History of the Mount Lowe Incline Railway
The Mount Lowe Incline Railway “Earth’s Grandest Mountain Ride” was not at the forefront of Thaddeus Lowe’s thinking when he first came to Los Angeles in the summer of 1887. He’d already had quite a full life and had raised half of his ten children. What he was looking for was a place to retire [...]
Henry Ford Visits the Incline Railway at Mount Lowe
The advent of the twentieth century brought many changes to people around the world and none greater than those right here in the United States where mass transportation was becoming more and more affordable for the common man. Everything from the electric trolley to the automobile was proving to be more than a mere passing [...]
Mount Lowe Timeline
• 1887 Thaddeus Lowe visits California to see about a possible relocation to Los Angeles • 1887 Pasadena Railway Company formed by Andrew McNally, Col. G. G. Green and the Woodbury brothers, to bring tracks to Altadena’s wealthy residents • 1887 Engineer of the Mount Washington Cog Railway, John Horne, brought from New Hampshire to [...]
Mount Lowe Facts (1936)
The following was presented in a 1936 Pacific Electric fact sheet about Mount Lowe: The road to Echo Mountain from Lake and Calaveras Streets built between 1892 and 1893 Original construction cost of railway (estimate): $700,000.00 Railway built by Thaddeus S. C. Lowe and engineer David Joseph Macpherson The Alpine Division from Echo Mountain to [...]
The Mount Lowe Observatory
Huge obstacles in life many times will make persistent individuals hugely successful in their field of endeavors – and like Thaddeus Lowe, such was the case of Lewis Swift. Injured by a fall as a teen, which fractured his hip, this once active child was considered useless or “lame” by his parents since he couldn’t [...]
The One Man and a Mule Railway
While Thaddeus Lowe lost control of the Mount Lowe Incline Railway in 1897, he was not the only man to take an interest in making a living in the mountains above the San Gabriel Valley. Lowe’s loss of control of his enterprise and the court ordered receivership placed temporary control of the line in the [...]
The Men Who Built Mount Lowe
By the time Thaddeus Lowe retired to Southern California in the late 1880′s he had achieved more than most. The New Hampshire native and father of ten children had built the largest balloon ever known for use in an attempt to cross the Atlantic Ocean and had served his country as the founder and Chief [...]
Who was Thaddeus S. C. Lowe?
Southern California certainly owes a debt of gratitude to Thaddeus S. C. Lowe for his wonderful foresight and development of our area. Before he became a California resident, this New Hampshire native served as a civilian in the Civil War as the Chief Aeronaut of the Union Army Balloon Corps for Abraham Lincoln. Upon leaving [...]
Where the Rubber Met the Rails
How the Metz Automobile drove the Mount Lowe Railway When Charles Metz came up with the idea for the gearless transmission for his automobile, he thought his car would be lighter and cheaper than the competition and have the ability to go anywhere. Metz proved he was correct and probably had little idea in the [...]