The hook
The world's shortest railway climbs a single downtown block, has done since 1901, and costs a dollar fifty.
01Why it's worth it
Angels Flight is two little orange funicular cars, named Olivet and Sinai, counterweighting each other up and down a three-hundred-foot track on the side of Bunker Hill. It opened in 1901 to carry residents up the hill to their Victorian houses, was dismantled when the hill was redeveloped in 1969, sat in storage for decades, and was rebuilt half a block over in 1996. It's given something like a hundred million rides. The trip itself lasts under a minute and is pure novelty, but it's a genuine piece of old Los Angeles that survived against the odds, and it connects Grand Central Market at the bottom with the Broad and Disney Hall at the top.
02How to experience it
It's on Hill Street downtown, about six hours from the Bay, open daily. A dollar fifty each way, or three dollars for a souvenir round-trip ticket. It's a two-minute thing, so treat it as the connector it is and ride it as part of a downtown day taking in Grand Central Market, the Bradbury, and the Last Bookstore nearby.