Angels Flight

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Image:Angels Flight.jpg Image:Angelsflight1903.jpg

Angels Flight is a landmark funicular railway in the Bunker Hill district of downtown Los Angeles, California, United States, which claims to be the "shortest railway in the world."

Built in 1901 as the Los Angeles Incline Railway, running northwest from the west corner of Third and Hill Streets, it was closed in 1969 as the Bunker Hill area underwent a total redevelopment from a declining neighborhood of poor transients and working class families renting rooms in run-down Victorian mansions, to an urban core of 50-story glass highrises housing banks and financial instituions. Although the railway was dismantled, all the parts were placed in storage in anticipation of the railway's restoration. The railway was restored and reopened half a block to the south of the original site in 1996, almost 30 years after its dismantling.

Angels Flight has since closed due to an accident in 2001, which killed 83-year-old passenger Leon Praport and injured seven others, including Praport's wife Lola, who narrowly survived. The City of Los Angeles commissioned conductor David Woodard to compose and perform a memorial suite honoring Mr. Praport and "Sinai & Olivet", the funicular's quaintly named cars. On March 15, 2001, Los Angeles Chamber Group performed An Elegy For Two Angels at Angels Flight's Hill Street landing. Angels Flight is currently scheduled to reopen during 2006, though a firm reopening date has yet to be scheduled.

Angels Flight was added to the National Register of Historic Places on October 13 2000.

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