In the mid 1930's, the Italian colony of
Eritrea was integrated into Mussolini's ambitious
Second Roman Empire in East Africa. For the invasion and occupation of Ethiopia, heavy material had to be moved from the Red Sea port of
Massawa, to
Asmara, the principal city of Eritrea, located on the edge of a plateau at 2400 metres (7600 ft.) altitude. Although there existed a winding mountain road and a small monorail, the 50-mile trip was very difficult to negotiate and impractical for hauling a large volume of heavy industrial and war material in a short period of time. So the Italians built the Massawa-Asmara Cableway, an elevated tramway held up by a series of steel towers and cables, which successfully spanned the full distance. This has been said to be the most ambitious elevated cableway ever built in the entire world.
The cars were held to the cables by a mechanism that allowed the workers at two intermediate stations to remove and attach the cars without stopping the tramway. Each car could hold about 300 kg (660 lbs.) and could be covered to keep out the elements. When operating at full capacity, the tramway could support about 1520 cars at once. To say this another way, at capacity the tramway was able to deliver 30 metric tons of goods an hour, 24 hours a day.
For a full description, click on this link.
http://www.trainweb.org/italeritrea/tramway.htmHere, the 1930's era Italian language
La Teleferica Massaua-Asmara is photocopied and translated. This series of pages reproduces the slick brochure, complete with photos and translations to English.
http://www.trainweb.org/italeritrea/teleferica1.htm
