08/21/2026
The upper loading station for the Knoxville Incline, located at the corner of Arlington and East Warrington Avenues in Allentown, circa-1920, as compared with a similar Google Map view of the present-day Daily Mart convenience store from October 2022.
The Knoxville Incline, officially known as the Pittsburgh Inclined Plane, was built in 1890 and in service for seven decades before closing in 1960.
This historic Pittsburgh funicular ran from the corner of Arlington and Warrington Avenues down to the lower platform at Bradish and South 11th Streets on the South Side, and may be best known for featuring an 18-degree curve midway along the path.
The total length was a half-mile with a 375-foot vertical rise at a 14% grade. The incline was a double-track railway of nine-foot gauge, with sixty pound rails laid on wooden ties that rested on either ballast or steel girders.
Each car weighed nearly ten tons and was specially designed to carry street cars and other vehicles. An enclosed, heated compartment was provided for passengers. The cost of the Knoxville Incline was $190,000, and when it opened in August 1890 the fare a penny.
Closed on December 3, 1960 and dismantled shortly afterwards, most remnants of the Knoxville Incline have long since disappeared, but the path of the railway has been memorialized with the Knoxville Incline Greenway.
See comments for some more images of the Knoxville Incline.
Vintage photo from the Historic Pittsburgh Pittsburgh Railways Collection.
