Los Angeles is a land of attraction. We live on spectacle and we're always looking for the next big thing to part tourists from their dollars, whether it's theme parks like Disneyland or Universal Studios, or even obvious tourist traps like those offensively-slow celebrity tour vans that drive up and down Mulholland Drive and get in the way of my need for sp-
For Angelinos in the early 1900s, the biggest attraction by far was the famous "Mount Lowe Railway", a combination electric railway and funicular built into a Southwestern Peak of the San Gabriel Mountains and overlooking much of LA County. When built, the railway was a marvel of engineering and unique among its peers for being the only overhead-wire mountain railway in America. But how did this unique draw fall so hard down the face of Mount Lowe? We find out this, and more, on today's Trolley Tuesday as we relive the echoes of trolley wheels and clattering funicular mechanisms on the Mount Lowe Railway.
Even by 19th century standards, Professor Thaddeus Sobieski Constantine Lowe (1832-1913) was an eccentric that stood out from his contemporaries. A self-made scientist from the start, he first became prominent after inheriting a traveling chemistry show from a Professor Reginald Dinklehoff after receiving a chemistry lecture from him and being enamoured by the concept of lighter-than-air gases. From here, Lowe continued to pursue aeronautics and by the late 1850s, he established his own balloon-constructing service and gave rides to fair riders. Despite the "Professor" appellation, Lowe never obtained a doctorate; it was merely a formality from newspaper reporters indicating credible scientists. Lowe's interest in balloon aeronautics eventually led him to begin development of a transatlantic balloon by 1859, but after two test flights that went nowhere near the Eastern Seaboard, the project was halted due to the Civil War.
Here, Lowe finally rose to national prominence by using his balloons to perform aerial reconnaissance missions for the Union Army and, in July of 1861, President Abraham Lincoln made Lowe the Chief Aeronaut of the Union Army Balloon Corps. Disgruntled military members disputing his operations and pay scale forced Lowe back into the private sector in 1863, where he continued to experiment with the lifting capabilities of hydrogen gas (pioneering the "water gas" process where hydrogen was produced from steam and coke). His biggest money maker came from his patenting of the "Compression Ice Machine", an early refrigeration unit that enabled him to amass an incredible fortune. In 1887, he moved out to Los Angeles from Norristown, Pennsylvania, after a chance visit to the Southland, then to Pasadena in 1890 to begin his retirement. Lowe made some local investments in the Pacific-Lowe water-gas company, the Citizen's Bank of Los Angeles, and even an opera house, but it was a chance meeting with Cornell University David J. Macpherson that our story really begins.
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A postcard view of Prof. Lowe's impressive 24,000 square foot estate, "The Blossoms" on 955 S. Orange Grove Avenue, Pasadena, California.
The property, once part of "Millionaire's Row" is now taken up by a modern apartment complex.
(Anne Read Collection) |
A Tourist Track
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David J. Macpherson,
who engineered his own
impressive moustache.
(Altadena Historical Society) |
David J. Macpherson (1854-1927) was a civil engineer with an un-scratchable itch. After working with the
Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe for quite some time, Macpherson moved to Pasadena as he believed the Mediterranean climate was conducive to good health. He spent a lot of his time hiking the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains north of the city, and soon he was designing a whole mountain railway that would not only be the jewel of Pasadena, but also an engineering masterpiece. Despite the promise of healthy tourism and the populated-but-lengthy trails going up nearby Oak Mountain and Mt. Wilson, both the locals of Pasadena and nearby Sierra Madre hemmed and hawed on the idea to invest millions into what was essentially a "white elephant" idea. This changed in 1891, when Macpherson was introduced to Prof. Lowe by the head of Pasadena's First National Bank, Perry M. Green.
With a source of funding secured, and Thaddeus Lowe finding a deep scientific interest in Macpherson's plan, the two men incorporated the Pasadena & Mount Wilson Railroad in 1891. The design was originally based on another tourist trap of a railway, the Mount Washington Cog Railway in Crawford Notch, New Hampshire, (going so far as to even hire the same engineer, John Horne) but after failure to obtain the proper right of way, the original location of Mount Wilson was abandoned for the much shorter "Oak Mountain". Oak Mountain was soon renamed to "Mount Lowe" after Prof Lowe climbed it and set an American flag upon its tall 5,606 foot peak, and mapmaker Andrew McNally (co-founder of Rand McNally map printing who had just also moved to Altadena) made it official by naming the peak "Mount Lowe". However, for one reason or another, most of the Mount Lowe Railway's infrastructure was actually located on adjacent Echo Mountain (which peaked at a modest 3,210 feet), just southwest of Mount Lowe.
