The line was a tram-funicular hybrid, similar to the San Francisco cable car system (started 1873), and the Ascensor da Bica in Lisbon.

In the late 1880s, the need to serve the busy quarter of Belleville led to consideration of setting up a cable car line, uniquely able to manage the hill's inclination.

After much deliberation by the Ville de Paris, the Ministry of Public Works, the Ministry of the Interior and the Corps of Bridges and Roads, and the virulent protests of the Compagnie générale des omnibus, who saw it breaking their monopoly, the line was given its Déclaration d'utilité publique ("Public Utility Declaration") by a decree of 24 January 1889 under the jurisdiction of a Voie ferrée d'intérêt local under the control of the Conseil général of the Seine Department.

This route was subsequently incorporated into the network of the Société des transports en commun de la région parisienne (STCRP).

The U-shaped rails, of the Broca system, were set into the road surface, with 9 to 12 m (30 to 39 ft) blocks housing the traction cable, which was of 29 mm (1.1 in) diameter and weighed 3 kg/m (2.0 lb/ft).

Each terminus on the line was equipped with a pulley of 2.50 m (8 ft 2.4 in) diameter, mounted horizontally under the pavement, which drove the endless traction cable.

[7][8] The system was driven by two 50 hp (37 kW) Corliss steam engines, installed in the depot at 97 Rue de Belleville.

The rolling stock was never upgraded; the cars remained gaslit (with acetylene) and were unheated because of the short journey time.

In 1907 and 1909, brake failures caused two collisions between the tramcars and Mekarski system cars at the Rue des Pyrénées crossroads.

[10] In La Livrée du crime, Pierre Souvestre and Marcel Allain describe Fantômas taking the funicular on return from a meeting with the Apaches.