The Great Los Angeles Walk 2021 Recap: For the 16th Edition, We Retraced the Steps of Los Pobladores

A year after being socially distanced, the Great Los Angeles Walk was back in person this year, in time to try something different: In honor of Los Angeles' 240th birthday, we decided to retrace the short journey of Los Angeles' first settlers -- Los Pobladores -- from the San Gabriel Mission to downtown L.A.

We weren't sure who might show up, but the attendance was strong, as a hundreds joined us in San Gabriel for the 16th edition of The Great Los Angeles Walk on Saturday, Nov. 20. We hiked through Alhambra, and the El Sereno, stopping at spots including the Ming Ya Buddhist Association and exploring Lincoln Park. We later passed by Los Angeles County General Hospital, and the coroners office, hiked over the Los Angeles River and past Union Station, walking through Chinatown and Olvera Street before moving on to Grand Park, Spring St., Broadway, Grand Ave. and ending for a photo in front of Angels Flight. From there, some moved on to celebrate at Grand Central Market

This year's Walk eschewed our normal downtown-to-the-ocean route to try something a bit different. After a brief gathering at the San Gabriel Mission -- now being renovated after a 2020 fire -- we walked nine miles to Los Angeles' Pueblo and Olvera Street, followed by an afternoon traveling through downtown and adding on around four more miles.

Thanks to everyone who made all of the trek, some of it, or even just helped give rides to their friends. Here are some highlights from the day:

 

Save the Historic Angels Flight Railway!

There it sits, collecting dust, out of operation now for two years. One of the historic symbols of our city, the Angels Flight railway, has already been saved twice -- but now it needs our help to be resurrected for a third time.

According to angelsflight.org progress is being made to reopen the attraction. But the railway has incurred major expenses:

We still have major expenses, including nearly $50,000 in annual insurance premiums, that must be met so that we can reopen. Please DONATE.

We need to raise $10,000 for the month of September and another $10,000 every month after that!

The Board of Directors of the Angels Flight Railway Foundation is pleased to report that we are making significant progress with our regulators to get Angels Flight back in public service.

Sign the petition to get Angels Flight back online! Here's the background:

Los Angeles' beloved funicular railway, Historic-Cultural Monument #4, was out of commission for six hours on September 5, 2013, because of an incident that took place that day. The cause of the incident was investigated and addressed, and new safety equipment was tested in the presence of State and Federal officials in February of 2014. But now, nearly two years following the 2013 incident, the public still is being prohibited from riding Angels Flight. The operator of Angels Flight and numerous licensed professional engineers and the LAFD have concluded that safety issues have been addressed. The Railway is in safe working order, and has been since early 2014. However, because of the views of a now-retired NTSB investigator, the California Public Utilities Commission will not permit the vintage passenger cars to carry patrons until a track-adjacent evacuation walkway, which experts have written is unnecessary and even a foreseeable hazard, is installed alongside the track, the cables, and the electric third rail. Angels Flight is one of the great historic attractions of our city, a palpable link between the lost Victorian neighborhood of Bunker Hill and the vibrant new Downtown below. It is heartbreaking to see the cars and track structure as they are today, dusty and tagged with graffiti.

Happy 110th Birthday, Angels Flight

Today, at Angels Flight in downtown Los Angeles

The Blogger Kid and I took to the rails on Friday -- downtown L.A.'s famed incline railway, Angels Flight. The famous funicular (and its orange cars, nicknamed Olivet and Sinai) is celebrating its 110th birthday on Dec. 31, and we happened to already be downtown a day early, enjoying another round of ice skating at Pershing Square's Downtown on Ice.

Angels Flight is just down the street from Pershing Square -- and leads right to California Plaza, where I was anxious to grab some sandwiches from Mendocino Farms. That's right -- we not only rode Angels Flight for fun, but we actually also used it as a real form of transportation up Bunker Hill.

Angels Flight opened down the street (at 3rd and Hill) from its current location on Dec. 31, 1901. When Bunker Hill was redeveloped in 1969, Angels Flight was shut down -- and kept in storage until 1996, when it was finally reborn in its current location. A tragic accident in 2001 (killing one rider and injuring others) kept Angels Flight closed for another nine years, until reopening again last year.

