approaching the portal. The left branch goes to the inbound tracks from Shawmut Avenue/City Point and Tremont Street, the right branch to the outbound tracks to Shawmut Avenue/City Point (mid right) and Tremont Street (far right).
Early use The incline opened on October 1, 1897, one month after the first section of the
Tremont Street subway, allowing
streetcar lines from
Roxbury,
Dorchester, and points south to operate via the subway. The new tunnel stretched from the outer tracks at
Boylston south under
Tremont Street, with a four-track portal in the triangle bounded by Tremont Street, Pleasant Street (later part of Broadway), and Shawmut Avenue. The tunnel carried two tracks, splitting into four tracks at a
flying junction near the portal, with the northbound (western) track going over the southbound (eastern) track. The two western tracks continued down Tremont Street, while the eastern tracks turned east on Pleasant Street via Broadway to
City Point in
South Boston. On June 10, 1901, streetcar service through the portal stopped, as the
Washington Street Elevated (later part of the
Orange Line) was connected to the two outermost tracks. El trains came out of the portal, stopped at a new
Pleasant Street station with a center island platform in an open cut, passed under Pleasant Street, and then rose onto an elevated structure. Many surface streetcar lines were truncated to , the south end of the new El, until late November 1909. After the
Washington Street Tunnel opened on November 30, 1908, the elevated trains were rerouted through it, and the streetcars returned to the incline by their old routes, while the Pleasant Street station closed.
Decline On March 2, 1953, the City Point line was replaced by the route bus. The tracks to Tremont Street, formerly connected to the west tracks of the portal, were realigned to the east tracks, allowing a bus transfer station to be built where the west tracks had been. The Tremont Street line was
bustituted as route on November 20, 1961, and a streetcar shuttle started between the portal and Boylston, with transfers to the subway. This shuttle was short-lived, ending with closure of the portal on April 6, 1962. The Pleasant Street portal is now covered by Elliot Norton Park at the intersection of Tremont Street, Shawmut Avenue, and Oak Street West. ==Proposed reuse==