John,
I thought you might like to know a bit about the photos you posted.
The first one shows the Great White City Hotel constructed by Professor Thaddeus Lowe atop Echo Mountain above Altadena, CA. A very opulent palace, it had a ballroom, casino, observatory, gardens, and a small zoo. The hotel was accessed by a funicular that brought visitors from the valley below to the mountain summit. The hotel opened in 1894 and was destroyed by a fire in 1905. Sadly, all that remains today is portions of the concrete foundation.
The second and third photos show the electric trolley system Lowe built from Echo Mountain to the Alpine Tavern, another resort he built at the foot of Mount Lowe in the San Gabriel Mountains. This narrow gauge railway was an amazing feat of engineering that required the construction of 11 bridges over the 4 miles of track laid. Your center photo shows the Great Circular Bridge, needed to climb a steep grade along Las Flores Canyon. A brilliant Scottish engineer by the name of David MacPherson designed and oversaw the construction of both the Alpine Railway and the aforementioned funicular.
The Alpine Railway operated for over 30 years and was a popular tourist attraction. Unfortunately the Alpine Tavern was destroyed by fire in 1936. The railway continued operation until 1938 when a torrential flood washed out most of the bridges on the line. The railway's owners, the Pacific Electric Company, decided it was just too expensive to rebuild the bridges. Some of the wooden ties are still visible in the railway bed but all the steel rails were scavenged for the war effort in the 1940s.
And as you might say, "so ends today's history lesson."
Best regards,
John
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