A bit of lovely news about the Angels Flight, the very short and steep Los Angeles funicular: it is scheduled to resume operations in just a few months, on Labor Day. It seems an appropriate date, given the railway storied past of ferrying thousands of working Angelino’s from downtown to Bunker Hill. Over at the LA Times, David Ulin  writes about the history of the railway and shares a personal account of his relationship to this cultural landmark, astutely capturing the powerful role that architecture, and by extension, real estate, play in our lives:

When my son, Noah, was little — 3, 4 and 5 — we rode Angels Flight all the time. We would take the Purple Line downtown from Wilshire and Western, get off at Pershing Square, walk a block or so down Hill Street and ride the funicular up and down. Those excursions are part of what Angels Flight represents, at least to me.

In part, this is a matter of nostalgia, but it is also something more. Cities are built of memories as much as they are constructed out of steel and stone. When I walk by the orange arch on Hill Street, with its Beaux Arts flourishes, I recognize that Angels Flight remains a relic of the city as it was in 1901, but I’m mostly reminded of my own history in the place, all those Saturdays and Sundays with my son.

It’s amazing how much history is packed in just one bit of city infrastructure. Looking forward to making new memories come Labor day – though can only hope to be as stylish as the fashionable commuters in 1965.