When Montreal had a steam-powered shortcut to the top of Mount Royal

The lazy way used to be the best way up the mountain: From 1884 to 1918, the Mount Royal Funicular Railway—known also as the Mountain Park Incline Railway or simply the Mount Royal Elevator—was Montreal's original shortcut to the summit.

This steam-powered cable railway system worked in two parts. First, riders boarded a horizontal tramway near what's now the George-Étienne Cartier Monument, which rolled them along a flat stretch toward the base of the mountain, roughly in line with where Duluth Street runs today. From there, they transferred to the actual funicular—two cars connected by cables, counterbalancing each other as one climbed while the other descended.