Qualla: Johnstown Inclined Plane

Johnstown Inclined Plane: Introduction

Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Greg Hume, CC BY-SA 2.5. The city of Johnstown, Pennsylvania had just buried 2,209 of its residents when the Cambria Iron Company started building a way out. Completed in 1891, two years after the catastrophic Johnstown Flood, the Johnstown Inclined Plane was engineered with a singular purpose: get people up and out of the valley floor before the water could take them again. Designed by Hungarian-American engineer Samuel Diescher, the funicular climbs Yoder Hill at a grade of approximately 72 percent -- the steepest vehicular incline in the world, according to Guinness World Records. It carries both passengers and automobiles, makes the ascent in 90 seconds, and has done exactly what it was built for: during the Johnstown floods of 1936 and 1977, the incline evacuated thousands to safety on the hilltop above.

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Image: Greg Hume | CC BY-SA 2.5

Johnstown Inclined Plane: Born from Disaster

Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Brian W. Schaller, FAL. On May 31, 1889, the South Fork Dam collapsed and sent a wall of water into the narrow valley where the Stonycreek and Little Conemaugh rivers meet to form the Conemaugh. Johnstown, a steel town of 30,000, was devastated. As the city rebuilt, the Cambria Iron Company saw an oppor...

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Image: Brian W. Schaller | FAL

Johnstown Inclined Plane: Escape Route, Twice Proven

Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Jmblough, CC BY-SA 4.0. The incline's designers understood Johnstown's geography was a trap. The valley is narrow, the rivers converge at the city's center, and when floodwaters rise, there is nowhere to go but up. The incline was that way up. On March 17, 1936, when Johnstown flooded again, nearly 4,00...

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Image: Jmblough | CC BY-SA 4.0

Johnstown Inclined Plane: The Steepest Ride in the World

Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Niagara, CC BY 3.0. The engineering is striking in its simplicity. Two open-air cars run on parallel broad-gauge tracks, connected by steel wire rope wound around a drum powered by an electric motor. As one car descends, the other ascends, each acting as the other's counterweight. The 90-second jour...

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Image: Niagara | CC BY 3.0

Johnstown Inclined Plane: Surviving Its Own Obsolescence

Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Doug Kerr from Albany, NY, United States, CC BY-SA 2.0. The automobile nearly killed the incline before any flood could. Ridership peaked in 1919 and declined steadily as highways improved. The Cambria Inclined Plane Company twice applied to shut it down -- in 1930 and 1934 -- but the Pennsylvania Public Service Commission denied the ...

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Image: Doug Kerr from Albany, NY, United States | CC BY-SA 2.0

Johnstown Inclined Plane: Still Climbing

Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Darthgriz98, CC BY-SA 3.0. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1973 and designated a Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmark by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers in 1994, the Johnstown Inclined Plane has spent its recent decades as the city's signature tourist attraction. T...

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Image: Darthgriz98 | CC BY-SA 3.0