Visiting the Duquesne Incline with Kids

Our family’s recent trip to Pittsburgh was a combination of some favorites as well as finally doing some of the things that seemed to escape us on prior trips. My wife was determined this trip to do something we have always wanted to take our boys to do, ride the iconic Duquesne Incline.

The Duquesene Incline has been in operation since 1877 and was originally constructed to transport materials up and down Mt. Washington on the south side of Pittsburgh. Today the incline is privately held non-profit organization dedicated to its historical preservation and operates with no city, state, or federal subsidies.

We opted to ride on a Friday night. However, we did not realize it also happen to be the biggest high school football match-up on the year at the adjacent stadium. Therefore, parking at the bottom of the incline became a little bit of a nightmare with so many people clambering for a spot. The parking lot happen to be one of the most horribly operated sites I had ever seen because there was no one there directing traffic, people were double and triple parking each other all over the place, and the pay box system was so poorly handled with the massive amount of people parking.

Regardless, a half hour later by the time we got parked and got our parking ticket, we were on to the incline.

With so many people headed to the football game, we assumed there would be no one there to ride the incline. However, as it turns out, quite a few people were there to ride the incline to the top to visit the various restaurants.

The whole incline is just as poorly run as the parking lot. Upon entering and paying our fee, we were issued a ticket and told to wait in the room adjacent to the inclines.

During our visit, one of the inclines was not in operation, which may have helped contribute to the long wait time. The small building at the bottom of the hill had no queue lines, just an open space. Therefore, as 30-40 people crammed into the room, waiting for the one incline, the people leaving the incline had to squeeze their way through the massive crowd. Then there was a mass rush to get on the incline. With no set queue line, it was a free-for-all to get inside the incline that was restricted to the number of seats.

So one hoped being adjacent to the door that they would get on. There was no attendant ushering people to the car. As soon as the train emptied, and the guests left the building, we were permitted to enter. As the crowd made its way to the incline, anyone who did not have a seat had to turn around and go back to the waiting room.

Honestly, even the pay system seemed to be “optional,” though it surely was not. For guests riding the incline one way to the top, with the massive crowd, and no one actually taking tickets, one could have walked right on.

The same thing went for the top, though there were only a handful of guests returning to the bottom. One you returned to the bottom, you were told to return your ride ticket, but I am not quite sure how the process was sufficient.

Regardless, our family made the peaceful ride to the top, which on a beautiful, clear night, was a site to see. Once at the station at the top of the hill, we went out to the platform overlooking the city. It was a wonderful view on a nice fall evening.

The top station also had a nice collection of historical artifacts related to the Duquesne Incline and a small gift shop.

Overall, we were glad we finally got to go on the incline, and the views were spectacular. However, they need to come up with a better system both on parking and incline operation, as they were abysmally disappointing.