The Palm Springs Aerial Tramway in Palm Springs, California, is the largest rotating aerial tramway in the world. It was opened in September 1963 as a way of getting from the floor of the Coachella Valley to near the top of San Jacinto Peak and was constructed in rugged Chino Canyon. Before its construction, the only way to the top of the mountain was to hike hours from Idyllwild. The rotating cars were added in 2000.
The twelve-and-a-half minute ride begins at the Valley Station (coordinates: 33°50′14″N116°36′51″W / 33.8372°N 116.6142°W ) at 2,643 ft (806 m) and passes up a sheer mountain face through five life zones (biomes) on its way to the Mountain Station (coordinates: 33°48′47″N116°38′19″W / 33.8130°N 116.6385°W ) at 8,516 ft (2,596 m) above sea level. [1] Travelers start in the Sonoran Desert and arrive at an alpine forest. [2]
The floor of the 18-foot-diameter (5.5 m) aerial tram cars rotates constantly, making two complete revolutions throughout the duration of the journey so that the passengers can see in all directions without moving. With a maximum capacity of 80 passengers, it is the largest of the four rotating aerial trams in the world. [1] The other "Rotair" aerial trams are located in Cape Town, South Africa, Titlis, Switzerland and Sky Way, Courmayeur, Italy.
Passengers disembark at the Mountain Station in the alpine wilderness of Long Valley and Mount San Jacinto State Park. The air can be as much as 40 °F (22 °C) cooler at the top than in the desert. Visitors can walk along nature trails or play in the snow in the winter months. Back-country hiking can be done with a permit from the U.S. Forest Service. There are two restaurants at the summit, one of which specializes in fine dining. Both stations have gift shops specializing in Aerial Tramway-related merchandise as well as educational toys. A video presentation of the history of the attraction plays continuously in a theater at the Mountain Station. It was produced by Palm Springs television station KESQ-TV with voiceovers provided by Palm Springs radio personalities.
The view at the top can stretch northward for more than 200 mi (320 km) on a clear day, all the way to Mount Charleston north of Las Vegas, Nevada. Views to the east and west can stretch as far as 75 mi (121 km). California's Salton Sea is plainly visible to the southeast.
As it was in 1963, the only way up the mountain to deliver supplies and water is via the aerial tram cars themselves. Supplies are loaded into the passenger area before the attraction's opening while fresh water is pumped into storage tanks in the car's underbelly.
The original aerial tram cars are now on static display near the entrance to the Valley Station.
The aerial tram was first proposed by electrical engineer Francis F. Crocker during a 1935 trip to Banning, California, with the Desert Sun newspaper publisher Carl Barkow. [3] During the heat of the day, Crocker's gaze fell upon the snow-capped, 10,804-foot-high (3,293 m) peak of Mount San Jacinto to the east. Crocker then proposed building an aerial tram up the face of Chino Canyon, an idea that one newspaper dubbed "Crocker's Folly".[ citation needed ]
Toward the end of the decade, Crocker named the comanager of the Palm Springs Desert Inn, O. Earl Coffman, to chair the construction committee.
Both World War II and the Korean War shelved the project. Construction began in 1960. The unprecedented use of helicopters in the construction of four of the aerial tram's five towers helped the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway earn a reputation as a great engineering feat.[ citation needed ] It was opened in September 1963.
In 1963, a tram car became stuck for 13½ hours because of an electrical problem in the control room. [4]
In June 1984, a tram car was headed down the mountain when a bolt from a shock absorber snapped, causing a 30-pound (14 kg) piece of metal to crash through a Plexiglas window along the car's roof. Tram passenger Elaine Tseko of Ontario, California, was struck by the piece and later died as a result of the injury. [4]
In September 1984, during routine maintenance, an auxiliary cable snapped and wrapped around the main cable tracks. The Desert Sun newspaper reported that if the broken cable hadn't wedged itself under the main track cables, a rescue car with the tram's workmen in it could have plummeted down the mountain into the lower tramway station. "Without the snag," a state investigator said, "those two men wouldn't be with us today." [4]
In 1985, a flash flood buried vehicles parked in the Valley Station's parking lot in mud and tore up about three-quarters of a mile of Tramway Road. Stranded passengers had to be airlifted from the area. [4]
Not all Tramway accidents happened on the passenger lifts. On July 31, 1991, a bus carrying approximately 60 Girl Scouts careened out of control as it was heading downhill on Tram Road, killing the driver and six passengers.
In 2000, the original tram cars were replaced by new cars that rotate slowly, offering riders a 360° panoramic view of Chino Canyon and the desert valley floor.
