrow gauge rail road was set up to bring people in from the South Hills and service the mines throughout that area, that used the mine/tunnel to bring people to the top of Mt Washington, then to the incline you mention. Eventually, when the railroad tunnel was deemed unsafe for passenger traffic (not the incline itself) they built another incline coming up the back of Mt Washington, so you could come up one side, cross the street and then go down the other, all by incline. Coal trains still used the tunnel and existing incline structure, whilst the new passenger incline was built close by. As recently as the 90s, the old Overbrook PCC streetcar line followed part of the Castle Shannon rail route, and - as I was told on a tour of it back in the day - also made use of the old narrow gauge rails as guide rails within the tracks to help stability going over the hills and around curves. You can still see evidence of the inclines on Google Maps, one coming up the south side of the hill from Warrington Ave via a line of trees between Laclede and Haberman up to Bailey Ave... across to where now stand a set of townhouses (where the former top entrance structure of the opposite incline was). Then, you can see on Carson Ave, just to the west of where Arlington Ave comes out, where the buses exit from using the Mt Washington Transit tunnel - that's where the north face passenger incline dropped people off onto the street, from beneath the railroad line. As for the tunnel, on the south face it started a few feet above where that transit tunnel is now, and extended through the hill into the middle of the woods somewhere around Neff and Lava Streets, to the coal incline. It was always a project of mine to find that northern tunnel exit (among several others, including one I believe exited around a concrete retaining wall behind what is now the Onala Club - I was looking for the south entrance, across Sawmill Run and Woodville Road from yet another incline, in the West End), but I never could get out there to make the search. Now I live in a completely different region - but maybe somebody else will be interested enough to try to find it themselves. I wish you all the best, whoever you are. 🙂
Thank you for this information. That was interesting. Is what you are saying means that there is a lost tunnel in Mt. Washington? Because as an urbexer, I am interested.
Theres no tunnel exit anymore, it's been filled in long ago. I explored around that small triangle of area and it's just dense woods....and ticks. You can still find the foundation blocks of the original, smaller castle Shannon incline near the entrance to the park up there on the left as you come up. I biked up Haberman st, next to the back incline right of way.was hard as hell.
@@Nylon_riotmt Washington is riddled with tunnels from all the coal mining. As for the Pittsburgh and castle shannontrain tunnels, the entrances were sealed up and overgrown a century ago. The tunnel may still get there however. I have no idea why they don't have subsidence issues up there, but it doesn't appear to be a problem.
@@alexprocyk8805 Heh, glad somebody did it. I figured the tunnel portals would be closed, if only for safety reasons, but I thought there might be a chance to find clues as to where the tunnel actually was.
Fascinating. I love Pittsburgh and want to visit one day. Beautiful lush green hills and great river views. I live in San Francisco and their hills are even steeper than ours.
Yup...steepest hills in the world and it makes me happy to hear someone from San Fran admit that,cuz not even the Guinness book of records gives us our due. Ur hills are much longer tho
Sycamore Street has crushed the dreams of many of bicyclists. Come visit in the summer, when everything is green. You'd never know that the city was once an industrial powerhouse.
The Duquesne Incline is a wonderful piece of engineering and so well kept! I was in the Pittsburgh area during a business trip and visited it. Can absolutely recommend it even if you are only interested in the view from above.
Thanks for touching on some local history!! Pittsburgh is full of it! I used to ride the Mon every day when I lived up there and tourists were fascinated that “people lived up here?”!
Growing up in the south hills of Pittsburgh, I have been on both the Duquesne and the Monongahela inclines several times. It is breathtaking when you climb Mt. Washington and see the city skyline.
@bonnierobbins4230 thanks! I lived in Ohio for 5 years when my wife was getting her PhD at Kent. We lived in Cuyohoga Falls, and honestly, it felt very similar to the South Hills. I wouldn't mind if I continued living and/or grew up there.
We have a Incline plane in Johnstown pa… it’s a 135 years old give or take and it hauls cars and trucks and motorcycles as well… But it’s under rehabilitation right now and we’re hoping to have to working by late fall this year or open for sure in the spring of next year… I work on this great mass of world wonder and love every minute of… Hoping to see you when we open for business…
Every time I spend a day down in Pittsburgh, I always go to the Duquesne Incline. It's cool, the upper landing has a small stairway you can go down into It's mechanical room and see all the large gears turn and pull the cables as it runs. When you look at it, you can see how it became such a mechanical marvel.
