Mount Roberts Tramway
Mount Roberts Tramway is an aerial tramway in Juneau , Alaska , United States that offers cruise ship passengers and other tourists the opportunity to travel to the hill station located steeply above the quay at over 500 m on a ridge of Mount Roberts.
The valley station is at the southern end of the city, directly on the quay for the cruise ships. The cable car travels from there in six minutes without supports to the mountain station , a steel structure rising high above the ridge. There is a wide view of the snow-capped Mount Roberts and the surrounding mountains as well as the Gastineau Channel and the town of Juneau. In addition to the mountain station there are various tourist facilities such as restaurants, a souvenir shop, a movie theater with films about the history of the place and exhibitions. The cable car is one of the most visited tourist attractions in Alaska, with 200,000 visitors per year. It is in operation from May to September.
The aerial tramway was built in 1995/96 on the basis of a private initiative by Leitner Poma of America and officially opened in May 1997. It has an inclined length of 941 m (3,087 ft) and an elevation gain of 532 m (1,745 ft). With an average gradient of 68%, it is one of the steepest cable cars in the world. The two cabins each hold 60 people and travel at speeds of up to 10.2 m / s (36.7 km / h). The capacity is 1050 people per hour. The 50 m high steel structure of the mountain station was necessary to give the cableway the necessary distance above the ground. It thus simultaneously fulfills the function of a cable car support . The cable car has two carrying ropes with a 50 mm diameter and a pull rope with a 35 mm diameter per track. In contrast to the usual construction with a pull rope and a separate counter rope, both of which are fixed to the cabins, the Mount Roberts Tramway has a single, endlessly spliced pull rope loop to which the cabins can be coupled. This makes it easier to inspect the complete pull rope without the cabins being clamped on. The ropes were supplied by Fatzer AG , Romanshorn . The suspension ropes run over the mountain station and are anchored in the mountainside behind it. The pull rope is tensioned by a hydraulic system anchored there. The suspension ropes are also firmly anchored in the valley station without a separate tensioning device, as is the case with some pillarless systems.
Web links
- Description of the cable car on the website of the operator Goldbelt, Inc. (English)
Coordinates: 58 ° 17'47 " N , 134 ° 24'3" W.