Tomorrow, in honor Angels Flight's 110th birthday, fares will be lowered to a penny -- the same price as in 1901.

Angels Flight in 1901, photo by Los Angeles Times

Previously on Franklin Avenue:

Uh-Oh: Angels Flight is Grounded (June 2011)

Retro Friday: Angels Flight Edition (April 2011)

Back on Angels Flight, Nearly 10 Years Later (September 2010)

Nine Years Later, Angels Flight Returns to the Rails (March 2010)

I'll Believe It When I See It: Angels Flight To Finally Re-Open (January 2007)

Angels Plight (February 2005)

The Return of Angels Flight (August 2003)

Uh-Oh: Angels Flight is Grounded

Angels Flight just reopened last year (read our visit to the updated funicular here) -- and yet it has already been shut down for maintenance.

Via Curbed L.A.:

The world's smallest railway was ordered closed last night after a routine inspection by the California Public Utilities Commission "found that the wheel flange, which holds the wheels of the cars on the rails, have deteriorated to the point of being unsafe." The custom-made steel wheels could take some time to replace, and their high wear and tear level came as a bit of a surprise to Angels Flight mechanics.

Curbed warns that Angels Flight will likely raise its rates (from just a quarter) in order to cover all of its overhead costs. Read all of our Angels Flight posts here.

Retro Friday: Angels Flight Edition

A 1940s view of Angels Flight railway, back in its original home at 3rd Street and Hill. According to someone on YouTube, this is from the 1948 film "Night Has a Thousand Eyes."



And here's a color film of Angels Flight from the 1950s.

Back on Angels Flight, Nearly 10 Years Later

As you know, downtown's Angels Flight funicular -- billed "the shortest railway in the world" -- re-opened this summer, nearly 10 years after a fatal accident shut the attraction down.

Dating back to 1901, Angels Flight was dismantled in 1969 and finally rebuilt in 1996, when railcars Sinai and Olivet returned, one block south of its original Bunker Hill location.

Shut down after the 2001 incident, it took years, and plenty of false starts (here's a 2003 Franklin Avenue post, in which we write about its "imminent" return), to get Angels Flight working again.



With my parents in town over Labor Day weekend, we decided to finally take our first trip since the re-open. And since Blogger Boy wasn't around when Angels Flight last operated, this would be his (and Blogger Baby 2.0's) first experience.

The kids got a kick out of the angled train cars, while I couldn't help but notice that the ads inside the train were still left over from 1996 -- including several ones promoting First Interstate Bank.



But I also couldn't help but cringe a little bit and think about the 2001 accident -- in which a cable snapped, causing a collision. All was OK, however, and we enjoyed the scenery (made famous last year, of course, in "(500) Days of Summer") on top.

The one-way ride is still just a quarter.

351 South Hill Street
(213) MA 6-1901
Open every day, 365 days a year, from 6:45 a.m. until 10 p.m.


The view from Angels Flight

Nine Years Later, Angels Flight Returns to the Rails

I won't believe it until I physically climb on either Sinai and Olivet and actually ride the rails again.

But according to the Angels Flight Railway Foundation, the funicular will resume operations on Monday, March 15 at 6:45 a.m.

It's been a nine-year journey to get Angels Flight back into operation, after a 2001 accident in which Sinai reversed course and struck Olivet. One man was killed, and seven people were injured, in the accident.

Angels Flight had only been re-open for five years when the accident took place. The NTSB did a thorough investigation and ultimately blamed shoddy reconstruction -- and the lack of many safety features -- for the accident.

The original Angels Flight was built in 1901, but torn down in 1969 as Bunker Hill underwent its skyscraper makeover. After nearly three decades in storage, Angels Flight was rebuilt (and the trains Sinai and Olivet rehabbed) and opened a half block south of the original site in 1996.

During the nine years out of commission, Angels Flight got a new paint job -- back to its original orange and black, rather than the red color we remember from the 1990s. And, I assume, those pesky safety features were finally included.

Why the cynicism? We've written several times through the years that Angels Flight was about to open. Here's a clip from 2007: