Did you know? Pittsburgh once had 17 Inclined Railways. The Monongahela Incline, the first built in the city in 1870, and the Duquesne Incline (1877) are the only two still operating.
The Penn Incline, also known at the 17th Street Incline, connected the Strip District to the Hill District and operated from 1884 until 1953. It began at 17th Street between Liberty and Penn Avenues in the Strip District and ascended to Ridgeway Street near Ledlie Street in the Hill District. The incline was built with the capacity of hauling 20-ton coal loads to the top of the hill. It was structurally massive, with over 750 tons of bridge work carrying the two 10-foot-gauge tracks over the Pennsylvania Railroad yards. While the transportation of coal didn’t materialize to their expectations, the Incline did generate a good passenger and freight business. Riders included produce merchants transporting their goods from wholesale markets in the Strip to the residents of the Hill District, at one time vibrant musical community with a rich food culture, whose streets were lined with diners, eateries, and food carts.
Today, the tracks of the Penn Incline are long gone, but the spirit of connection between the Strip and the Hill lives on — not in coal cars or cables, but in the stories passed down, the food shared, and the legacy of a community that did not want to give up.
– Doug Cooper, Founding member and future resident of RCE, April 23, 2025