Timeline of cable transport

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This is a timeline of cable transport, attempting to describe important events in the development of a broad class of transport modes using cables as the foundation for transporting people or things.

Big picture

Time period Development summary
1834 backwards Pre steel cable era, with cable drawn transport dating back to 250 BC. Elevators exist as far back as ancient Rome, with Archimedes building them in 336 BC, and gladiators and animals roding lifts to the Roman Coliseum arena by 80 AD.[1] The modern elevator is first developed in the 19th century. It relies on steam or hydraulic plungers for lifting capability.[2]
1834 onwards Post steel cable era. All kinds of ropeways are made possible for transportation after the invention of the steel cable, resulting in a flourishing development of cable transport.[3] In the mid-19th century, modern/advanced ropeways make their first appearance and start being used for the transportation of people and goods. The first ropeways create a clear distinction between passenger transportation on the ground (funiculars & cable cars) and transport of goods on the ground or in the air (aerial ropeways).[4] Elevators become more common in the mid-1800s in the midst of the Industrial Revolution, transporting freight in factories and mines.[1]
20th century Higher-performance aerial ropeways start being built for passengers.[4] However, the technology of cable cars retreats to the mountains, with urban cable cars being replaced with streetcars and later buses.[5]
Present time Elevators are by far the most used and most ubiquitous mean of cable transport. Other cable transport systems have variable levels of penetration. Today, ropeways are mature, efficient and comfortable means of transport that are used mainly in the areas of winter sports and tourism.[4] Cable car systems proved successful in a number of Latin American cities, more than any other region.[6]


