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Today marks the anniversary of the first installation of something that those of us who work in many-floored office buildings take for granted until it craps out – the elevator. I can’t say that the elevators I ride in every day are particularly notable, but these 10 certainly are. I’m omitting the Eiffel Tower elevator because I wrote about it a couple of weeks ago. I was going to include Willy Wonka’s Glass Elevator, but there were so many cool real elevators, I decided to exclude it too (sorry, Charlie).
1. Oregon City Municipal Elevator – Oregon City, Oregon. This one is unique because it’s the only outdoor municipal elevator in the United States. What’s more, there are only four in the whole world. The elevator connects two neighborhoods in Oregon City; people used to rely on stairways built into the cliffs until the first elevator was made in 1915. That one was water-powered and it took three minutes for a one-way ride. The new (and current) elevator was dedicated in 1955. The observation deck at the top lets viewers check out views of Willamette Falls, the Oregon City Bridge and the Abernethy Bridge.
2. Twilight Zone Tower of Terror – various Disney locations around the world. As a self-professed Disney freak and lover of all things creepy, I couldn’t pass this up. I don’t want to ruin the surprise for people who have never been on it, but let’s just say that the elevator that comprises the ride does things that you hope your elevator will never do. I guess that’s what happens when you stay in a haunted hotel…
3. The Gateway Arch – St. Louis, Missouri. These elevators are technically an elevator-tram hybrid. You probably get what I mean if you’ve ever visited the St. Louis Arch, but if you haven’t, I’ll try to explain. At the bottom of the arch, you enter a little compartment that seats five people, and there are eight compartments to a tram. The compartments were done because their design allows them to rotate and level themselves out while the entire train stays on a track following the curve of the arch. It’ll take you four minutes in the tram to get to the observation deck at the top, and three minutes to get back down to the sweet, blessed ground (I’m not a big fan of heights).
4. Christ the Redeemer – Rio de Janeiro. Yep, there’s an elevator at the giant statue of Jesus in Rio de Janeiro. But not the way you think… at least, it wasn’t the way I think. I was picturing an elevator running inside of Jesus like an intestinal tract or something. Maybe you peer out of his eyes… what a tourist destination that would be, right? “See what Jesus sees!” But if you’re thinking what I was thinking, you would be wrong. Embarrassingly so. The three panoramic elevators carry visitors up the steep slope of Corcovado mountain to an escalator that will take them to the base of the monument. Prior to 2002, visitors had to climb 220 steps to make it to the top.
5. Fourth Street Elevator/Fenelon Place Elevator – Dubuque, Iowa. I had to throw this in, because of course I’m biased toward anything from Iowa. But this elevator is cool in its own right, too. The elevator was erected because a wealthy banker (and former mayor and state senator) liked to run home at lunch and take a nap, but by the time he got all of the way to his house at the top of the bluffs, his lunch was already half over. Naturally, he built an elevator that would cut his travel time down immensely. This is actually the third incarnation; the first two burned down. From the observation decks at the top you can see three states – Iowa, Illinois and Wisconsin.
6. Jinmao Building – Shanghai. The elevators at the Jinmao Building in Shanghai are notable for their sheer speed – the express elevators can take you from the basement to the 88th floor in 45 seconds. Kind of makes me want to puke just thinking about it.
7. The Buttonless Elevator – Tokyo Apple store. You can’t push a button to make the elevator come, and you can’t decide what floor you want. This is really a clever marketing gimmick to make you stop at all four floors of this Apple store, but I bet it’s fun for the employees to watch customers walk up to the elevator with an index finger outstretched, only to find no buttons to jab at.
8. Paternosters, various places (the picture is of one from the University of Vienna that was used until 2007). These are widely out of use now, used to be used pretty commonly in Europe. Instead of having one elevator car on one track, the paternosters were a series of open compartments that continuously loop inside of a building. It’s so-named because it resembles the beads of a rosary – “Pater Noster” means “Our Father.” It’s also called the Cyclic Elevator.
