We love our city and all it has to offer in the 21st Century, but there is something incredibly fascinating about looking back into Cincinnati’s past. We can become engrossed in the Queen City of today, but there is evidence of its history all over town. If you’ve ever been downtown and looked up into Mt. Adams, have you wondered how people used to get up there before cars were the main mode of transportation?

We recently shared all about Cincinnati’s cool canal history here, and now we’ve found a rare piece of footage from another transportation effort in the city. Take a look at these photos of the Mt. Adams Incline and be sure to watch the video below that allows you to go back in time and ride the incline for yourself.

The Mt. Adams Incline was completed in 1872 and was Cincinnati's longest running incline. The city had five inclines during this time period, but the Mt. Adams track is definitely the most well-known.
Wikimedia/Detroit Publishing Company
The incline was 945 feet long and carried both streetcars and automobiles. As you'll see from the video below, it wasn't a very fast process, but it was effective at getting to the top of the hill.
YouTube/alman54

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If you visit the site of the Mt. Adams Incline today, there is still evidence of its existence in the form of crumbling piers.
YouTube/alman54
These piers, as well as these photos and footage, are the memories we are left with of a lost era in Cincinnati.
YouTube/alman54

Now go back in time to the 1930s, when the Mt. Adams Incline was a major fixture in our city’s skyline and the vibe of the Queen City was much like the toe-tapping music in this footage shared by alman54 on YouTube:

Cincinnati’s history is colorful, fascinating, and definitely worth looking back on. Which piece of Cincinnati’s history intrigues you the most? We’d love to know your thoughts in the comments!

And for more of the oldest photos ever taken in Cincinnati, check out our previous article here.

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