L.A. as Subject – the online archive of great stories from L.A.’s history – is about to debut the first part of its very first documentary series on KCET at 4PM this afternoon.

The four part series is about funicular railways in Los Angeles – which you may be familiar with from the ruins of the famous White City on Echo Mountain. These things used to be all over the city – especially in the steep Bunker Hill neighborhood. You can still visit the renovated (and relocated) Angel’s Flight in the same neighborhood now and ride for 50 cents but if you want to know what happened to the rest of them, this documentary should answer all your questions.

I met the team behind this series at the L.A. Archives Bazaar last year and saw a short preview of the series there. I’m really excited to see what they’ve been working on since then and hope this is the first of many entries in the project!

Tags: documentary series, funiculars, history, KCET, l.a. as subject