Look at this staircase in the Vatican Museum.

Presumably thinking you’re literally the voice of god on earth gives you some design confidence.

Two: the Potemkin Stairs, the formal entrance into Odessa from the sea.

The staircase is not quite as long as it looks because it’s narrower at the top (40 feet wide, vs. 70 at the bottom).

Three: this cliffside elevator in Switzerland. It starts out just inside the face of the mountain –

– and sticks out into the open air two thousand feet above –

Four: the Oregon City Municipal Elevator, which connects two neighborhoods. (It’s more amusing than cool, but come on: municipal elevator.)

This type of thing is more common in asia, where population density is higher and more people take mass transit — and especially in Hong Kong, which is a city of skyscrapers built into steep hillsides. Walking along a Hong Kong street, it’s not uncommon to be at eye level with the 10th or 15th floor of an adjacent officeblock.

Five: Hong Kong’s Central-Mid-Levels escalators — it’s half a mile top-to-bottom, the longest escalator system in the world. This view is looking upward:

It transports about 55 thousand people a day.

Compare:

That’s in New Jersey, of course.

Six: The Falkirk Wheel, which lifts and lowers boats between two uneven sections of a scottish canal.

Okay, vote.

Bonus: Special operating modes for Elevators.

For example, Anti-Crime Protection mode stops every car at a pre-defined floor.

In sabbath mode (occasionally found in areas with large jewish populations), an elevator will stop automatically at every floor, allowing people to step on and off without having to press any buttons. (This prevents violation of the Sabbath prohibition against operating electrical devices when sabbath is in effect for those who observe this ritual.)

Posted Wed, 03 Sep 2008 04:37:27 and filed under wikisnips. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.