It may be hard to imagine, but back in the early 1900s, you could get from the top of Lookout Mountain to the top of Signal Mountain via public transit – while only changing routes once.
That was when Chattanooga, with its streetcar system from the Tennessee River to Missionary Ridge, boasted a much more robust public transit than what you would find in 2024 with the Chattanooga Area Regional Transportation Authority.
Today, unless you’re taking CARTA’s No. 4 bus down Brainerd Road – the city’s highest ridership route by far – you could wait up to an hour to catch a ride.
Getting from mountain to mountain is certainly out of the question, though you could catch the incline up or down Lookout. It’s a relic of the city’s streetcar glory days – one that primarily serves a tourist function today.
As ridership on the city’s public transit has dwindled to a shell of itself over the past several decades, most Chattanoogans get around like most do in cities across the country: by car.