![]() It was built in 1959 by a man named Karl Wyler. The old custom-made tramway is also a piece of El Paso’s history. I mean all this has to be designed completely from scratch,” Mendez says. He says the state is still figuring out what to do. And that’s out of the park’s current budget. Park Superintendent Mendez says replacing it would be a multi-million dollar project. The state made the abrupt decision to close the nearly 60-year-old tramway last month after an engineering report found it has been operating past its life expectancy. “Drove all this way to find out it was closed,” he says. So basically you’re seeing three different cities, three different states, two different countries.”īut folks like Jacob Lyon and his family from nearby Monahans are still showing up, only to find a sign on the gate that reads “closed for maintenance.” “You can see Sutherland Park, New Mexico. “You can see El Paso, Ciudad Juarez,” Mendez says. The tramway ends at an observation deck on Ranger Peak.įranklin Mountain State Park Superintendent Cesar Mendez is one of just a few park employees left at the tramway’s base, since it was suddenly shut down in mid-September. The mustard-colored gondolas of the Wyler Aerial Tramway sway in the wind on the cable that leads them to the top of the mountain.Just weeks ago, they took people on a five-minute ride over cacti, rock formations and a giant canyon. And now the tramway’s future dangles in limbo. Then last month, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department closed the tramway indefinitely, after engineers discovered it needs costly upgrades and repairs. The tramway was originally built for a private business, but opened to the public nearly 20 years ago, becoming a popular attraction for thousands of visitors from around the world. It has glided on 2,400 feet of thick cable, taking people to the top of the Franklin Mountains. For nearly six decades, the Wyler Aerial Tramway in El Paso has been the only tramway in Texas.
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