The Incredible Inclines – Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
“Learning is itself a great reward.”
william hazlitt
If you ever have the opportunity to visit Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, I would recommend that you stay at one of the hotels on the south bank of the Monongahela River located at a place called “Station Square”. The views of the incredible Pittsburgh skyline rising over the brown Monongahela River with its bridges and barges are amazing to say the least. There are all kinds of shops, stores and restaurants in Station Square and a clean and convenient tube/tram (known locally as the “T”) providing easy access to the bustling city center known as the Golden Triangle.
Although there are many reasons to visit Pittsburgh as a tourist, such as professional baseball and football, the Pirates, and the Steelers, respectively, there are also many historical gems to be found if you look for them. Most people know about Fort Pitt and the Carnegie Museum on the University of Pittsburgh campus, but my favorite attractions are two relics of a bygone era, across the Monongahela River from the skyscrapers of Mount Washington.
These two anomalies are the Monongahela and Duquesne tilts. In the mid-to-late 1800s, there were dozens of German immigrants living on Mount Washington who made the trip over the cliff each day to work in Steel City’s mills, rail yards, and coal barges. If you look at Mount Washington today from Station Square, you will understand how these immigrants got tired of this daily work and proposed the construction of various “slopes” like the ones they had in Germany in order to easily go up and down the mountain.
Originally there were up to 17 of these Inclines or “Funiculars”, which is its technical name meaning inclined plane or cliff railway. The remaining two slopes are owned and operated by the Allegheny County Port Authority. Ramps are rustic-looking conveyances that look like a ski tram on the outside and an old tram on the inside. The two remaining slopes have their own station buildings at the bottom and top of Mount Washington. Each station has two cars and two sets of tracks that are next to each other.
These pairs of trolley-like cars are connected by a cable, and as one car moves up, the other car on the adjacent track moves down. The ascending and descending carts balance each other. Riding these slopes was as unique an experience for me as riding the bizarre elevator to the top of the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, Missouri.
Of the two ramps, the Monongahela ramp is the more accessible, being an easy walk from Station Square. This incline is the oldest and steepest in the US, having been built in 1870. It is 635 feet long, travels at 6 miles per hour along a 35 degree incline and seats 23 passengers per car. As this historic piece of engineering winds its way up the track, views of the city get better and better with every foot of elevation gained.
While you must drive a few miles west on East Carson Street, the Duquesne Incline offers the best views in the city in my opinion. The views of the city from the top of this slope are absolutely stunning.
From the top of Duquesne Incline, I recommend a short walk west on Grandview Ave to “Point of View” park. Here is a bronze statue commemorating the meeting near this spot between George Washington and the Seneca leader Guyasuta. However, the real attraction here is the most amazing view of the incredible Pittsburgh skyline and the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers, where at the “point” they merge and together become the mighty Ohio.
Standing in this spot From left to right you’ll see the USS Requin submarine at the Carnegie Science Center, Heinz Field, home of the Pittsburgh Steelers, the yellow “Three Sisters” bridges and many others on the Allegheny River, the rising fountain in the sky at the very point of the Golden Triangle, glittering skyscrapers like PPG Place, BNY Mellon Center, and the black US Steel Tower, coal barges oozing up and down the rivers along with all manner of watercraft, and the shops of Station Square and the old historic Smithfield Street Bridge connecting downtown to Station Square across the Monongahela River.
Of all the places I have traveled to, few sights can compare to the one described above. As the lights come on in Pittsburgh and the sun goes down, it’s that much more incredible.
So if you have the chance to visit Pittsburgh for whatever reason, hopefully you’ll have time to see the two little slopes on Mount Washington. The cost is approximately $2.00 each way. For more information call (412) 361-0873.
