Mississippi Aerial River Transit
The Mississippi Aerial River Transit , or MART for short , was a gondola lift that crossed the Mississippi River in New Orleans , Louisiana , USA . It was opened in April 1984 as part of the 1984 Louisiana World Exhibition and operated between the World Exhibition in the Warehouse District and the Algiers district on the west bank. It was the second aerial cableway and first gondola lift in the United States to be used in local public transport .
The gondola lift was 701 m long and had 53 cabins. The transport capacity was 2000 people per hour. On each bank there was a 109 m high cable car pillar, founded on 87 m deep steel piles , to ensure sufficient height above the ship traffic. They were the highest cable car supports in the world built for a gondola lift.
The MART was initiated by the private Mississippi Aerial River Transit-Perez Inc. , MART-Perez for short, financed by the French Banque de l'union européenne with a loan of $ 8 million and built by POMA . During the less successful world exhibition, the MART only had 1.7 million passengers, half as many as originally planned. After the exhibition it was used in local public transport, but was discontinued in April 1985 after only one year of operation due to insufficient passenger numbers. MART-Perez was convicted of late payment in 1986 but was unable to make payments. In 1989, the gondola was auctioned for $ 1.6 million to a businessman who wanted to build it in Corpus Christi , Texas , but failed in 1990 due to legal disputes. After the United States Coast Guard requested the gondola lift to be removed if it was still not in use, it was dismantled until February 1994.
Footnotes
- ↑ The article is based on the article in the English WP
- ↑ POMA website ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