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A map of Echo Mountain and Mount Lowe, as made in 1913 by the Pacific Electric Railway.
(Los Angeles Magazine) |
To the Toppermost of the Poppermost
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A narrow-gauge work car on the "Mountain Division"
of the Mount Lowe Railway, under construction.
Note the large amounts of fruit groves behind it.
(Altadena Historical Society) |
Construction of the line began in earnest in September 1892, in what is now the Angeles National Forest, by blasting footers and rocks out of Rubio Canyon on Altadena's Northeast side. Railroad services were provided on the corner of Calaveras Street and Lake Avenue, where the
Pasadena Railway's (later
Los Angeles Terminal Railway) Mountain Junction station was constructed. A small narrow gauge line was built to the foot of nearby Echo Mountain in Rubio Canyon, where a grand 12-bedroom hotel and dining pavilion was constructed and named the "Rubio Pavilion." The Pavilion was also home to the gas engines and water wheels that would power this now-all-electric mountain railway, and Lowe continued his own brand of showmanship by constructing stairways and footbridges over the eleven waterfalls and numerous streams running through Rubio Canyon.
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Construction begins on the Great Incline in 1892.
(Altadena Historical Society) |
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Prof. Lowe's original design for a "three railed incline".
(Mike Manning Digital Collection) |
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The Macpherson Trestle in service,
spanning the 200-foot long, 150-foot deep
chasm on the side of Echo Mountain.
(Altadena Historical Society) |
The largest and most ambitious part of the Mount Lowe was the "Great Incline", a funicular railway that enabled the railway to gain 1,900 feet in elevation over 3000 feet of track, an insane 62% grade. Incredibly, Lowe also pioneered a style of funicular track that many of us take for granted today, as the Great Incline was also the first funicular to use the three-railed incline designed (with two cables and a shared middle rail at either end) which came to him overnight. To get over the steep chasms of Rubio Canyon, one of which was 150 feet deep, Macpherson designed a 62% trestle that was dubbed the "Macpherson Trestle" and it became an iconic part of the Great Incline. The cable technology was engineered by the famous Andrew Smith Hallidie, who is credited with inventing the "cable car" still in use in the city of San Francisco. Echo Summit was home to the big cable house and ran 6,000 feet of 1-5/8 inch cable up and down both tracks in a complete loop. For safety, the two sides were also armed with a safety cable and emergency braking that could stop a car in just 15 feet.
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The grand Echo Mountain House at the top of the
Great Incline, as photographed by Charles Lawrence.
(LA Public Library) |
The last bits of the railway were added between 1892 and 1893, with the elaborate 40-room Echo Chalet and the luxurious 80-room Echo Mountain House said to rival the Hotel Del Coronado in San Diego being some of the first tourist destinations set up. Lowe also used the height of Echo Mountain to erect an observatory as he was a patron of the astronomical arts, and even used the Great Incline to transport the lens up to the observatory. The last section of the railway to be built was the 3'6" gauge "Alpine Division", a mountainside trolley that would take guests all the way to Mount Lowe. However, due to budgetary constraints following the line's opening on July 4, 1893, the Alpine Division ended at the fourth hotel added, Ye Alpine Tavern, in 1895.
A Trip Up the Mountain
So now that the railway's built, let's take a ride up Echo Mountain!
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The first streetcars of Mount Lowe's Mountain Division depart Altadena for Rubio Canyon, July 4, 1893.
(Public Domain) |
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The poppy fields along the Mount Lowe Mountain Division's
right of way, with all of the allergies present.
(KCET) |
After getting off from a connecting train at Mountain Junction, passengers boarded a local streetcar service to take them to the foot of Rubio Canyon dubbed the "Mountain" or "Rubio Division". Along the way, they would pass through an enormous field of poppies as they ascended an 8% grade to the Rubio Pavilion. This lower division was also home to four intermediate stops (Newkirk, Poppyfields, Hygeia, and Roca), as it passed through a residential area, and also provided hospital service at Hygeia. This line was originally designed at a narrow 3'6" gauge, but in 1903 this was later widened to standard 4'8.5" gauge. The line contained one bridge, Las Flores Bridge, crossing over Rubio Wash.
