Most photos of the Angels Flight funicular at its original Third St location show it surrounded by buildings and traffic and people. So it’s weird to see it sitting on its lonesome with nothing much around it. Judging by the 1965 Chevrolet driving along Hill St, this photo was taken during the mid-1960s, when most of Bunker Hill was being cleared for redevelopment. Angels Flight closed (at that location) in 1969, so this is what it looked like during its last years. Look at that line of people waiting to ride it up the hill. I’m glad to see it was still in demand.
Color photo of the Angels Flight funicular and Third St tunnel, downtown Los Angeles, circa mid-1960s
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Sadly, you can see the workman getting ready to “develop” the site.
It always looks so isolated in the auto era. But in the early days it was part of the whole system connecting to streetcars and then railroad stations. A very functional design to go right out the door and end up anywhere in the world you wanted to go, or just get lunch down the hill. Reduced to a spectacle for tourists and then cast aside like an old carousel to end up as a museum piece. Peanuts! Get your peanuts!!
An early view (listed as circa 1905, cleaner closeup from panoramic) of downtown where one can see a car at the top station of Angel’s Flight in the beginning days (squint and ye shall see): https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Panoramic_view_of_downtown_Los_Angeles,_looking_south_between_Spring_Street_and_Broadway_from_the_Courthouse,_ca.1905_(CHS-5066).jpg