A things to do near me search in downtown Los Angeles turns up a two-carriage orange funicular railway climbing the side of Bunker Hill, which has been doing so on and off since 1901. Angels Flight is often described as the shortest railway in the world, the ride takes about a minute, and it costs roughly a dollar.
It is a one-minute ride that only makes sense as part of a walking route between two very different downtowns. Ask Karpo whether Angels Flight is running today and what is worth seeing at each end.
A railway built for commuters
The funicular opened in 1901 to carry residents of Bunker Hill, then a wealthy neighbourhood of large Victorian houses, down to the commercial streets below. The hill was steep enough that the walk was a genuine obstacle, and the two counterbalanced cars, named Olivet and Sinai, solved it.
Bunker Hill's Victorian housing was demolished wholesale in a mid-century redevelopment programme, replaced over subsequent decades by the office towers and cultural buildings there now. The railway was dismantled in 1969 and put into storage.
It was rebuilt half a block south and reopened in 1996, then closed after an accident in 2001, reopened in 2010, closed again after a derailment in 2013, and reopened in 2017. That history is the reason to check it is running before planning around it.
What the ride is actually like
Short. The track is about three hundred feet long and the ascent takes under a minute in a small wooden carriage with stepped floors, climbing at a steep angle past the back of the surrounding buildings.
It is not a scenic railway and the view is mostly of concrete retaining walls until you reach the top. What makes it worth doing is the object itself: a genuinely antique piece of urban transport still functioning as transport rather than as a museum piece.
Payment is by card or contactless at the turnstile, and transit card holders have historically ridden at a reduced rate. Bring a card rather than coins.
The bottom end: Grand Central Market
The lower station opens onto Hill Street directly across from Grand Central Market, which has operated as a food hall since 1917 and is the best single place to eat in downtown Los Angeles: several dozen stalls ranging from decades-old counters to newer operations, all in one open hall.
Eat before you ride. The market is busy at lunchtime and calmer mid-afternoon, and there is enough range that a group with different preferences can all be satisfied in one room.
The market is also a genuinely useful illustration of how downtown has changed. Counters that have been trading since the middle of the twentieth century sit directly beside stalls opened in the last five years at four times the price, and both have queues. Walk the full length before deciding where to eat.
The top end: Bunker Hill
The upper station puts you on California Plaza on top of Bunker Hill, which is a different city entirely: corporate towers, plazas, and a run of major cultural institutions within a few minutes' walk.
The Broad, a contemporary art museum with free general admission, is five minutes north. Walt Disney Concert Hall with its Gehry exterior is next to it. The Museum of Contemporary Art is a couple of minutes away. California Plaza itself hosts free outdoor concerts through the summer.
The contrast between the two ends is the actual point of the ride. You go from a 1917 market hall full of food stalls to a plaza of glass towers and art museums in sixty seconds, which is a fairly efficient summary of what happened to downtown Los Angeles in the twentieth century.
Why it keeps closing
A funicular is a simple machine with an unforgiving failure mode: two cars on a steep incline held in balance by a single cable and a haulage system. When something goes wrong, it goes wrong at an angle, which is why the regulatory response to each incident has been long closures and substantial rebuilds rather than quick repairs.
The 2013 derailment in particular led to a four-year shutdown and a set of safety requirements including an evacuation walkway alongside the track. The upshot for a visitor is simply to check its status the morning you go rather than building a route that depends on it.
For a sense of how thoroughly Bunker Hill was rebuilt, it is worth knowing that the hill itself was lowered. The redevelopment cut the grade down substantially, which is part of why the rebuilt railway is shorter than the original and sits half a block from where it used to run.
Practical notes
Address: lower station on South Hill Street between Third and Fourth, upper station at California Plaza, Los Angeles. Runs daily during daytime hours in normal operation, but check before relying on it, as the railway has closed for maintenance periods repeatedly through its history.
Bring a contactless card, ride up rather than down so you finish on Bunker Hill, eat at Grand Central Market beforehand, and walk north to the Broad and Disney Concert Hall afterwards. Pershing Square Metro station is three blocks south of the lower station.
Tags: #LosAngeles #DTLA #ThingsToDoNearMe #AngelsFlight #Funicular #BunkerHill #GrandCentralMarket #DowntownLA #LAHistory #CheapThingsToDo #TheBroad #LAAttractions #CaliforniaPlaza #HistoricCore
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Ask Karpo first
Want to know whether Angels Flight is running today, how much the fare is, and what is open at the top of the hill? Ask Karpo for today's status, the fare, and a walking route from Grand Central Market.
