Lookout Mountain & Incline Railway · · PAGE 18. 

November 18, 2020:  Wednesday continues with our trip in the Chattanooga area going up Lookout Mountain.  The distance from Ruby Falls to this location where the Incline Railway passes this location is only 0.8 miles for a total distance up the mountain of 1.45 miles from US 41.  It seems further than that due to the low speed limit and the curves in the road.

East Brow Road is the first intersection at the top of the mountain.  Follow the signs to Point Park which is at the north end of Lookout Mountain.  The GREEN sign indicates the road we took from US 41 to this point at the top of the mountain is the Lookout Mountain Parkway.

There are a number of streets on the mountain that are covered with trees.  There are also some fine homes up here that sometimes are hidden by those trees.

This was the first house I could see through the trees.  There was some lens flare on the camera in the Google Earth vehicle I tried to paint over, but it did not work out so good.

I noticed this Tennessee historical marker about the University of the South.  I did a Google Search and discovered an article that tells why this marker is located here. Concerned by the failure of the Episcopal Church to establish a successful institution of higher learning within the southern states, ten Episcopal dioceses agreed in 1856 to cooperate in creating a single university. Responding to their bishops’ invitation, clergy and lay delegates from Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North and South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas met at Lookout Mountain near Chattanooga, Tennessee, on July 4, 1857, to name the first board of trustees.

Many of the houses on Lookout Mountain are set up on the highest ground to get the best view across the valley.  In this case, the view is toward the East with the front porch of the house up about 23 FEET above street level.  The cameras on the Google Earth vehicle are typically 9 to 10 feet above ground level to capture images like the one seen here.

Further up the street are these two homes on the East side of the street that are not completely hidden by trees.  The Google Camera vehicle had another lens flare as you see in the top of that tree.  The shadows from the trees and homes indicate this was a morning drive-by camera shoot looking in the direction of the sun, hence the lens flare.

The electric motors that operate the Incline Railway are inside this terminal building at the top of Lookout Mountain.  ONE LARGE STEEL CABLE is connected to both cars with one rail car going up while the other is going down.

This telephoto camera photo looks up at the Incline Terminal atop the mountain from the overpass on the Scenic Highway.  That big power pole is one of many that  provide the electric power to operate the Incline Railway.

Here is the same car from the photo above after it passes under the bridge for the Scenic Highway going down to the other terminal in Saint Elmo.  That little advertising sign on the pole adjacent to the rails is intended for folks looking down from the overpass where I stood to take this photo.  Those windows on top of the cable car allow riders leaving the upper terminal to get a view to the East.  The track is very steep near the top of the mountain to provide those views.  The seats inside the cars are also tilted to remain "near level" when at the top end of the ride near the upper terminal.

My camera zoom lens shows the cars pass each other on separate tracks at the half-way point between the stations.  Looking at both cars, it is revealed how they use the rail in the middle above the bypass tracks where there are FOUR rails with the cables in between the two rails on each side.  Below the bypass, there are only TWO rails with the cable management rollers in between the rails.

As viewed from the Scenic Highway overpass, this car is coming UP on the right side of the three rails.

The Mountain Memories store is located at the Incline Railway overpass on the Scenic Highway where the tracks can be viewed from end-to-end as you have seen in my photos taken  in 2010 when I was a resident in East Ridge, Tennessee.  This place sells lots of souvenir collectables for the tourists to remember their visit to Chattanooga and Lookout Mountain.

All my photos of the Incline railway cars were taken while I was standing between the chain-link fence and the concrete barrier safe from traffic.  That little green sign at the bridge says: Chattanooga City Limit.

My 2009 photo shows one of the modern incline cars in use today as it arrives at the station at the bottom of the mountain in Saint Elmo.  The steel cable is seen behind the car, and a cable roller guide is in front of the car centered between the rails.  I have collected images of earlier Incline Railway cars back to the beginning of service in the early 20th Century.  The cars look different, but they were always connected to the cables.

That See Rock City bird house is a favorite with the tourists to take back home.  I was in West Texas years ago on Interstate 20 coming East when I saw a large Billboard sign with the words "SEE ROCK CITY" along with the number of miles to get there.  The distance from the western end of I-20 to Rock City on lookout mountain is 1,245 miles.  There is always the possibility the sign could have been between Midland and Odessa, Texas which is 1,119 miles west of this location.

This Google Earth image of the lower station of the Incline Railway is from May 2018.