Pittsburgh built 17 inclines. Two survive, and Mt. Washington still eats at the top of both.

Coal Hill had a commute problem in the 1860s. The mills and plants were down along the Monongahela, the houses were up on the cliff, and the way home was a switchback footpath or a long run of steps². Many of them were German immigrants, and they remembered the Seilbahnen, the cable railways of the old country. So they pushed for inclines up the face of the hill¹.

Pittsburgh went on to build 17 passenger inclines. Two still run, and Mt. Washington still eats at the top of them¹. Shiloh Street, a short walk from the Monongahela Incline, holds 14 of the neighborhood's 27 places to eat. The famous overlook row on Grandview Avenue sits within about 550 feet of the Duquesne Incline³⁴.

The engineer and his daughter

The first one opened on May 28, 1870. The Monongahela Incline was designed by John Endres, a Prussian born engineer from Cincinnati, and he had help from his daughter, Caroline Endres, who became one of the first women engineers in the United States¹. On opening day it collected some 944 fares. On day two, 4,174 people rode it, and the idea was proven¹. It is the oldest continuously operating funicular in the country¹.

The Duquesne Incline followed in 1877, designed by Samuel Diescher. It is 800 feet long and rises 400 feet at a 30 degree grade⁵. When it shut down in 1962, people in Duquesne Heights raised the money to save it, and it reopened on July 1, 1963 under a nonprofit⁵. As roads and cars took over the hill, the rest of the inclines closed. By the end of the 1960s, these two were the only ones left¹.

Shiloh Street, at the top of the Mon

Step off the Monongahela Incline and you are a few hundred feet from lunch. All 14 Shiloh Street listings are within about 950 feet of the upper station in a straight line, from the 100 block to the 300 block, and the closest, Shiloh Grill, is about 300 feet away³⁴. This is the everyday side of the hill: bars, breakfast, a coffee shop, a bakery, tacos, Chinese food and ice cream³.

The newest story on the street is at 201 Shiloh. For years it was Redbeard's, a landmark hilltop bar. In late 2024, friends and business partners Brian Hess and Joey DeMarco turned it into Shiloh Plate & Pour⁶. This summer, Hess brought in Troy Beck and Katie Peric, whose Nothingman had been one of Pittsburgh Magazine's Best New Restaurants of 2024 before a short run in Bloomfield⁶⁷. The official rebrand to Nothingman was set for July⁷.

“We're taking simple things, but making them better.”Katie Peric of Nothingman, June 2026⁶

Peric is a pastry chef from West Virginia. Beck's family ran an Altoona tavern for generations, and he has cooked at Poulet Bleu and Meat & Potatoes. The restaurant is named after a Pearl Jam song⁶. Up the hill on Kearsarge Street, Natural Casings Hot Dog Shop had its preoperational inspection on April 21, 2026, the check a new place gets before it opens⁸.

Grandview Avenue, at the top of the Duquesne

Ride the Duquesne Incline up and you land on the other Mt. Washington, the one on the postcards. In 1960, restaurateur James Blandi Sr. opened LeMont at 1114 Grandview Avenue, on the site of the old Grandview Theatre, with two rooms and 130 seats. LeMont credits him with two Pittsburgh dishes, the Turkey Devonshire sandwich and the Pecan Ball⁹. Edward and Anna Dunlap of Upper St. Clair bought it on June 1, 1999, and the Dunlap family still owns it. The restaurant counts more than 8,000 wedding receptions over the years⁹.

LeMont, OTARU at 1200 and The Grandview Saloon at 1212 are the three Grandview listings inside the Mt. Washington line. Keep walking and the next three, Altius, Monterey Bay Fish Grotto and Steel Mill Saloon, sit just over the border in Duquesne Heights. All six are within about 550 feet of the Duquesne Incline's upper station³⁴¹⁴.

The view is the draw, and it is protected. After a rare tornado hit the neighborhood in 1998, a group of activists calling themselves Green Is Good argued that the real asset was the ring of green hillside around the Mount. That became Emerald View Park, 257 acres that now draw more than 1.5 million visitors a year¹¹. In 2003, Grandview Avenue was named a Pennsylvania Scenic Byway¹¹.

The lost incline to Castle Shannon

One more incline belongs in this story, and its top was on Bailey Avenue. The Castle Shannon Incline opened for good on March 7, 1891, running from Carson Street up to Bailey Avenue as the city end of a railroad to Castle Shannon, about 6 miles south¹². When it closed on June 21, 1964, it was one of the last three working inclines in the city¹²¹³. Its gravel slope is still visible next to Carson Street¹². Bailey Avenue today has two listings, Fox's Pizza Den and Satalio's³.

How to do it in one trip

The two upper stations are about 0.9 miles apart in a straight line, so you can ride the Mon up for breakfast on Shiloh, walk the overlooks and ride the Duquesne down after dinner⁴. If you would rather climb, the city counts 54 public stairways on Mt. Washington with 1,586 steps between them¹⁵.

You do not need a car either. Mt. Washington has 97 transit stops, more than any of the city's 90 official neighborhoods, with 21,752 scheduled trips a week across 18 routes, counting buses, the T and both inclines⁴¹⁴. The T itself runs under your feet, through the Mount Washington Transit Tunnel, opened in 1904².

The hill was settled by people who wanted an easier way home. They got it in 1870, and the town that grew at the top of those tracks is still where Mt. Washington goes out to eat. For every listing, street by street, see the Mt. Washington neighborhood guide.