Funicular dos Guindais (Batalha)

This guide to the Funicular dos Guindais in Porto centers on the fifth of June 1893, when the two-year-old cliffside funicular's cable car careened into its lower platform beside a brand-new bridge. It traces the French engineer Raoul Mesnier du Ponsard who built the line in 1891, and the financial crisis that followed the crash and left the tracks quiet for generations. A good spot to picture it all: looking straight down the exposed slope from the Batalha platform.