An aerial tramway (U.S. English), cable car (British English), ropeway (Japanese) or aerial tram is a type of aerial lift which uses one or two stationary ropes for support while a third moving rope provides propulsion. With this form of lift, the grip of an aerial tramway cabin is fixed onto the propulsion rope and cannot be decoupled from it during operations.
The first aerial tram was built in 1644 by Adam Wiebe[citation needed]. It was used to move soil to build defences. Other mining systems were developed in the 1860s by Hodgson, and Andrew Smith Hallidie. Hallidie went on to perfect a line of mining and people tramways after 1867 in California and Nevada. Here you will see the world’s most impressive (and most scary I might add) “cableways”.
