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Angels
Flight
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Editor's Note:
On February 1, 2001, one of the two Angels Flight cable
cars became detached from its cable and hurtled down the
tracks to collide with its sister car. Sadly, 83-year-old
tourist Leon Praport died from his injuries sustained in the
accident and his wife Lola was critically injured. Seven
other passengers were injured. Praport, a New Jersey
resident, was a Holocaust survivor. Angels Flight has been
closed since that fateful day. There had been only one
other recorded accident on Angels Flight. In 1913, a women
was injured when she jumped from one of the moving cars. As
of January 2004, both cars have been restored and await
reinstallation after new safety devices are installed and
insurance and litigation issues are settled. It is
anticipated that the funicular will reopen towards the end
of 2004. |
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Angels Flight, reputed to be the world’s smallest railway, is a
funicular railway originally opened on Bunker Hill in 1901. The two railcars, Olivet
and Sinai (named for two mountains in
the Bible) served to connect upscale Bunker Hill homes with downtown shopping
areas below. With the deterioration of Bunker Hill after World War Two,
Angels Flight was dismantled and placed in storage in 1969 as part of an
urban renewal project. The Community Redevelopment Agency promised to reassemble
and reopen the historical line elsewhere within a few years. This promise was
not fulfilled, however, until much later with the reopening of the railway on
February 24, 1996. The resurrected Olivet and Sinai provided
60,000 passengers per month with a nostalgic one minute, 298-foot ride. Prior to
being reopened to the public, the cars were each put through 9,000 pound weight
safety tests. The 9,000 pounds were a load of donated cases of Snapple and
Budweiser.
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