48hrs to RIDE America's IMPRESSIVE Aerial Trams

wait a minute this isn't an aerial tram but that is me I'm Mike and I've given myself 48 hours to ride the three most significant aerial trams in the country that's three trams in three cities in just 48 hours can it be done should it be done now as a recap this is episode three of five of this very casual Series where we ride America's most interesting Transit including the ski train in Colorado and last week's episode where we rode the world's last manually operated cable cars and then stumbled into Mardi Gras we were there to ride the world's oldest streetcar which somehow brings us here welcome to the Palm Springs aerial Tramway at an elevation of 2643 feet at the base of the Coachella Valley and it's time for us to board the not very creatively named Palm Springs Aerial Tram and there it is able to hold up to 80 passengers at a time but luckily for us this morning well we have significantly fewer Riders and as we pull out of the station I'm kind of shocked to discover that it's not in fact the whole tram that rotates but just the floor inside the trail it's rotating things cool it rotates slowly and will make two full revolutions by the time we reach the top but it does kind of ensure that all of us passengers get an equal view of the Chino Canyon below us and the Desert Valley floor as we're going to climb almost 5 900 feet in the next 12 and a half minutes and now that I'm over the shock of the moving floor I'm able to start enjoying the view and not bad I love a good Desert Valley View but what I'm curious about is where are we headed now the original tram cars are on display down below and I can tell you that these large rotating cars that were added in 2000 are a significant Improvement and as we pass over the towers this track rope counterweight which weighs 120 tons helps to keep tension on the track cables so we don't bounce as much so why exactly are we here riding this well I like to think that Transit is the art of connecting people with where they need to go and in this case aerial trams are a unique way of getting people up a very steep slope so what I'm most curious about is what's at the top where is this tram taking us that was fun that was nice well it turns out it's the San Jacinto State Park I've never seen a zigzag concrete path before in a state park which makes this reasonably wheelchair accessible actually oh I did not make it very far from the trail before I fell look at trees though this is really amazing between these two trees they very well might be the same tree I have no clue but I can say I'm enjoying it I'm not often impressed by trees but come on these are some impressive trees now there's supposedly a trail out here somewhere but I can't seem to find it under the snow so we'll just go to this Viewpoint and then turn back you know before we get lost I Now understand why they built a tram up to here what a stunning State Park down below us is the city of Palm Springs California not a bad view I say this a lot you may hear me say it throughout the series I've only come here for the tram but I get to experience this this is like a bonus for me I know most people it's kind of the other way around you'd come for the park and you get the tram but I don't know I think traveling for interesting things makes for interesting travel I've never said that before that sounds good I should I should use that now as I ride the tram back to the bottom let me introduce you to the sponsor of this portion of the video surfsharkvpn you see when I'm using the internet and shared public Wi-Fi locations like in a train station an airport or a cafe a VPN ensures that all of the information from my laptop to the internet is encrypted which means that hackers aren't able to see my passwords or my activities on the Internet it's also very helpful when I'm traveling for example if I want to watch some of my shows well depending on the country I'm in sometimes they're not available but I can use surf shark VPN to choose from over 90 different countries of their over 3 000 servers to put my computer virtually into another country which that means I get to watch what I want and the great thing is they work on all devices so if you want to give surf shark VPN a try use the link in the description down below and use discount code Downey for 83 off and they'll give you three months free so thank you sir shark VPN now let's get back to the video for Mike that's it we're off to the airport so I'm already checked in I only have this backpack for this whole trip it's busy in here and as soon as you come out of security oh my goodness this is the airport I imagine things feel nicer and more interesting in Palm Springs just because of the Heat and palm trees this is an airport it's just an outdoor airport there are some parts that are covered but buy tent tops to give shade more than anything else officially we need more airports like this I wish we could spend more time seeing Palm Springs but there's no time flight one I think it's friendly there thank you [Music] thank you boys see this I was gonna say this feels like a normal airport it really all of a sudden makes you appreciate what they have at Palm Springs I think the reason I wanted to keep this video a little bit more casual than my other ones is to show this side of things normally you only get to see the cool exciting thing and this I'm giving a little of the Insight which is really just a lot of travel which is generally long and boring that's what I got to do so you're coming along with me this time and with that uplifting pep talk we're on to our final flight to Albuquerque I've never been to New Mexico before and a part of me sitting here now is wondering if all of this is worth it just to go ride another aerial aren't they all kind of the same hotel that's me or I'm Mike all right first time here that's a very good question I've come to ride your Aerial Tram look good luck all right thanks and with that advice we're headed to the hotel pleasure to meet you too yeah yeah well make sure to make sure you put the Uber Uber the guy the Uber driver is a good guy you heard it right here good night great people already and we are going straight to sleep which brings us to what Albuquerque New Mexico is most known for in the world going hot air ballooning I figured the Aerial Tram doesn't open until 9am so why not enjoy the sunrise the new Mexican way this is not an aerial Tramway but it's it's a hotter balloon let's go last but not least and that's it we're on our own now wow good morning Albuquerque as soon as you get up it's calm and so smooth now this is probably where we're gonna put on some gentle music and let me deliver some sort of powerful and sentimental speech you might think it's nerdy to be into trams or whatever but if I get to travel if it gets you to