Full timeline

Year Event type Details Country
250 BC Cable drawn transport is already known. The first records of people transported by cable-drawn systems go all the way back to a brush drawing of a ropeway in South China.[7]
236 BC Elevator Roman architect Vitruvius reports that Archimedes probably built his first elevator around this year.[8]
1000 Elevator The Book of Secrets by al-Muradi in Islamic Spain describes the use of an elevator-like lifting device, in order to raise a large battering ram to destroy a fortress.[9] Spain
1319 – 1367 Ropeway The Japanese historical epic Taikeiki recounts the story of a Japanese emperor who escapes via a valley ropeway when surrounded by enemy forces.[10] Japan
1402 – 1405 Ropeway The Bellifortis, the first fully illustrated military manual, carries an illustration of the ropeway and how it can be used in a military application.[10]
1616 Ropeway Venetian polymath Fausto Veranzio, in his published masterwork Machinae Novae, illustrates a bi-cable passenger ropeway.[11][10] Croatia (Venetian Republic)
1644 Cable car Dutch engineer Adam Wybe develops a successful bicable operational system, with the purpose of moving large amounts of soil over the Motława River in Gdańsk, Poland, to construct defensive fortifications.[11][7][7][10] Poland
1743 Elevator The first modern passenger elevator is built at the Chateau de Versailles for Louis XV of France and is called "The Flying Chair".[1] France
1793 Elevator The first screw drive elevator is built by Ivan Kulibin and installed in Winter Palace.[9] Russia
1804 Funicular Austrian engineer Joseph Gainschnigg puts into operation the most powerful funicular of his time, a 1.4 km line in Badgastein, Austria, used both for transportation of ore from the goldmine down and for transportation of the miners up to the entrance of the mine. With steel cables unexistent at the time, the rope is made of hemp with a diameter of about 60 mm and driven by a water wheel with a diameter of 15 m.[3] Austria
1823 Elevator Teo architects working in London, Burton and Hormer, build and operate a novel tourist attraction, which they call the "ascending room". It elevates paying customers to a considerable height in the center of the city, allowing them a panoramic view of the downtown.[9] United Kingdom
1834–1843 Technology German mining official Wilhelm August Julius Albert invents the steel cable, leading to the most successful period of all kinds of ropeways in history.[3][3]
1850 Elevator Henry Waterman from New York is credited with inventing the “standing rope control” for an elevator.[9] United States
1853 Elevator American industrialist Elisha Otis demonstrates an elevator with a "safety" to break the cab's fall in case of rope failure.[2] United States
1857 Elevator Elisha Otis' first passenger elevator in the United States starts operating at a New York City department store.[2] United States
1861 (January 17) Cable car British mechanical engineer Andrew Smith Hallidie in San Francisco patents the first cable car.[12] United States
1862 Funicular The first funicular for public transport is put into operation in Lyon, France. It is driven by a steam engine.[3] France
c.1867 Elevator Otis Brothers and Company is founded by Elisha Otis' in Yonkers, New York, eventually to achieve mass production of elevators in the thousands.[2] United States
1872 Cable car The San Francisco cable car system opens its first line; designed by Andrew Smith Hallidie. The drive unit for the hauling cable is a steam engine in the powerhouse.[3] United States
1873 Funicular A steam engine–driven funicular is constructed at Leopoldsberg, Vienna, on the occasion of the World Exhibition.[3] Austria
1873 Aerial lift San Francisco develops its first cable car.[5] United States
1880 Funicular A funicular cable is mounted on Mount Vesuvius.[13] Italy
1882 Cable car A cable car system opens in Chicago.[14] United States
1887 Elevator An electric elevator is developed in Baltimore, using a revolving drum to wind the hoisting rope.[2]
1890 The Funiculaire du Havre opens to the public.[15] France
1890 Cable car Most large US cities have one or more cable car lines by the time.[12] United States
1902 Funicular The East Cliff Lift funicular railway in Hastings, England is built. It is the steepest in the country, with a gradient of 78%.[16] United Kingdom
1908 Surface lift The first surface lift is built by German Robert Winterhalder in the Black forest.[17] Germany
1912 Aerial lift The Sugarloaf Cable Car opens in Rio de Janeiro.[5] Brazil
1923 Aerial lift A cable car line is built in Gothenburg, connecting Götaplatsen square with the Liseberg theme park.[7] Sweden
1934 Aerial lift An aerial cable transport is installed in Grenoble.[5][18] France
1943 Aerial lift The Forsby-Köping limestone cableway is built, running from Forsby in Vingåker municipality to industrial town Köping in central Sweden. With 42 km of extension, it is one of the longest aerial tramways ever built.[7] Sweden
1955 Aerial lift A cable car opens at Bogota's Monserrate.[5] Colombia
1956 Aerial lift A cable car network opens in Algiers.[19][20] Algeria
1965 Aerial lift A gondola lift is installed at the shrine of Our Lady of Lebanon.[5] Lebanon
1976 Aerial lift The Roosevelt Island Tramway was completed in New York City.[5][21] United States
1976 Accident Forty-three people are killed in the deadliest cable car crash in history, occuring in Cavalese, Italy, when the steel supporting cable of an aerial tramway breaks as a fully loaded cable car descends from Mt. Cermis.[22] Italy
1990 Aerial lift The first funitel is constructed in Val-Thorens by Denis Creissel and enterprises Reel and Städeli-Lift.[23] France
1990 (June 1) Accident 1990 Tbilisi aerial tramway accident. Two gondolas roll down simultaneously when the rope breaks inside the coupler of the upper gondola. 20 people are killed.[24] Georgia
1998 (February 3) Accident Second Cavalese cable car disaster. Twenty people die when a United States Marine Corps EA-6B Prowler aircraft, while flying too low, against regulations, cuts a cable supporting a gondola of an aerial tramway.[25] Italy
1999 (July 1) Accident Saint-Étienne-en-Dévoluy cable car disaster. A gondola operating on a privately owned aerial tramway detaches from the cable and falls into the valley below, killing 20 people (all on board).[26] France
2004 Aerial lift Medellin becomes the first city in the world to implement a cable car system as a full-time public transport system.[13][27][20] Colombia
2007 Tramway A tramway is built in Portland, Oregon, to connect a university campus to downtown.[5] United States
2009 Aerial lift A gondola system imitating that of Medellin is installed in Manizales, Colombia.[5] Colombia
2012 Study Experts at a 2012 urban transport conference in Ethiopia estimate the cost of a typical two kilometre line of cable cars at £5.1 million, a comparatively low figure in contrast to other means of transport.[6] Ethiopia
2012 Study Research paper published in the American Journal of Epidemiology comparing violence in Colombian city neighborhoods that have access to the new cable car with similar areas that dont’t, shows a decline in the homicide rate to be 66% greater in cable car neighborhoods than in control neighborhoods, with resident reports of violence decreasing 75% more in cable car neighborhoods. These results show that interventions in neighborhood physical infrastructure can reduce violence.[7]
2012 Aerial lift London’s cable car, the Emirates Air Line, opens to the public. However, the line would further fail to generate revenue, with very few regular users.[6] United Kingdom
2014 (May 30) Aerial lift Mi Teleférico starts operations in La Paz, Bolivia, as the longest aerial cable car urban transit system.[28][7] Developed by Austrian firm Doppelmayr Garaventa Group, as of March 2018, the system consists of 20 stations along six lines: Red, Yellow, Green, Blue, Orange, and White; with another five lines in planning or construction: Purple, Sky Blue, Brown, Silver, and Gold.[29] Bolivia
2017 – 2020 Aerial lift A planned cable car system is built in Haifa, Israel, as part of the city's expanded public transport system. Featuring 76 cabins leaving every half minute, the system is expected to integrate with the local transit network and an estimated 4,000 – 5,000 passengers per day (2 million per year) riding the gondola.[30] Israel
2018 Funicular World's steepest funicular rail line opens in Switzerland, reaching gradients as steep as 110%.[16] Switzerland
2021 Aerial lift An aerial cable-car system is projected for the Greater Paris area around this time. Paris hopes to become one of the first European cities to implement a modern cable car system aimed at commuters.[7][31] France

