In 1892, Catalina Island was just another failed attempt at a resort town--it was in foreclosure and was pretty sparsely developed aside from the Hotel Metropole. Its new owners, the Banning brothers (sons of Phineas Banning, who'd built LA's first railroad), bought it for $280,000 and added a few essentials: alcohol (the hotel had been dry), tent-cabins, a golf course, and an incline railway. KCET tells the story of the lost funicular of Catalina, built between 1904 and 1906 and closed in 1918.
· Incline L.A.: Catalina's Island Mountain Railway (Episode 3) [KCET]
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