Rensselaer Republican, Volume 26, Number 34, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 April 1894 — AN AERIAL CABLE ROAD. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

AN AERIAL CABLE ROAD.

Can Climb the Tight Rope Across the Tenntww River. New York Sun. At Knoxville, Tenn., there has been in operation for some time past -aa serial railway whose many novel features have made it not only an object of interest, but also a source of pleasure to all the folks in the adjacent country. It is used for the transportation of passengers across the Tennessee river, and was built by the Unaka Park Company to afford access from Knoxville to a popular pleasure resort. The inventor of the railway calls it abridge, but it is a bridge only in the sense that it spans the river. A ride upon it presents many features which it might be difficult to meet with except on a balloon voyage. From the starting point, which is not far from the business center of the city, the railway runs to the bluffs on the opposite side of the river, nearly a quarter of a mile away. Two 1$ inch wire cables are suspended from one point to the

jother, and it is upon these that the icar runs, being hung to them by !running__gear. The bluffs are 850 'feet high and the grade of the cable !is about 33 percent. The cables are 1,060 feet span and are anchored at the lower, or Knoxville side, by bolting to oak timbers twelve by twelve inches. These timbers are fourteen feet long, behind plank bulkheads. The connecting bars are twelve feet long and H inches thick, and the staples to which the cables are fastened have twenty-four inches of threads to take up the slack. The anchor at the bluff end on the opposite side of the river consists of iron plates fixed in the rock. The supporting cables each have a breaking strain of sixty tons. The cable conveying the motive power is half inch in diameter, and is permanently fastened to the car. The power is furnished by two twen-ty-horse power engines at the lower lend. The car, empty, weighs 1,200 pounds. It has a fourteen-foot body and three-foot platforms, and is six and a half feet high. Automatic brakes are provided, which are devised to stop the car in case the propelling cable should break or slip on the drum. The seating capacity is sixteen passengers, although more are frequently carried. The up-trip

on the railway takes about three and a half minutes. The descent is made by gravity, in about half a minute. The fare is five cents. Longstreet Hights, as the bluffs are called, afford a fine view of the surrounding country. Back of the bluffs there is a natural park, containing among other curious a “blowing cave.” It is a resort much in vogue, and the railway has been well patronized by pleasure seekers since its building. An accident occurred on the serial railway on February 18, in which one person was killed and several were injured. On the afternoon of that day the car carried many passengers, and about 4 o’clock started on its last trip. Seven persons were in the car besides the brakeman. When the car was within one hundred feet of the bluff on the ascent the drawing cable broke between the car and power-house, and the car started back down the incline at a terrific speed. Near the cfenter of the river, and about two hundred feet above it, its progress was checked by the cable coiling around the car. The thin sides of the car were crushed .like cardboard, and the cable wound Itself around the people within. The car was stopped and for two hours it and its occupants hung over the river. A rope was finally slid down the supporting cables from the bluff. Then a steamor anchored directly beneath the suspended car, and those of the passengers who were not too badly injured slid down the rope to the steamer’s deck. A young woman was among them. Afterward the car was hauled up to the bluff and a new cable was laid on.

THE CAR.

THE RAILWAY.