Tweet
Wuppertal Schwebebahn: Germany’s Hanging Train
Wuppertal Schwebebahn or Wuppertal Floating Tram is a suspension monorail in Wuppertal, Germany. First opened in 1901, the Wuppertal Schwebebahn is one of the oldest monorail still in operation today. What is also interesting is that the Schwebebahn was never copied as a model for ‘public transit’ anywhere else in the world. This is the world’s first and the only suspended monorail in the world.
At the end of the 19th century, Wuppertal was at its peak of industrialization. The population had reached 400,000 individuals and growing. Even before industrialization set in, Wuppertal was a prosperous town, larger than Cologne, and fully built. The roads there were meant for carriages and pedestrians, and there was no place for laying tracks for tram without creating serious blockages. Underground subway construction was also ruled out as the area was very rocky and contained a lot of groundwater. The German engineers decided that taking the aerial route was the only way.
Amusing planet