How about the one that takes you up the mountain to the castle in Salzburg, Austria!

doc: Salzburg is a great elevator city. The funicular up the mountain to the Hohensalzburg fortress that you recall is similar to the "inclines" in Pittsburgh and Angels Flight in L.A. They also have the "Moenchsberg Aufzug" which is an old elevator that ascends through a mountain to take you to the Cafe Winkler overlooking the city. At the top of that elevator, you can observe (and hear!) the motors that operate those lifts. One of the few elevator machine rooms that are open to public display.

Does anybody know what happened to the former Holiday Inn in Augsburg, Germany? It was a 30 story cylindrical tower that was a combination hotel-apartment building which was a showcase for a local elevator company. There were brochures in the rooms boasting about the various models of elevators used throughout the building. It's no longer a Holiday Inn...what is it now?

Thanks for the Smith Building name, Alexb, I hate it when I can't remember a name...

There is the funicular in Palm Springs, California that is quite spectacular, has anyone taken it? In the hot weather you can take it from Palm Springs and end up in snowdrifts in just a few minutes.

Definitely, a trip to the Hollywood Tower Hotel is in my future. Maybe there should be an ElevatorTalk gathering? Thanks, Premex.

Twiz wanted to chime in with his favorite elevators, or uh sublevators (you can only ride them downward), as well ... the one in the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland and the one that takes you into Caesar's Magical Empire at Caesar's in Las Vegas. Also the only water elevator I know of, which is at the Grand Wailea on Maui.

There's a funicular in Bergen, Norway as well. Isn't there only a tram, not a funicular, in Palm Springs?

[This message has been edited by letiole (edited 12-02-2000).]

My family has a huge debate on whether the Haunted Mansion elevator moves down or if the wall moves up. I know that at Disneyland in CA it is a real elevator that moves down (as you must cross the perimeter railroad tracks underground) but I don't know about Walt Disney World in Florida.

Yes, there is a tram here, the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway. They recently began operating two new tram cars called Rotaires. During the 12-minute ride, which travels between approximately 2,500ft and 8,750ft, the cars rotate twice so that all passengers get to experience the full spectrum of spectacular views of both the various mountain ranges as well as the Coachella Valley cities below. The cars travel through five ecological zones between the Valley and Mountain stations. Have yet to take the new cars, but have heard they are great. Also, the floor of the 80-passenger cars slopes up from the outside to the center, so that those in the middle of the car can typically see over the heads of those around them.

I just found a web page that publishes magazines (Elevator World) about elevators and the latest technology of them. The site is http://www.elevator-world.com
It also has a virtual elevator museum.
This page: http://www.eea-eeig.org/Pages/base.html
has links to many elevator-releated web sites and manufactures.

P.S.: I'm actualy twiz, but I lost my password and had to reregister as T-wiz.

For the modernist, try the one at the Chez Girard on Bishopsgate in London. Tiny stainless steel affair. Great for courting couples as it is barely big enough for two slimmer persons who do not want to be too familiar with each other.

My vote is for the Hotel del Coronado in the San Diego area. Their elevator in the lobby reminds me of the reruns of Petticoat Junction. The elevator is the Shady Rest Hotel...Very old and very cool.

The best thing about the Hotel del's old antique elevator is that it still works!!!

Great topic by the way!

BizJet, Walt Disney World's Haunted Mansion contains a upwardly stretching room that simulates the fake stretching room that attempts to mask a real elevator at the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland in California. If that makes any sense.

The purpose of Disneyland's stretching room, as you said, is to get guests into the Show Building outside the park's "berm" and to do that, the guests must be taken down underground to pass beneath the train tracks that encircle the park.

The reason Walt Disney World's does not use an elevator is that all show elements have to be at "ground level" (which is actually elevated in the case of the Florida's Magic Kingdom) due to Florida's low water table.

Dig down just a few feet and you hit water and lots of it!

When excavating to create the huge man-made Seven Seas Lagoon in front of Florida's Magic Kingdom, the "fill" was used to build-up the elevation of the Park. The underground tunnels (or Utilidors as they are called) that run beneath the Magic Kingdom that you might have heard about, are actully at ground level, with the entire Park built above them on the "second floor" as it were!

Hope that didn't just ruin the Magic for anyone!


[This message has been edited by PremEx (edited 12-03-2000).]

Ok, PremEx, I know you've done some work with Disney (or do you work for them yourselves...), so help me out here.

Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom is really on the "second floor". Below the public "outside" level is a unique system of "utilidors" (utility corridors) that run throughout the entire park. So "Cast Members" (employees) can go to their designated part of the park in coustume without walking through the public areas. Same with the characters. They appear through "secret doors" in shops, etc. Thus the effect of the coustumed employees and characters is not lost. This is not available at Disneyland.

So, PremEx, you don't climb any stairs when you enter the Kingdom, so when you arrive via Monorail or Ferry (from the T-T-C or Magic Kingdom Resorts) are you already on the second level? Obviously the utilidors can't be underground, as then they would be underwater.

And, here's an interesting story (don't read if you don't want to know a Disney secret!). If you visited the Living Seas at Epcot, you know that you take an elevator down to the visitor's level. Supposedly you decend 15 stories or something in like 25 seconds. A woman sued the Walt Disney Company claiming that the pressure in her ears from the rapid ascent/decent caused intollerable pain. Disney lawyers provided the lady's lawyers with the plans of the attraction that clearly show that the elevator is a fake, and doesn't go anywhere, except to shake and rattle for a minute. The suit was dropped.

Bizjet questions: Yes. Next time you are there, go out on the lake and look back at the Magic Kingdom. You will notice the elevation then. The incline is so gradual and cleverly hidden using landscaping and perspective tricks, that you can't really notice it when you arrive on land.

Some parts of the Utilidor (such as those that pass under The Rivers Of America) dip down below the water table. In those areas there are sump pumps running constantly in chambers below to keep the water from entering the tunnels.

And thanks for mentioning the "Hydrolators" at The Living Seas! I guess it's a great effect when someone sues over what they just think has occured!

Also, did you know that you don't just freefall the 13 stories in the Tower of Terror elevators? You are actually "falling" much faster than a freefall. That is because the elevators are literally "sucked" down the shaft by huge air compressors that create a vacuum in the chamber as it begins it's decent. That compressed air is charged and discharged in order to make the elevator run up and down with incredible speed, accuracy and safety, which could never be accomplished with the conventional mechanics other "free-fall" rides employ.

[This message has been edited by PremEx (edited 12-04-2000).]

If those Pasternosters are the small platforms that you hop on and off of as they move up and down, then yes I've been on one a couple of years ago in Munich at the Siemens building and I think one in Antwerp at the Alcatel building. They would be a lawsuit waiting to happen in the U.S.

I agree with Premex that the Hollywood Tower ride is the scariest elevator there is.

I used to live in the Hancock building in Chicago and had to ride one of the high-speed elevators everyday to get to my 50th floor apartment. It took about a month to get used to the instant pressure difference and keep my ears from popping.