I love going to the Cincinnati museum when I was living there because they had a scale model of the entire town right about the turn of the century and it shows their version of this lift and how canal Street which is now a road was actually a canal if you ever get the chance to visit Cincinnati check out their museum for just that piece of History.
I have ridden the Duquesne when I was very little. Parents families grew up in that area. I rode it more recently when on a business trip to the city. Even got to grab a smiley while I was near the platform.
Having grown up in Johnstown, Pa, I used OUR incline many times. It's the steepest continuous run in the world. I have also ridden both of these Pittsburgh inclines, and the Angels Flight in Los Angeles! Johnstown's incline is closed right now for supposed upgrades and repairs, but the rumor is, the county wants to leave it non-operational, as a museum.
@@DaveTheMagicalChiken Me too, but unless they're using federal taxed money, I'm not the one footing the bill. I wonder if they ever made public the annual operating cost before subsidies.
My two little brothers and I got to ride the Monongahela Incline back in 2007. Grandpa Butch took us on a road trip around Pennsylvania, and that was one of the things we did in Pittsburgh.
Great watch, loads of information. I don't live in Pittsburgh, but it's always a fun place to visit.... Fun Fact: Much of the 1977 classic movie Dawn of the Dead was filmed in and around Pittsburg.........
It’s been decades ago but I remember riding the Coal Hill/Mt. Washington incline - I was unaware of the Duquesne Incline - hopefully I’ll get to revisit them SOON!
Great Channel! I enjoy all your shows about Pittsburgh my hometown. I'm from the South Hills by Kennywood Park! My father worked for the city Civil Engineer. He helped rework waterworks and flood control. In the 1960s..He also surveyed "Parkway" rt 376/576 N to Wexford. Bonnie Ohio
@10:39 Those early inhabitants were truly a bunch of gophers building houses wherever on the side of the hills without streets, sidewalks and services! 😂😂
They have these in Valparaiso, Chile. I rode one and they have several as the city is built on a flat area bordered by many hills above the city., next to the Pacific ocean!
There was an incline that you could put your car on and there was a bend in the track as you went up the hill. My dad took me on that a number of times in the late 50s and maybe early 60s. So it would have been the last one closed down. I dont remember the name of it and cant find on the list. Maybe the one that closed in 1963
I used to take my Church's youth group up to the top of the Duquesne Incline at night to see the city. That was back in 1969 when Pittsburgh still had its steel mills belching their foul stench into the air. My wife and I also road the one up Lookout Mountain near Chattanooga, Tennessee. Thanks for this episode.
You can actually still see part of a wall left from the Freyburg St incline. And the top stop of the Knoxville incline is around where a convenience store now sits.
Where is this guy from. He sure ain't from around Pittsburgh. Ma-non-ga-hey`-la is the way us locals say it, shortened to "The Mon". This guy sure doesn't know Yinzer.
You really need to set a little time aside and take the ride. I've never been on the Monongahela, but the Duquesne is more than well worth the price of admission. Hopefully, they haven't done anything to try to improve it, because it truly is an experience; one that you should never forget. I haven't been back to Pittsburgh since 2010, so I really don't know how much they charge, but back then it wasn't very much, probably only a couple bucks for the round trip. When you get to the top, there's a little area up there that you can view some of its workings in action, plus there's a nice landing outside with a killer view. Regarding those workings that you can see, when you're in the car taking the trip, you can feel them working lol. Try to get in the back of the car on the way up, which is the front on the way down. There's a pretty decent sized lot across the street from the base for parking. Maybe I have been on the Monongahela, now that I think about it, but it would have been when I was really young, like maybe seven or eight years old. The memory I have from riding it back then is completely different from the way the Duquesne is laid out. I mean, not even close. Seriously, set a little time aside. You won't regret it.
There used to be a trolley service that ran from Cleveland to it's summer getaway Painesville. It ran along US20. This would make for an interesting video. A center turn lane runs where the trolleys once did. #VideoTopic
The entire history of Euclid Ave. in Cleveland would be excellent on this channel! Millionaire's Row, Doan's Corners, University Circle, and beyond! Also, I'm surprised it wasn't mentioned that there was at least 1 furnicular in Cincinnati! 🤔🤔
They're also the closest to downtown Pittsburgh. So, there is a practical element in terms of commuting and a tourist element as it's scenic at the top of both of them.
Came here for/to make this comment. Before content creators do these things, maybe consult a local. So many Appalachian words get completely butchered. Kanawha happens so frequently.
On the very early inclines, if the pull cable broke, well --- say your prayers as there was no safety to stop the car from crashing to the bottom of the hill, this was the same in the UK/Europe as well. OUCH