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Rubio Pavilion and Streetcar Station, just after purchase by the Pacific Electric in 1905.
The journey from downtown Pasadena to Rubio Canyon by trolley took an hour.
(Los Angeles County Library) |
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The Great Incline begins its ascent from Rubio Canyon.
(Mount Lowe Preservation Society) |
After arriving at the foot of the Great Incline, passengers transferred out into one of two white "opera box" funicular cars, one named "Echo" and one named "Alpine" (originally "Rubio"). These two three-row cars with a covered cab at the top sat five people per row and carted guests at a leisurely speed up the side of the mountain. An electric pole affixed to the rear (top-facing) half of the car provided lights inside as well as signaling the men in the cable house to move the cars, and the seats facing backwards gave passengers an unencumbered view of the scenic San Gabriels. As they rose, however, that view gave way to the rest of the flat and expansive San Gabriel Valley, which certain clear days out of the year providing an interrupted view out to the Pacific Ocean. This was, of course, well before the infamous hazy cloud of "smog" sat over Los Angeles. At the top of the Great Incline, where the grade softened to 48%, was White City, a leisure complex atop Echo Mountain that was home to stores, trails, picnic areas, and hotels as well as crew dormitories and powerhouses. There was even, at one point, a zoo.
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The Echo Mountain complex ,also known as "White City", outlined in rich, white snow.
From left to right: Echo Mountain House, the crew dormitories and power house, and the Mount Lowe Observatory.
(KCET) |
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The single most famous image of the Mount Lowe Railway,
as opening day visitors swing around the ambitious and
breathtaking Circular Bridge.
(Water and Power Archives) |
If a passenger wanted to continue further, the famous 3'6" gauge "Alpine Division" was the way to go all the way up to Ye Alpine Tavern. The route was one of the most scenic, and the most ambitious built, carving its way through rocks and ascending up the face of Echo Mountain on skinny bridges and tight curves. Most of Mount Lowe's famous images, provided by official photographer Charles Lawrence, were shot on the railway's famous "Circular Bridge", a trestle that extended out along the side of Echo Mountain to gain 12 feet in elevation without the need for a switchback. It reminded passengers very much of a roller coaster, which were just coming into vogue at the time. Even more hilariously, one section of the line by the Cape of Good Hope (another daring geological engineering project that cut through a rock and over a bridge) was marked "Longest Straight Track, 225 Feet." To further show off his scientific prowess and interest, Lowe attached "Echophones" along Mount Echo for tourists to find that nice "sweet spot" experience a whole nine reverberations of soundwaves.
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A Pacific Electric-lettered Mount Lowe car at Ye Alpine Tavern.
(Public Domain) |
The Decline of the Great Incline
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A Pacific Electric pamphlet
for the Mount Lowe Railway, 1902.
(Pacific Electric Railway Historical Society) |
Unfortunately, despite all of the incredible engineering that went into the Mount Lowe Railway, plus the amenities provided to its tourists that attracted over 3 million people to ride it, the railway was not long for the world. Lowe lost ownership of the railroad in 1898, after the expenses of the railroad rendered him bankrupt, and it was sold to Jared Sidney Torrance (founder of Torrance, California) after the local government realized the railway was built on government property. Lowe was only left with the title to the observatory. After reorganization, the new Mount Lowe Railway was sold to Mr. Valentine Peyton of Danville, Illinois, but he sold the operation after two years to the interests of Henry E. Huntington in 1902.
The Mount Lowe suffered from poor ridership going into the 1900s, which only worsened when the Echo Mountain House burned down in 1900. Due to it being uninsured, the hotel was never rebuilt. When the Pacific Electric (PE) took hold, they made some attempt to improve the railway by regauging the Mountain Division to allow direct streetcar service to the Great Incline, but any attempt to improve the Echo Mountain facilities were destroyed in 1905 following a fierce fire that leveled almost everything on the mountain. At PE's expense, the Ye Alpine Tavern and the streetcars were restored to operation but the only improvements went towards maintaining and upgrading the Incline Powerhouse. In 1909, another fierce electrical storm and flash flood destroyed the Rubio Pavilion, injuring many adults and burying a child in thick mud.
