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Trapped on the Tram

2004_03_tram.jpg

Last week Roosevelt Island, pop. 10,000, was in the news over the makings of a political scandal and we joked that no good post about Roosevelt Island was worth its length in bits without a mention of the ever awesome Tram. And now Roosevelt Island is back in the news, and you can guess from the title of this post what its about.

Yesterday around 4:10 p.m. the main generator for the Tram to and from Roosevelt Island cut out, according to authorities, and left both the east and west-bound Trams floating in mid-air. More than 80 people, including a pregnant woman, were stuck in the two cars for over 90 minutes as police and fire officials tried to figure out how to get people out (or get the Trams restarted). In the end they realized that the only person who knew how to get the backup generator going, supervisor Armando Cordova, was stuck in traffic in Westchester. So a NYPD Aviation Unit Helicopter flew out, picked up Cordova and brought him back to Manhattan. Once there he flipped a switch and the trams resumed operation at 5:48 p.m.

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Comments [rss]

  • craig

    roosevelt island....craziest part of nyc....the tram, the history, the location, the press, it's just crazy.

  • shudder. I went out to Roosevelt Island one day just to check out apartments and found the whole tram thing very disconcerting. It was a windy day, but still. I would have LOST it on the tram. I'm staying on Manhattan Island, thank you very much.

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