Wuppertaler Schwebebahn

Via Ben Southwood:

There is an actual bridge in among there, so no worries putting Bridges in the category list. But is the Thing itself a bridge?

Wikipedia:

Its full name is Anlage einer elektrischen Hochbahn (Schwebebahn), System Eugen Langen. (“Electric Elevated Railway (Suspension Railway) Installation, Eugen Langen System”) It is the oldest electric elevated railway with hanging cars in the world and is a unique system.

In other words, nobody copied it because they thought it was crazy.

The above photo is from that Wikipedia entry. It dates from 1913.

2 thoughts on “Wuppertaler Schwebebahn”

  1. I have a long-running ambition to visit this, as I have a thing for ambitious/crazy infrastructure, especially in 3 dimensions.
    Perhaps after the current crisis is over I will

  2. Here is a photo I took of the overland section in May 2017.

    One person who did want to copy it was Theodor Herzl, the founder of modern political Zionism. In his utopian novel “The Old New Land” in 1902, he imagined a future Jewish state, in which the desert had been made to bloom, there was a gleaming new city named “Tel Aviv”, and there were Schwebebahns, which he saw as the transport of the future. No doubt most people thought he was crazy.

    Much of the novel ultimately came true, just not that bit.

Leave a Reply to Michael Jennings Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *