Now, here's something that hasn't been here for a long time.
It's a different kind of railway, the vertical kind.
When inventor and professor Thaddeus S.C. Lowe retired to Pasadena, he got a crazy idea.
He built a little mile-long electric trolley line from here to there.
Well, actually from down here to up there.
[Trolley rumbling] Then he built an observatory, a tavern, and a hotel at the top, and he had a winner on his hands.
They even renamed that little mountain, and it's knowns as Mount Lowe to this day.
He said he did it just for the point of view, but when the roads and the cars could also snake up the mountain even higher, the thrill was gone.
The hotel burned in the Thirties, and now it's just one of those things that lives on in our memories, but if you ask me, the old professor really had a point of view.
[Music playing] Ralph: I'm not just making a pun when I say that Los Angeles has had its ups and downs literally and figuratively, but probably the most successful and famous is this little trolley car behind me.
Its name is Olivet, and it has an identical twin named Sinai.
Those are Biblical names chosen by the churchgoing ladies who lived up on Bunker Hill.
And by now, of course, you know I'm talking about the incredible "Angels Flight," just a hundred yards of railroad, but it ran for over 60 years, traveled over a million miles, made over a million dollars, and made over a million friends, every one of whom remembers it well.
[Music playing] Man: ♪ You are my lucky star Oh, I saw you from afar... ♪ Ralph: We've had all kinds of rides in the history of Los Angeles, but the shortest one is the most famous one.
So, let's climb aboard for the ride up to Bunker Hill.
Man: ♪ I was star struck You are my lucky star I'm lucky in your arms You've opened heaven's portal Here on Earth For this poor mortal You are my lucky star ♪ [Music playing] Esther: That was fun.
My mother and father took me there when I was still a child.
Rode up on it.
It was quite a thrill.
So, when my little daughter was about three or four, we took her on Angels Flight, and she loved it, too, and that was shortly before they stopped running it.
[Music playing] Sammy: Well, as a young kid, it was exciting to be going up, and you felt like going flying.
You're going up almost perpendicular, and you look back and looked over the city.
Ralph: Right here in downtown Los Angeles, at the corner of Hill and Third Street, is the original location of Angels Flight.
Throughout its history, Angels Flight inspired many Angelenos.
Local artist Ben Abril remembers Angels Flight like this.
[Music playing] Woman: ♪ Clang, clang, clang Went the trolley Ding, ding, ding went the bell Zing, zing, zing Went my heartstrings For the moment I saw him I fell ♪ Ralph: And in this early silent movie, the words "Angels Flight" are a source of great confusion for two young lovers.
[Lively music playing] Ralph: After 68 years of lifting our spirits, Angels Flight was dismantled in 1969 to make way for a new development.
Instantly, it became one of our most beloved things that aren't here anymore.
But wait.
Plans are to reunite us with our old love.
Groundbreaking for the return of Angels Flight just one block south of its original location is planned for 1995.
And the moral of this story is, if we remember hard enough, we can bring things back.
I'm happy to report that love and romance are two things that have not disappeared from Los Angeles, but a funny old romantic symbol