It's as steep as it looks.

The Incline

Chattanooga, Tennessee

Funicular railways have been around for 200 years, but Chattanooga's Incline may have been the first built for tourists: an exciting way to whisk them straight up the side of Lookout Mountain. Construction was spurred by a resort at the top for the well-to-do, who had previously been inconvenienced by a long, switchback road and a clunky cog railway. The trip by road took four hours, the Incline only 15 minutes.

Calling itself "America's Most Amazing Mile," the Incline opened on November 16, 1895. At the time it was the steepest railway in the world. Its days as a time-saver are over -- you can get to the mountaintop just as quickly now by driving -- but the Incline is still a heady 19th century thrill ride, with its rail car seats facing outward so that passengers can ignore its alarming angle and be distracted by the dizzying view. At its steepest points, riders on the Incline actually look down on Chattanooga through glass windows in the rail car ceiling.