Tom Anderson wrote:

On Tue, 26 Aug 2008, Mr Thant wrote:

On 26 Aug, 12:22, Tom Anderson wrote:

Cablecars tend to go *up* things. Are there any that are built in the
complete absence of a steep slope? By 'complete absence', i mean
without a
slope anywhere along;


The Roosevelt Island tramway might count:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roosevelt_Island_Tramway

It goes from Manhattan across the East River to Roosevelt Island.
Granted, the bit over the river is much higher than the two ground
stations, but the overall journey is essentially horizontal.


I was in New York with a friend a while ago, and one morning, after
having spent the previous evening making an extensive survey of local
beverage outlets, he told me he'd noticed a cable-car. I told him in no
uncertain terms that he was mistaken, and to exercise greater restraint
in his consumption in future. About an hour later, i was rather
surprised to walk past it myself. I never mentioned it to him, and
hopefully he still thinks it's imaginary.

So why the bloody buggering hell did they build it? According to
wikipedia, it was built at a time when there was no road bridge to
Manhattan, only Queens, the previous tram bridge had fallen into
disrepair, and the subway was still under construction. What i don't
really understand was why building a cable-car was thought to be a
better option than repairing the tram tracks, or converting them into a
road bridge. Or even a footbridge, given that it's not far, and the
cable-car doesn't exactly go far anyway.

Cross-posted to nyc.transit, who will doubtless have opinions.

tom


When you say, tram, I think are referring to what we call a trolley or
streetcar. The Queensboro Bridge had trolley tracks and a station. But
needed an elevator to get to the station on the bridge. There was an
underground terminal in Manhattan. The trolley stopped running in 1957.
From that time, until the current tram opened in 1976, there was no
way to get directly to Manhattan from Roosevelt (nee:Blackwell, nee:
Welfare) Island.

One reason that the tram is still operating is that its terminal in
Manhattan is at Second Ave, while the subway station is at Lexington,
two blocks away. This give residents of RI a choice of destinations in
Manhattan.

The subway opened in 1989. For the most part service on the subway used
the 6th Ave Subway. There was a brief time when it was a shuttle to
57th and Broadway. This was to allow track work to be done on the line.

From its opening in 1989 to 2001, there was only one stop in Queens.
On December 16, 2001, the F train began to use the line 24/7 and was
through routed to eastern Queens - 179th St.

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