The Los Angeles area is world famous for its horrendous motorways. Somehow it takes 20 min to travel anywhere within a 10 mile radius. Bogus, however did you know that the city has a functioning, energy saving, cost effective light rail system? A solution at last!
But ... there is always a catch... it is only available downtown... and takes you one block up a hill (from Hill St to the top of Bunker Hill on Grand and vise versa)... but it's cheap, real cheap. For only 25 cents you can commute on the shortest light rail trail in the world, Angels Flight Railway!
Entrance on Hill Street
Virtual Ride Courtesy of Offbeat
Built in 1901, its a functioning funicular (a cable railway in which a cable attached to a pair of tram like vehicles on rails moves them up and down a steep slop, the ascending and descending vehicles counterbalancing each other). Though it has been through two variations, so it's not the original, it is still awesome. And it just reopened in March after a nine year closure.
Taking the midnight train to anywhere
Adjacent to the railway is Angel's Knoll Park , for fans of the film 500 Days of Summer, the park bench with the view of the city landscape (most of which are parking lots) is located for your viewing pleasure.
Summer & Tom on the bench, 500 Days of Summer
Angel's Knoll Park
The bench has a plaque making it official. On a clear day, you can see a bum drinking liquor on it.
Didn't want to risk getting a closer picture at "500 Bench"
If you are visiting the downtown area, this is a must see. Angel's Flight and the park, I did not mean the drunk on the bench.
Funicular-ific!
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Methinks you would do yourself well to visit this place if you haven't already:
ReplyDeletehttp://traveltown.org/
It's a train museum in Griffith Park. Used to go there as a kid, they have all kinds of vintage train cars and even kids trains to ride in. I'm sure they would love to get Mike Hover in one of those trains, though.