Numerical and visual data

Mentions on Google Scholar

The following table summarizes per-year mentions on Google Scholar as of May 20, 2021.

Year Cable transport Cable car Cable car mass transit Aerial tramway
1980 2,970 2,790 189 102
1985 3,340 3,220 162 99
1990 4,670 4,000 231 172
1995 6,860 5,770 361 184
2000 10,500 9,440 565 326
2002 12,400 10,700 735 272
2004 14,700 12,500 881 442
2006 16,900 14,100 958 444
2008 17,300 16,600 1,060 566
2010 22,500 20,500 1,330 697
2012 25,100 23,100 1,660 815
2014 25,100 22,100 1,690 881
2016 25,500 22,600 1,460 859
2017 25,500 22,700 1,580 889
2018 26,000 22,500 1,590 927
2019 24,700 22,400 1,700 974
2020 24,200 19,800 1,390 917
Cable tb.png

Google Trends

The image below shows Google Trends data for Cable transport (search term) from January 2004 to January 2021, when the screenshot was taken.[32]

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Google Ngram Viewer

The chart below shows Google Ngram Viewer data for Cable transport from 1600 to 2019.[33]

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Wikipedia Views

The chart below shows pageviews of the English Wikipedia article Cable transport on desktop, mobile-web, desktop-spider, mobile-web-spider and mobile app, from July 2015 to December 2020.[34]

Cable t wv.jpeg


Meta information on the timeline

How the timeline was built

The initial version of the timeline was written by User:Sebastian.

Funding information for this timeline is available.