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Revelers at Ye Alpine Tavern in 1930 prepare for
a snowball fight. The new annex is to the right.
(Water and Power Associate) |
Despite Pacific Electric touting the Mount Lowe as a "must-see" attraction in Los Angeles, even giving citizens and tourists a rare glimpse at snow in the southland, the Mount Lowe continued to decline even further after Lowe died in 1913, two years after the PE's "Great Merger". In 1928, Lowe's lovely observatory blew down in a Santa Ana Wind, almost killing former photographer Charles Lawrence (now the curator of Lowe's observator). Thankfully, Lawrence escaped with his life and also saved the expensive telescope lens inside. PE expanded the Ye Alpine Tavern in 1925 in an attempt to attract "booze cruise" trolleys by adding a large brick annex to the otherwise stone building, but this later burned down in an electrical fire in 1936.
With PE having no choice but to abandon the Mount Lowe Railway after the line's remote and insular nature, couple with the natural disasters, made it a terrible investment to keep operating, the plan was made to maintain a small token crew for a couple of years before officially abandoning it. The last journey of the line was made in December, 1937, as a Railroad Boosters excursion to ride the line all the way to Ye Alpine Tavern one last time. After this run, it was thought that dismantling would begin shortly; however, Mother Nature eventually finished the Mount Lowe off by destroying everything in March of 1938 in a three-day deluge of rain that was later dubbed "the worst flood in the city of Los Angeles" and the leading reason to dam and concrete up the Los Angeles River into a massive storm drain. So went the Mount Lowe, one of the most unique railroads devised by one of the most unique men in America.
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Part of the Mount Lowe's Alpine Division right-of-way with a rock across the tracks, shortly after abandonment.
(Pacific Electric Railway Historical Society) |
Paradise in the Sky
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Members of the Scenic Mount Lowe Railway Historical Committee stand with the rebuilt
Inspiration Point pavilion on July 27, 1996.
(Scenic Mount Lowe Railway Historical Committee) |
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Tools and track left behind on Mount Lowe, now found and
on display at the Pasadena Museum of History.
(Mount Lowe Preservation Society) |
Today, only a few artifacts of the Mount Lowe are left, cataloged, tended to, and preserved by the Mount Lowe Preservation Society on National Park Service and Forestry Service land. Most of the material left following the flood was scrapped in 1941, when the PE ended service to Altadena, then blown up in 1959 by the Forestry Service to clear away "hazardous nuisances". The largest of these artifacts left were re-discovered in a 1992 "revealment" project that recovered much of the large metal infrastructure of the Great Incline, along with some of the Alpine Division's roadbed (including the roadbed around the famous curves at Cape of Good Hope and Circular Bridge, which were converted into forestry service roads) and the foundations of the Ye Alpine Tavern, among others.
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The remains of the Great Incline's rails and roadbed, along with part of the Echo Mountain House's foundations.
(California Through My Lens) |
On January 6, 1993, the remains of the railway were officially bordered by the Forestry Service as a preserved area and were added to the National Register of Historic Places. On July 4, 1993, a centennial celebration was held both on Echo Mountain and Macpherson Parkway in the Poppyfields District of Altadena. In 1996, the first restored building on Echo Mountain was restored as the Inspiration Point Pavilion, near the remains of Mount Lowe Tavern. On clear days, one could still see much of the San Gabriel Valley as many others would have seen it over 140 years ago, and the Mount Lowe Railway continues to be a popular hiking destination for both locals and tourists.
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A composite photo of the remains of Echo Mountain House and the Great Incline, mixed with
opening day festivities for the Mount Lowe Railway.
(Steve Crise) |
Thank you for reading today's Trolley post, and watch your step as you alight on the platform. My resources today included
Charles Seim's "Mount Lowe, the Railway in the Clouds", the
Mount Lowe Preservation Society, the
Altadena Historical Society, and
the Electric Railway Historical Association. The trolley gifs in our posts are made by Brian Clough and can be found on his site,
Banks of the Susquehanna. On Thursday, we look at two of Pacific Electric's most famous buildings: The PE Building and the Subway Terminal! For now, you can follow
myself or
my editor on Twitter, buy a shirt or sticker from
our Redbubble stand, or purchase my editor's self-developed
board game! It's like Ticket to Ride, but cooler! (and you get to support him through it!) Until next time, ride safe!
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