It has been called the "Eighth Wonder of the World", a "Feat of Engineering Genius", and the resort that put the city of Beacon on the map. It was the Mt. Beacon Incline Railway, and it ran for nearly seventy-five years carrying millions of riders up to the top of Mount Beacon. The railway was built by the Otis Elevator Company of Yonkers, and when completed in the spring of 1902, the Incline extended 2,200 feet from the base to the top, rising in places sixty-eight feet within a short distance of one hundred feet making those stretches the steepest incline in existence. This was made possible by the Otis Elevator's ingeniously devised single-track, balanced car system.
On Memorial Day of 1902, the Mt. Beacon Incline opened. The enter.prise was a resounding success: over a thousand people rode the Incline that day; 60,000 fares would be sold that first season. In 1926, 110,000 people would ride the railway. Upon reaching the summit, visitors would spend the day at the Casino, a restaurant and dance hall where one could look through telescopes mounted on the veranda and take in the75-mile view. Or they could stroll a mountain path to the D.A.R.'s Mount Beacon Monument built to commemorate the signal fires which burned there to warn of the approaching British during the Revolutionary War.
The exciting news is that late last summer the Vice President of Europe's largest funicular manufacturing company visited our mountain and presented us with a cost estimate only half the amount previously expected for a historic replica incline with a base and upper station! Also, the long-awaited environmental impact review is complete, and the Beacon City Council has given permission for Scenic Hudson to begin construction of the Gateway Park at the base of the Incline property.
It has been almost twenty years since the trolley climbed Mount Beacon. A generation has grown up without experiencing the thrill of will once again become part of Beacon's glorious future!
MT. BEACON INCLINE RAILWAY RESTORATION SOCIETY
P. 0. Box 1248 o Beacon, New York 12508
Andy Chiusano (831-3562) * Steve Gold (831-4261)
The Mt. Beacon Incline Railway Restoration Society is a not-for-profit corpora.tion, chartered by the Board of Regents under the New York State Department of Education and a 501(c) 3, Federally approved tax-exempt organization.
