Penn Incline

1935/1980

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Penn Incline
  • Title
  • Penn Incline
  • Identifier
  • MSP285.B022.F15.I05
  • Source Identifier
  • MSP285.B022.F15.I05
  • Description
  • The Penn Incline terminating in the Strip District (background). The Sixteenth Street Bridge is in the far left background. The Penn Incline, also called the 17th Street Incline, began operating in 1883 and handled 20-ton coal freight cars It ceased operation in 1953. Pittsburgh had thirteen inclines servicing both the needs of industry and that of its laborers and commuters of the early twentieth century. The Penn Incline operated between the Hill District and the Strip District neighborhoods of Pittsburgh, and was possibly the largest incline ever built. Samuel Diescher, who immigrated to the United States from Hungary in 1866, designed the majority of heavy incline planes in the United States, including the Penn incline. Diescher introduced a successful pneumatic bumper, which acted as a safety device, during the construction of the Penn Incline. He also served as the designing engineer for operating the Ferris wheel, invented by George Ferris of Pittsburgh, at the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago.
  • Genre
  • photographs
  • Subject
  • Penn Incline (Pittsburgh, Pa.)
    Strip District (Pittsburgh, Pa.)
    Inclines--Pennsylvania--Pittsburgh.
    Sixteenth Street Bridge (Pittsburgh, Pa.)
    Diescher, Samuel.
    Buildings--Pennsylvania--Pittsburgh.
  • Source
  • Allegheny Conference on Community Development Photographs, 1892-1981, MSP 285, Library and Archives Division, Senator John Heinz History Center
  • Contributor
  • Detre Library & Archives, Heinz History Center
  • Collection
  • Allegheny Conference on Community Development Photographs
  • Rights Information
  • Copyright Not Evaluated. The copyright and related rights status of this Item has not been evaluated. Please refer to the organization that has made the Item available for more information. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use.
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