Mississippi Aerial River Transit

The Mississippi Aerial River Transit, briefly called MART was a gondola, which crossed the Mississippi River in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. It was opened in April 1984 as part of the 1984 Louisiana World Exposition and ran between the World's Fair in the Warehouse District and Algiers on the West Bank. She was the second cable-car and the first gondola in the U.S., which has been used in public transport.

The gondola had a length of 701 m and 53 cabins. The flow rate was 2000 persons per hour. At each shore stood a 109 m high, 87 m deep, founded on steel piles cableway support to ensure a sufficient height above the waterway. It was the highest, built by a gondola lift cable car supports the world.

The MART was initiated by the private Mississippi Aerial River Transit Perez Inc., short MART- Perez, funded by the French Banque de l' union européenne with a loan over $ 8 million and built by Poma. While the less successful World's Fair of MART had only 1.7 million passengers, half as much as originally planned. After the exhibition, it was used in public transport, but set in April 1985 after only one year of operation due to low passenger numbers. MART -Perez was sentenced in 1986 due to payment default, but could not make payments. In 1989, the gondola for $ 1.6 million was sold to a businessman who wanted to build in Corpus Christi, Texas, but in 1990 failed because of legal disputes. After the United States Coast Guard had demanded the removal of the gondola, they should still not be used, it was removed to February 1994.

Footnotes

• Aerial tramway in America