| Nunnery Hill Incline | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Overview | |
| Locale | Fineview, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania |
| Coordinates | 40°27′36″N80°00′22″W / 40.460°N 80.006°W |
| Service | |
| Type | Funicular |
| History | |
| Opened | 23 June 1888 [1] |
| Closed | 13 September 1895 |
| Technical | |
| Line length | 1,100 feet (340 m) [1] |
| Track gauge | 5 ft (1,524 mm) [1] |
| Minimum radius | 250 feet (76 m) [2] |
The Nunnery Hill Incline was a funicular located in Allegheny City, Pennsylvania, in what is now the Fineview neighborhood of Pittsburgh.
Designed by Samuel Diescher, this incline operated from 1888 until 1895, running between its base station on Federal Street and its upper station on the currently named Meadville Street. It was one of only a few inclines with a curve in its track. [3] [4]
The name of the hill derived from a short-lived settlement of Poor Clares earlier in the century. [5]
The incline suspended operations without warning on September 13, 1895, to the consternation of many of the hill's residents. [6] It did not resume business. [7] By 1901, it was being dismantled. [8]
Remnants of the incline, including the red-brick lower station and a stone retaining wall along Henderson Street, have been the focus of recent preservation efforts. [9]
Both structures received City of Pittsburgh historic designations in 2011. [10]
A funicular is a type of cable railway system that connects points along a railway track laid on a steep slope. The system is characterized by two counterbalanced carriages permanently attached to opposite ends of a haulage cable, which is looped over a pulley at the upper end of the track. The result of such a configuration is that the two carriages move synchronously: as one ascends, the other descends at an equal speed. This feature distinguishes funiculars from inclined elevators, which have a single car that is hauled uphill.
The Johnstown Inclined Plane is a 896.5-foot (273.3 m) funicular in Johnstown, Cambria County, Pennsylvania, U.S. The incline and its two stations connect the city of Johnstown, situated in a valley at the confluence of the Stonycreek and the Little Conemaugh rivers, to the borough of Westmont on Yoder Hill. The Johnstown Inclined Plane is billed as the "world's steepest vehicular inclined plane". It can carry automobiles and passengers, up or down a slope with a grade of 71.9%. The travel time between stations is 90 seconds.
Fineview — known to older generations as Nunnery Hill — is a neighborhood on Pittsburgh's North Side with expansive views of downtown Pittsburgh. The most famous of these views is from the Fineview Overlook at the corner of Catoma Street and Meadville Street.
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The Fort Pitt Incline was a 10 ft gauge funicular railroad in the Bluff neighborhood of Pittsburgh. Opened in 1882, the incline ran from 2nd Avenue to Bluff Street, a distance of 350 feet (107 m), and a vertical distance of 135 feet (41 m). The designer was Samuel Diescher.
Samuel Diescher was a prominent Hungarian-American civil and mechanical engineer who had his career in the United States. After being educated at universities in Karlsruhe and Zurich in Europe, he immigrated to the United States in 1866 and settled in Cincinnati, Ohio. There he supervised construction of his first inclined plane. He later moved to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where he worked with John Endres on the Monongahela Incline (1870), the first passenger incline in the city.
The Mount Oliver Incline was a funicular on the South Side of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It was designed in 1871 by the Prussian-born engineer John Endres and his American daughter Caroline Endres, one of the first women engineers in the United States.
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The Monongahela Freight Incline was a funicular railway that scaled Mount Washington in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States.
The Troy Hill Incline, also known as the Mount Troy Incline, was a funicular railway located in old Allegheny, Pennsylvania, which is now the North Side of the city of Pittsburgh.
The following is a timeline of the history of the city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, US.
The Penn Incline, also known as the 17th Street Incline, was a funicular railroad that ran between the Strip and Hill districts in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It operated from 1884 to 1953.
The Ridgewood Incline was an inclined plane railroad in Allegheny City, Pennsylvania, in what is now the Perry South neighborhood of Pittsburgh. Built in 1886 and burned the next year, it was Allegheny's first and shortest-lived incline.
James Andrews was a Scottish-American stonemason, engineer, and capitalist who collaborated with civil engineer James Buchanan Eads on such projects as the Eads Bridge in St. Louis, the Mississippi River jetties, and a proposed railway system across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. He was reportedly a millionaire by the end of his life, having accrued a fortune of at least $32 million in 2022 dollars. His Heathside Cottage in the Fineview neighborhood of Pittsburgh is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. He was known for much of his life as "Col. James Andrews," though he never served in the military.
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