Knoxify

Skiers trav­el­ing up to Ober Gatlin­burg via the resort’s aer­ial tramway prob­a­bly never imag­ine that it was Knoxville, and not a ski resort, that was home to the very first ver­sion of that mode of trans­porta­tion in the sky.

Yet in 1894, decades before Ober Gatlin­burg was even a thought, the world’s first aer­ial cable car fer­ried Knoxvil­lians not just across, but high above the Ten­nessee River.

From an area then known as Longstreet Heights (now Regal Soc­cer Sta­dium on UT Cam­pus) pas­sen­gers trav­eled up to a height of 350 feet over the river to the area that is now the site of the Chero­kee Bluff condos.

The car itself weighed 1200 lbs., car­ry­ing up to 16 peo­ple on two 1 3/8 inch cables, along a dis­tance of 1,060 ft. Two 20 horse­power engines pow­ered the car up to the top of the bluff, a ride that lasted about three and a half min­utes. The way down took only 30 sec­onds with grav­ity pro­vid­ing all the force needed.

Click to read the orig­i­nal Sci­en­tific Amer­i­can article

But only months after its com­ple­tion, a tragic acci­dent sealed the fate of Knoxville’s aer­ial tram. On Sun­day, Feb­ru­ary 18, 1894, the aer­ial cable snapped dur­ing a rou­tine trip, caus­ing the car to break in two sec­tions in mid-air, killing one per­son and injur­ing two oth­ers when one sec­tion fell into the river.

An inves­ti­ga­tion fol­low­ing the acci­dent uncov­ered some indi­ca­tion of delib­er­ate tam­per­ing with the cable, but there was insuf­fi­cient evi­dence to bring charges against any­one in par­tic­u­lar. A sub­se­quent law­suit held the oper­a­tors guilty of neg­li­gence, and the short life of this mar­velous con­ve­nience and bril­liant inno­va­tion was brought to a close.

I don’t know about you, but I’ll never think about going up to Ober Gatlin­burg — or even just up to Chero­kee Bluff — the same way again.

Photo by: Brent and MariLynn

The Knox­ford Files shed light on Knoxville his­tory that is filled with all kinds of awe­some­ness. Want more of Knoxford’s Chuck Allen? Fol­low him or friend him.