Angels Flight, a downtown Los Angeles landmark, is an historic 2 ft 6 in (762 mm) narrow gauge funicular railway in the city's Bunker Hill district. It operates two funicular cars, named "Olivet" (on the left in this view) and "Sinai," that run in opposite directions on a shared cable. The tracks cover a distance of 298 feet (91 m) over a vertical gain of 96 feet (29 m). It was built as the "Los Angeles Incline Railway" in 1901.
The funicular has operated on two different sites, using the same cars and station elements. The original location, with trackage along the side of Third Street Tunnel and connecting Hill Street and Olive Street, operated from 1901 until 1969, when its site was cleared for redevelopment, with the funicular set to reopen in two years.
The current location opened half a block south of the original location in 1996 (so, that was a very long "two years"!), mid-block between 3rd and 4th Streets, with tracks connecting Hill Street and California Plaza. It was shut down in 2001, following a fatal accident, and reopened in 2010. It was closed again during June and July of 2011, and then again after a minor derailment incident in September of 2013. The investigation of this latter incident led to the discovery of potentially serious safety problems in both the design and the operation of the funicular, which has since been corrected.
