Railway to the sky

 It was Thaddeus Sobieski Coulincourt Lowe who built the Mt. Lowe Railroad above the Pasadena/Altadena area in the mountains. The ruins, above, demonstratethe magnitude of the once popular railroad in the sky. Now, it is accessible only by a 3-mile hike with an 1,400-feet elevation gain above Altadena, CA. I made the hike Monday, President's Day.

 The incline railway tracks seen here as they exist today, Feb. 20, 2012, look like they are about to take off into the sky. Of course, the train turned left, hugging the San Gabriel Mountains, taking people from Mt. Lowe to Rubio Canyon. This all happened between 1893-1936 (see the National Register of Historic Places marker below, which is up there among the ruins.)

The large incline used steel wheels and pulleys. Here, a wheel remains of the incline railway. The marker above, left, point to the trail that gets you to the ruins.

My president's day connection?
There is a marker at the edge of the railroad ruins that explains it all. Lowe was commissioned by President Abraham Lincoln to run the Civil War Balloon Corps. This was quite a dangerous feat. The marker says Lowe was the most shot-at man in the Civil War.

Lowe, a Civil War hero (he ran his balloon corps for the Union Army, of course) an inventor and a legendary figure in the history of our San Gabriel Valley. The man who ran the railroad to the sky.

I guess this is the fastest and easiest way to get up to Mt. Lowe and Inspiration Point these days.