Imagine soaring above the New York City skyline in an aerial cable car every day to get to school.
That’s how I spent my childhood on Roosevelt Island
Roosevelt Island is a two-mile-long, 800-foot wide sliver of land in the East River — sandwiched between Manhattan from Queens.
The Tram is an aerial cable car that connects Roosevelt Island with the east side of Manhattan (59th Street and Second Avenue, to be exact).
Traveling 250 feet above the East River and alongside the Queensboro Bridge, a ride on the Tram is one of New York City’s most unique activities
When it opened in 1976, the Tram was the only form of public transportation on or off Roosevelt Island.
It was meant to be a temporary solution, while the MTA constructed a new subway station.
However, when the Q line arrived in 1989, ridership remained steady and the tram stayed open.
Life with the Tram was not without its difficulties.
It didn’t run all night, and it would be shut down at any sign of lightning or strong winds.
Once, a cabin was once hit by a construction crane working on the Queensboro Bridge.
Often, the gondolas would get stuck mid-trip.
Perhaps the most famous of these incidents occurred in 2006 when the entire Tram system lost all power while the cabins were dangling over the East River and 59th Street, respectively.
Backup power sources failed and rescue workers had to manually crank a rescue cage up the cables to individually evacuate passengers.
At one point, riders had to cross over a gap dangling 250 feet above the river/city.
This incident would eventually be the lynchpin in a complete overhaul of the Tram … and the replacement of the aging gondola cabins.
On March 1, 2010, the classic cabins were retired to their current resting place: gloomily getting dirtier under the Island’s parking garage.
That’s where they remain today.
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