The Mount Lowe Railroad

In the late nineteenth century, Thaddeus Lowe had built an incline railroad, hotels, and an observatory on top of Pasadena's Echo mountain, located up Rubio canyon high above Los Angeles. With Red Cars bringing passengers right to the mouth of the canyon, this spot soon became a top recreation destination in Los Angeles.

        The following description from a brochure of the time gives an idea of what it must have been like.

        "The cars of this railway are entered at Altadena, a beautiful flower-embowered suburb of Pasadena. Crossing a poppy-bespangled mesa, Rubio Canyon is entered, and the foot of the ascent is reached. This incline is nearly 3000 feet long, and makes a direct ascent of 1300 feet. At its summit, on Echo Mountain, are located the fine hotel, Echo Mountain House, the World's Fair Searchlight, and the Lowe Observatory. The latter is presided over by the veteran astronomer, Dr. Lewis Swift, whose discoveries of comets and nebula have placed him at the head of living astronomical discoverers."

         "From Echo Mountain the Mount Lowe Railway proceeds on a twelve-foot-wide shelf, hewn for four miles out of the solid granite, with beetling mountain sides above and frightfully yawning depths below, passing through fine forests of pine, fir, manzanita, and live oak, around the wonderful circular bridge, and through the Granite Gate, Ye Alpine Tavern, 5000 feet above sea level, an exquisite gem set in the heart of the forest at Mount Lowe Springs, is reached."
           "From this point to the summit, 6100 feet, the ride is made on mule or horse back. The views at all points along the line are supremely fascinating and grand."

        Like a lot of Los Angeles' history this resort fell into disrepair and by the thirties was left to the elements. What fire and flood did not destroy was dynamited in the sixties by the forest service, and all that is left today are the old railbeds and a few scraps of rusting iron.