What the timeline is still missing

Timeline update strategy

See also

External links

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 "Who invented the elevator?". science.howstuffworks.com. Retrieved 4 May 2018. 
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 "Elevator History". columbiaelevator.com. Retrieved 3 May 2018. 
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 Koetsier, Teun; Ceccarelli, Marco. Explorations in the History of Machines and Mechanisms: Proceedings of HMM2012. 
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 "THE HISTORY OF ROPEWAYS". leitner-ropeways.com. Retrieved 3 May 2018. 
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6 5.7 5.8 "The Golden Age of Gondolas Might Be Just Around the Corner". citylab.com. Retrieved 3 May 2018. 
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 "Are cable cars the future of public transport?". virgin.com. Retrieved 3 May 2018. 
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 7.5 7.6 7.7 "Cable Cars Are Changing the World". howwegettonext.com. Retrieved 3 May 2018. 
  8. ↑ "Faculty of Computer Studies Information Technology and Computing Department" (PDF). aou.edu.lb. Retrieved 4 May 2018. 
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 "History of Elevator". menevisasansor.com. Retrieved 4 May 2018. 
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 "Who invented the world's first aerial cableway?". hartiescableway.co.za. Retrieved 3 May 2018. 
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 "The elevator museum". theelevatormuseum.org. Retrieved 16 February 2018. 
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 "The History of Streetcars - Cable Cars". thoughtco.com. Retrieved 3 May 2018. 
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 "New use of old technology: How high can you go with cable cars as urban mass transit system?". traffic-inside.com. Retrieved 16 February 2018. 
  14. ↑ Marocchi, Andrea. "CABLEWAYS FOR URBAN TRANSPORTATIION:: HIISTORY,, STATE OF THE ART AND FUTURE DEVELOPMENTS" (PDF). oitaf.org. Retrieved 3 May 2018. 
  15. ↑ "CABLE TRANSPORT". seirel.com. Retrieved 16 February 2018. 
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 "World's steepest funicular rail line to open in Switzerland". theguardian.com. Retrieved 26 May 2018. 
  17. ↑ "BUTTON LIFT". central.gutenberg.org. 
  18. ↑ "Lift-off for urban cable car projects as cities seek transport solutions". theguardian.com. Retrieved 3 May 2018. 
  19. ↑ "Cable cars" (PDF). uitp.org. Retrieved 4 May 2018. 
  20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 "BRIDGING THE GAP: URBAN CABLE CARS". uitp.org. Retrieved 3 May 2018. 
  21. ↑ "The History of the Roosevelt Island Tramway". 6sqft.com. Retrieved 4 May 2018. 
  22. ↑ "The Deadliest Cable Car Disasters In History". worldatlas.com. Retrieved 4 May 2018. 
  23. ↑ "HISTORY OF VAL THORENS". valthorens.com. Retrieved 4 May 2018. 
  24. ↑ "AT LEAST 20 PERISH AS CABLE CAR BREAKS LOOSE IN SOVIET GEORGIA". deseretnews.com. Retrieved 4 May 2018. 
  25. ↑ "Cavalese cable-car disaster: It's 20 years since a US aircraft killed 20 people in the Dolomites and still no one accepts responsibility". independent.co.uk. Retrieved 4 May 2018. 
  26. ↑ "Alpine cable car disaster kills 20". independent.co.uk. Retrieved 4 May 2018. 
  27. ↑ "CABLE CARS AS URBAN PUBLIC TRANSPORT IN MEDELLIN". goodanthropocenes.net. Retrieved 16 February 2018. 
  28. ↑ "The World's Longest Aerial Cable Car System". cleantechnica.com. Retrieved 3 May 2018. 
  29. ↑ "Red de Integración Metropolitana". miteleferico.bo. Retrieved 3 May 2018. 
  30. ↑ "NEW HAIFA URBAN GONDOLA PROPOSAL BUILDS ON CITY'S ROPEWAY LEGACY". gondolaproject.com. Retrieved 4 May 2018. 
  31. ↑ "Can the Paris Gondola Succeed Where London's Failed?". citylab.com. Retrieved 3 May 2018. 
  32. ↑ "Cable transport". trends.google.com. Retrieved 15 January 2021. 
  33. ↑ "Cable transport". books.google.com. Retrieved 15 January 2021. 
  34. ↑ "Cable transport". wikipediaviews.org/. Retrieved 31 January 2021. 
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