In October 2003, a steel cable broke and caused a mechanical failure that left more than fifty tramway customers hanging in mid-air and one hundred passengers stranded at the Mountain station for 4½ hours. During the crisis, tramway officials sought a rescue helicopter but could not locate one. [5] The obstruction was removed by a tram operator with no training in maintenance, utilizing a borrowed Leatherman utility knife. The Desert Sun later reported that a cable inspector had discovered a break in the rescue line almost two hours before the incident occurred. [6]
| Climate data for Mi-Wuk Village, California | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Record high °F (°C) | 65 (18) | 66 (19) | 64 (18) | 70 (21) | 77 (25) | 86 (30) | 87 (31) | 83 (28) | 80 (27) | 74 (23) | 68 (20) | 62 (17) | 87 (31) |
| Mean daily maximum °F (°C) | 43.4 (6.3) | 43.0 (6.1) | 46.6 (8.1) | 51.9 (11.1) | 60.6 (15.9) | 70.1 (21.2) | 74.8 (23.8) | 72.7 (22.6) | 67.3 (19.6) | 55.1 (12.8) | 48.5 (9.2) | 43.0 (6.1) | 56.4 (13.6) |
| Mean daily minimum °F (°C) | 20.6 (−6.3) | 20.0 (−6.7) | 20.8 (−6.2) | 24.5 (−4.2) | 32.6 (0.3) | 41.3 (5.2) | 47.7 (8.7) | 45.6 (7.6) | 41.7 (5.4) | 31.0 (−0.6) | 26.3 (−3.2) | 21.0 (−6.1) | 31.1 (−0.5) |
| Record low °F (°C) | −6 (−21) | −10 (−23) | −12 (−24) | 4 (−16) | 17 (−8) | 24 (−4) | 33 (1) | 32 (0) | 29 (−2) | 5 (−15) | 2 (−17) | −3 (−19) | −12 (−24) |
| Average precipitation inches (mm) | 5.57 (141) | 4.48 (114) | 3.58 (91) | 1.00 (25) | 0.71 (18) | 0.10 (2.5) | 0.36 (9.1) | 1.59 (40) | 1.57 (40) | 0.71 (18) | 2.72 (69) | 3.89 (99) | 26.28 (666.6) |
| Average snowfall inches (cm) | 25.2 (64) | 23.8 (60) | 24.5 (62) | 8.6 (22) | 5.4 (14) | 0.0 (0.0) | 0.0 (0.0) | 0.0 (0.0) | 0.6 (1.5) | 1.9 (4.8) | 13.9 (35) | 15.8 (40) | 119.7 (303.3) |
| [ citation needed ] | |||||||||||||
In the late 1960s, the Tramway Animal Park, now defunct, was owned and operated by Animal Behavior Laboratories of Los Angeles. It was located on 10 acres (40,000 m2) of land leased from the Mt. San Jacinto Winter Park Authority. A portion of the park included a fenced area for reindeer that were allowed to roam throughout Chino Canyon. In addition to reindeer, the park featured tame deer, cockatoos, two dolphins named Buttons and Beau, macaques, and various other species of primates (including "Suzie, the show-off chimpanzee"). The animals performed in regularly scheduled shows. [7]
Both tramway stations were designed by notable mid-century modern architects. The Valley Station, finished in 1963, was designed by Albert Frey and Robson C. Chambers. The Mountain Station, built in 1961, was designed by architect E. Stewart Williams. Additionally, the distinctive Tramway Gas Station at the foot of Tramway Road was designed by Frey and Chambers.
The tramway has been featured in many films and television programs since its inception.
In the fall of 1966, two episodes of I Spy were filmed in Palm Springs, one of which included footage of the tramway (Season 2, Episode 1), and the other included a brief discussion of the tramway (Season 2, Episode 8).
On September 16, 1967, the first episode of the TV show Mannix was broadcast with the tramway as a scene in the show. [8]
The fourth and final Matt Helm movie, The Wrecking Crew , contained an action scene filmed at the tram station that featured actors Dean Martin, Nancy Kwan, and Sharon Tate.
On October 2, 1971, an episode of Mission: Impossible (Season 6, Episode 3: "The Tram"), filmed at the tramway, first aired.
The 1972 Columbo episode "Short Fuse" featured the tramway as the location of the climactic scene at the end of the show where Columbo tricks the murderer into revealing his guilt.
The 1974 television movie Skyway to Death, shown on the ABC Movie of the Week , had its exterior scenes filmed at the tramway.
In the 2010 Life After People episode "Holiday Hell", the dry desert environment allows the tramway to survive for 120 years without maintenance; however, corrosion eventually sets in on the cable and towers, leading it to collapse into Chino Canyon.
An aerial tramway, aerial tram, sky tram, aerial cablecar, aerial cableway, telepherique, or seilbahn is a type of aerial lift which uses one or two stationary ropes for support while a third moving rope provides propulsion. With this form of lift, the grip of an aerial tramway cabin is fixed onto the propulsion rope and cannot be decoupled from it during operations. In comparison to gondola lifts, aerial tramways generally provide lower line capacities and higher wait times.
Palm Desert is a city in Riverside County, California, United States, in the Coachella Valley, about 14 miles (23 km) east of Palm Springs, 121 miles (195 km) northeast of San Diego and 122 miles (196 km) east of Los Angeles. The population was 51,163 at the 2020 census. The city has been one of the state's fastest-growing since 1980, when its population was 11,801.