travel and gets out here should affect a different time to do that I never thought I'd feel comfortable standing in a wicker basket 2 000 feet above the Earth but now that we're here it's awfully peaceful look at this I figured it except for that constant blasting but what an experience if you haven't tried hot air ballooning I absolutely recommend it I think after this we're headed to the top of that mountain out there this is spectacular well floating is one thing Landing is another so the trucks to pick us up are parked just down there in the gravel pit and uh we're gonna see if we can make it there all right starting to come down hi puppy time to get into our Landing positions are you coming to catch us [Music] [Music] make a stop yeah that was great well let's say we go ride an aerial tram to the top of a mountain what do you think no this is the Sandia Peak aerial Tramway it is the longest aerial Tramway in America it's also the highest elevation Tramway so let's give it a spin now in doing research for this video I learned that this tram type is known as a double reversible jig back aerial Tramway which is just a fun way of saying that when one is ascending the other is descending now we're not ascending quite as far as the Palm Springs tram as we're only ascending another 3 800 feet or so but we will end up at a higher elevation oh see this second tower here as we cross it right now it means we have just entered the third longest clear Tramway Span in the world that's a length of 7720 feet without a tower what a beautiful ride thank you I like that you just you step out just outside I mean I don't know what I expected sometimes it's a big building this is just a little red wooden platform we were told that at the top here you have a view of 11 000 square miles of view which equates to 10 percent of the state of New Mexico so I have to ask it why was this tram Built Well it was to bring skiers up to the ski slope unfortunately it doesn't get enough snow these days to open for skiers there are four chair lifts up here they're not running this season are you going to hike to the bottom no no no I'm just going out to the cabin oh good that's a great wall all right on enjoy but as you can see there are a lot of cross-country ski trails Snowshoe Trails hiking trails well if you've liked these last two trams we've ridden you are going to love the next one because we're gonna go ride the granddaddy of aerial trams really we're headed to New York City hey [Music] report please [Music] another day another flight traveling this much well something was bound to go wrong so I'm gonna be honest coming out of a Dunkin Donuts on the side of the highway at the moment I tried to do all of this without renting a car but my connecting flight to New York was canceled until tomorrow morning and we need to get there tonight so I've stopped loading up on coffee we rented a car and we're now going to drive through the snow which I assume is why it was canceled anyway the trip continues six hours here we go a snowstorm isn't going to derail us from riding our third aerial tram in 48 hours I mean it's the most important one we have to make it bad weather happens sometimes you just have to roll with the punches and rent a car but don't worry I'm not going to make you watch me drive for six hours now I think they were predicting more snow from the storm than we actually got you got them snow plows are out and there's a lot of rain but I guess for the sake of safety I'm glad they made the decision they did luckily for us just never turned into snow still was a nasty storm to drive through for six hours though and as we get to midnight it is getting a little bit colder oh yeah it's a full-on snowstorm now it's uh 1am I'm very much looking forward to getting to the not just because I'm tired but because of the hotel all right almost there we made it no denser scratches 1960s TWA Hotel [Laughter] entrance what an entrance tonight we're staying at the TWA Hotel originally used as the Transworld Airlines check-in Center in 1962 it is now a restored and reimagined first class Hotel how amazing is this wow iconic [Music] it's beautiful it's bright it's classy but I think the word I'm looking for is it's classic wow wow oh even the soap and the soap dish it's so clean even even the garbage can has got red inside TWA shampoo ah that was an exhausting day and we have a jam-packed one tomorrow so I'm off to Dreamland I can't wait let's just get to New York City now and so we're gonna ride the granddaddy of the mall the Roosevelt Island Tramway traffic might be one of the reasons for the Tramway but water is the main reason New York City I feel like I'm in a Casey neistat vlog all right let's go ride it looks good all right you can tell I'm in a good mood I'm running upstairs New York City just gives you that energy and it looks like we made it 47 or so hours for three aerial trams was it worth it I'll leave that up to you in the comments but here we go this is huge they say it's the most modern aerial Tramway since it started in 1976 it has carried over 26 million passengers which probably makes it the busiest aerial tram in America as well and it was the only aerial commuter tram in the U.S up until 2006. like I said earlier aerial trams are a unique way to get people to where they need to go do I enjoy the fact that it's more fun and has better views than a bus absolutely I mean these aerial trams don't get any Glory they just do their job taking people back and forth so I hope this little ride-along video is giving you a new appreciation for the largest rotating aerial tram in the world the longest and highest aerial tram in America and of course right here the oldest commuter aerial tram in America but this trip isn't over you see I still have more to show you so coming up next week we'll be riding in a couple of funiculars and in two weeks we'll be riding what was supposed to be the future of Transit everything from unique elevators to pod Transit and of course the Monterey so make sure to subscribe because well I'd love to have you come along thanks for watching I'm Mike and I don't know where I'm going next but I know I want you there with me I'll see you next week right here on Downey live

Channel: DownieLive

Views: 175,093

Keywords: downielive, downie live, aerial trams, aerial tram, tram, gondola, island tram, rotating tram, oldest tram, america's aerial tram, aerial tram america, aerial tram usa, usa tram, america tram, Palm Springs aerial tram, Palm Springs rotating tram, Albuquerque New Mexico, Albuquerque aerial tram, Sandia peak tram, Sandia peak aerial tram, Sandia peak, NYC tram, NYC aerial tram, New York island, Roosevelt island tram, roosevelt island tramway, roosevelt aerial tram

Id: S7H3mD54Fng

Length: 16min 38sec (998 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 25 2023