Mariquita-Manizales material ropeway
The Mariquita-Manizales material cable car was the longest cable car in the world in its day .
The 75 km long material ropeway connected the town of Mariquita, located at an altitude of 495 m in the Colombian province of Tolima, with the more than 2000 m high Manizales in today's department of Caldas , which lies beyond the 3700 m high pass Alto de Las Letras in the Eje cafetero , the most important coffee-growing area in Colombia.
Its construction began in 1915 and was completed in 1922. The cable car operated until the 1960s.
At the beginning of the 20th century there were hardly any traffic connections to the Colombian coffee-growing regions. One drove on the upper Río Magdalena to the river port Beltrán and from there 60 km by train via Dorada to Mariquita . Then you had to ride for days on arduous mule tracks over high mountains to Manizales .
The London-registered Dorada Extension Railway (Ltd.) therefore founded the Dorada Ropeway Extension (Ltd) in 1912 with a capital of £ 220,000, which soon after began with the construction of the cable car. As early as 1915, the route had progressed so far that the company was able to make a small profit, which increased over the next few years as the cable car was extended.
The cable car mainly carried coffee from Manizales to Mariquita and various goods in the opposite direction.
The cable car had only one circumferential rope, which took on both a carrying and pulling function and which ran over two pulleys attached to the arms of the steel supports on both sides. It is not clear how many sections the cable car was divided into. The cargo was attached to the rope with a patented device and automatically released at the unloading station. The rope was originally driven by steam engines and later by electric motors.
The highest pillar of the former cable car, the Torre de Herveo, a 52 meter high wooden structure, is now preserved as a monument.
See also
Web links
- Quito to Bogota , AC Veatch, Hodder & Stoughton, London, 1917 (PDF; 18.4 MB); on archive
- Colombia - A Commercial and Industrial Handbook , PL Bell, Washington, United States Government Printing Office, 1921 (PDF; 34.0 MB); on archive
- Colombia handbook: the travel guide , Peter Pollard
Coordinates: 5 ° 3 ′ 19 ″ N , 75 ° 29 ′ 31 ″ W.