9. Inclinators at the Luxor – Las Vegas, Nevada. I bet the ancient Egyptians wish they had these. What makes these elevators cool is the fact that they are actually “inclinators.” Because the building is sloped (as you might expect a pyramid to be), the elevators/inclinators travel along the inside of the building a 39-degree angle. Some reports call this extremely disorienting, and although I’ve been to the Luxor, I’ve never ridden the elevators. What say you, _flossers?
10. “Top of the Rock” elevators of the GE Building, New York. If you’re headed to the observation deck of the GE Building, you’ll be treated to a ride in the dark. Well, sort of. The lights in the elevator turn off and light above the car turns on to illuminate the glass ceiling so you can check out the ride all the way up. They also project images onto the ceiling. Here’s what it looks like – kinda trippy!
Comments (23)
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Another great Quick 10 – I likewise appreciate your Iowa/Dubuque entry and have enjoyed the rather rickety ride of the Fourth Street elevator numerous times!
posted by DennisP on 3-23-2009 at 5:34 pm
I was just in the St. Louis Arch recently, those little trams that seat five people are really cramped! The observation level is also shorter than I expected but I did enjoy the views whenever I could.
posted by JD on 3-23-2009 at 6:02 pm
The paternoster in Stuttgart’s Town Hall is fantastic. It is very strange to jump onto a moving elevator, and even more strange to step off. It is not moving very fast, but still very interesting and worth a visit if you are in Stuttgart.
posted by Scott on 3-23-2009 at 6:09 pm
Stacy, I’m a little surprised that you’re worried about spoiling the Tower of Terror surprise for people who haven’t been on the ride. I thought it was pretty common knowledge, even for people who have never been to a Disney park.
posted by Kelsey on 3-23-2009 at 6:35 pm
looks like your Iowa bias isn’t necessary. That’s not an elevator in Dubuque, it’s a funicular railway. But, I guess leave it to Iowans to not know the difference.
posted by richard on 3-23-2009 at 6:42 pm
Disney’s Tower of Terror elevator is my favorite ride ever! My heart pounds no matter how many times I go on it (even if it’s multiple times in a row).
posted by CK on 3-23-2009 at 6:52 pm
Love this post!
I’ve never been on the Tower of Terror, but each trip, I challenge myself to do a ride I’ve been scared of. This Sept: Tower of Terror in both WDW and DL! We’ll see…
The Arch elevator freaks me out (what happens if it gets stuck?!?). Once was enough for me.
Yeah, I’m thinking the Iowa one is more of a cable car contraption. They have a lot of those here in Wellington (NZ) for houses that are built into the hills.
posted by Dawn on 3-23-2009 at 7:56 pm
I rode the St. Louis arch elevators – not so fun but worth getting to the top. I don’t like elevators, and the one I thought I’d hate most, the Hancock Tower in Chicago, turned out to be the world’s fastest elevator. It was great and what a view at the top!
posted by Neek on 3-23-2009 at 8:31 pm
Another little tidbit about the STL Arch tram: the compartments are egg-shaped, that design is part of what helps the tram follow the curve of the arch without tipping the passengers. And, the tram has been in operation since the Arch was erected.
posted by Mary on 3-23-2009 at 8:34 pm
The elevators at the Stratosphere casino in vegas are double deckers. two cars on top of each other. The ride is like a rocket launch. It starts out slow and gets faster,and faster. The car feels like it is bouncing back and forth off the walls. And it is pretty fast. But i was a little drunk while i was riding it so i could have just made it all up.
posted by d3wayne on 3-23-2009 at 8:37 pm
The elevators at the Luxor in Vegas are cool. The feeling is odd, especially if you’ve been drinking. Its great :)
posted by Mindy on 3-23-2009 at 8:43 pm
I’ve been on the inclinators in the Luxor. It is disorientating, but not in the way where you want to fall over. You body tells you are moving at an angle but your brain says you are moving straight up and down. The really trippy part comes when you get off the inclinator. You look over the side of railing and cant really see the floors to well below because you are at the top of a pyramid. Then your mind starts to play tricks on you because you can’t comprehend moving at an angle while going “straight up”.
