The Monongahela Incline is a funicular on the South Side in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States, near the Smithfield Street Bridge.

[4] Pittsburgh's expanding industrial base in 1860 created a huge demand for labor, attracting mainly German immigrants to the region.

This created a serious housing shortage as industry occupied most of the flat lands adjacent to the South Side of the Monongahela River, leaving only the steep, surrounding hillsides of Mt.

Washington, remembering the Seilbahnen (cable cars) of their former country, proposed construction of inclines along the face of Coal Hill.

Prussian-born engineer John Endres of Cincinnati, Ohio was commissioned to design the Monongahela Incline, which opened on May 28, 1870, as the first for passenger use.