A gondola lift is a means of cable transport and type of aerial lift which is supported and propelled by cables from above. It consists of a loop of steel wire rope that is strung between two stations, sometimes over intermediate supporting towers. The cable is driven by a bullwheel in a terminal, which is typically connected to an engine or electric motor. It is often considered a continuous system since it features a haul rope which continuously moves and circulates around two terminal stations. In contrast, an aerial tramway operates solely with fixed grips and simply shuttles back and forth between two end terminals.
San Jacinto Peak is a 10,834 ft (3,302 m) peak in the San Jacinto Mountains, in Riverside County, California. Lying within Mount San Jacinto State Park it is the highest both in the range and the county, and serves as the southern border of the San Gorgonio Pass. Naturalist John Muir wrote of San Jacinto Peak, "The view from San Jacinto is the most sublime spectacle to be found anywhere on this earth!"
The San Jacinto Mountains are a mountain range in Riverside County, located east of Los Angeles in southern California in the United States. The mountains are named for one of the first Black Friars, Saint Hyacinth, who is a popular patron in Latin America.
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The Santa Rosa Mountains are a short mountain range in the Peninsular Ranges system, located east of the Los Angeles Basin and northeast of the San Diego metropolitan area of southern California, in the southwestern United States.
The Sandia Peak Tramway is an aerial tramway, adjacent to Albuquerque, New Mexico. It stretches from the northeast edge of the city to Sandia Peak, on the ridge line of the Sandia Mountains and has the world's third longest single span. It is the longest aerial tram in the Americas, and was the longest in the world from 1966 until being surpassed in 2010 by the Wings of Tatev in Armenia.
California's 41st congressional district is a congressional district in Riverside County, in the U.S. state of California. The district is currently represented by Republican Ken Calvert.
Palm Springs is a desert resort city in Riverside County, California, United States, within the Colorado Desert's Coachella Valley. The city covers approximately 94 square miles (240 km2), making it the largest city in Riverside County by land area. With multiple plots in checkerboard pattern, more than 10% of the city is part of the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians reservation land and is the administrative capital of the most populated reservation in California.
Chino Canyon is a 5.5-mile-long (8.9 km) desert canyon in Riverside County, California, United States. It is one of the steepest canyons in North America, dropping from over 8,500 feet (2,600 m) at the south rim to less than 2,700 feet (820 m) on the valley floor in less than a mile. The Palm Springs Aerial Tramway was built in the canyon in 1963 to quickly transport people from the valley floor to the top of the mountain. After it was redesigned in 2000, it became the largest rotating aerial tramway in the world.
Riverside County is a county located in the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 2,418,185, making it the fourth-most populous county in California and the 10th-most populous in the United States. The name was derived from the city of Riverside, which is the county seat.
The Cactus to Clouds Trail (C2C) is a hiking route in California. It begins in Palm Springs, California, and ascends to San Jacinto Peak. With a net elevation gain of roughly 10,300 feet (3,100 m), it has one of the greatest elevation increases among day-hike routes in the United States. The elevation gain happens in only 16 miles (26 km), also making it one of the steeper trails of its length in the world. The trail runs roughly parallel to the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway, and the upper part of the trail runs very close to the Mountain station of the tramway.
Snow Creek, also known as Snow Creek Village, is a small unincorporated community in Riverside County, California. It is located roughly northwest of Palm Springs, on the western edge of the Santa Rosa and San Jacinto Mountains National Monument, and roughly southeast of the San Gorgonio Pass. It is named after nearby Snow Creek.
The Palm Springs Aerial Tramway Mountain Station, also known as Palm Springs Aerial Tramway Alpine Station, is a historic building located in Mount San Jacinto State Park near Idyllwild, California. The building is a fine example of a commercial building designed by Palm Springs architect E. Stewart Williams for the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway. It is located at an elevation of 8,516 feet (2,596 m), and its design is based on a Swiss chalet with large windows to take in views of the surrounding forests and the desert in the Coachella Valley below. The three-story structure follows a Y-plan with its main elevation to the north. The building's lower levels, which contains the tram's mechanical equipment and receives the tramway cars, are composed of reinforced concrete. The upper level is mostly composed of wood and glass. A concrete wrap-around viewing deck is found on the north and east elevations, and a wood staircase descends to the mountain hiking paths. The interior features a cocktail lounge, dining room, and fireplaces. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2016.
The Cranston Fire was a wildfire that burned in southwest Riverside County, California, in the United States. The fire was started on July 25, 2018, by Brandon M. McGlover, in an act of arson. The fire burned a total of 13,139 acres (53 km2), before it was fully contained on August 10. The Cranston Fire impacted the communities of Idyllwild, Mountain Center, and Anza as well as recreational activities in the Lake Hemet area, San Bernardino National Forest and Mount San Jacinto State Park. Over 7,000 people were evacuated due to the Cranston Fire. These communities also went without power for 11 days in 100° temperatures.