I guess the best visual reference I can think of is pictures or movies inside a submarine while it is diving. The person appears to be leaning at an extreme angle. In actuality it is the submarine that is at an angle while the person is vertical.
posted by Rob on 3-23-2009 at 9:07 pm
richaard is right, that’s an Incline Railway – and not nearly as long or steep as the one in Chattanooga that goes up Lookout Mountain.
posted by PartiallyDeflected on 3-23-2009 at 11:41 pm
The most amazing elevator I have ever seen was at the Sanderson Hotel in London. It’s a back-lit hologram galaxy…
posted by jackie on 3-24-2009 at 11:18 am
That Gateway Arch ride is a real nail-biter. I wasn’t a huge fan, but I had fun for the rest of my stay there. You know, once I stopped crying.
rC: Walking 1.0
posted by adrienne on 3-24-2009 at 11:59 am
If you aren’t going to go on Tower of Terror at least make it over to Disney Quest for their elevators. Genie is your host, what more can I say?
posted by mamamo on 3-24-2009 at 12:00 pm
I am pretty sure that the George Washington Masonic Memorial in Alexandria, VA has “inclinators” as well. But the angle is only like 7.5 degrees or something small like that. My details on this matter are obviously a little fuzzy…
posted by C on 3-24-2009 at 12:23 pm
Otis Elevator Co has a test sight in Bristol, Connecticut, near Lake Compounce amusement park and ESPN national HQ.
It’s a big open tower…very odd looking…may merit further investigation!
posted by elvoid on 3-24-2009 at 1:01 pm
If you’re going to count the one in Iowa, what about the two inclines in Pittsburgh? They are some of the oldest in the US and they are still in operation.
posted by Dan Hall on 3-24-2009 at 2:16 pm
When I was 12, my family moved to Frankfurt, Germany. My father worked in what we called the Abrams Building, but was better known as the I.G. Farben Building, taken over by the American’s in WWII and used for multiple purposes. At the time we lived there, it was an office building for many military units. The building was one of the few that still had (still has) working paternosters. They were pretty cool, like farris wheels (continuously moving, and you could stay on as it circled over the top – looking into the attic – or down into the basement). I believe there were 5 or 6 (maybe more) in the building, but only a few of them worked at a time.
The sad thing was, a woman that my father knew stepped onto one and the floor gave way, killing her as she was stuck and it was continuously moving. After that, the paternosters were off limits and you had to take the stairs or wait for one of the elevators.
After the military bases in Frankfurt were returned to the German government in 1996, the I.G. Farben building became part of the University of Frankfurt. The paternosters were completely overhauled and every one in the building is now running.
I last visited the building in 2004. It was cool to ride them again.
posted by Michelle on 3-24-2009 at 3:32 pm
What about the CN Tower’s glass elevators?
posted by anaximander on 3-24-2009 at 3:33 pm
I agree, the CN Tower elevator is crazy fast and glass. Very cool. Not so cool are the rear elevators in the Grain Exchange Building in Winnipeg. If your on the top floor, you hit the button, wait for over five minutes(which is long for a ten story building) and then have all four elevators come to the top at the same time. What, you say I’m lazy? Big woop, wanna fight about it?
posted by D Hue on 3-24-2009 at 4:55 pm
Oh, the St Louis arch elevators. We’ve had some wonderful times.
The ride up is terrifying, you’re in these tiny pods and you can feel them rotating…and when I was there they broke down. Luckily not when I was on them, but I was stuck at the top of the arch (which is basically a hallway with windows) for an hour waiting for them to be fixed.
You get tired of the view after an hour of feeling the arch sway in the breeze.
posted by Amber on 3-25-2009 at 12:37 am