Sky Safari Cable Cart, Taronga Zoo, Sydney, Australia

 

The Sky Safari is a special feature of the Taronga Zoo, which is

located on the waterfront on Sydney Harbour.

This form of transportation allows visitors to get an aerial view of the

zoo. A round trip ride on this cable car is included in the zoo’s general admissions ticket.

 

Sky Safari travels from the lower entrance of Taronga Zoo

near the Ferry wharf to the top entrance of the zoo’s plaza.

With good weather (meaning winds are not too strong), the

Sky Safari operates from 9:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

Access is restricted during unfavorable winds and peak seasons.

 

The Sky Safari in Taronga Zoo is operated by Skyrail-ITM,

an Australian company in Cairns, Queensland.

They also provided the cable car service for the Skyrail Rainforest Cableway in Cairns.

 

 Sky Safari Cable Cart, Taronga Zoo, Sydney, AU

 

Cable cars in History:

  • January 17, 1871 – Andrew Smith Hallidie, a native of San Francisco in the United States, patented the very first cable car. He invented this
    device after witnessing five horses dragged to their death after slipping off steep and wet cobblestones while trying to drag a streetcar.With a purpose to eliminate the need for horses to transport passengers to and from San Francisco’s notoriously steep streets, Hallidie, with financial backing, started work on the steam powered cable car. With the aid of steel ropes, Hallidie invented a mechanism that would pull cars with a seemingly endless cable

  • August 1, 1873 – The very first cable car ride was taken at 5:00 a.m. by a handful of nervous men with the mechanism controlled by Hallidie himself. They arrived down safely. After this historical event, cable cars began to define San Franciscan life in the city

  • April 10, 1878 – The California Street Cable Railroad Company was established.

  • February 1880 – The tail end of the 19th century saw the opening of two more cable car companies: Geary Street and Park and Ocean Railroad.

  • 1881 – Inspired by the reception of the United States to cable car technology, Dunedin, New Zealand opens its own cable car company.

  • January 1882 – To the delight of its residents, Chicago opens its own local cable car system. So does the Union Street Line.

  • April 18, 1906 – The Great Earthquake that San Francisco damaged its cable cars and paved the way for street car service.

  • 1920s – With the success of the cable car system in San Francisco, most of the United States had started to opt for electrically powered cars as opposed to horse-drawn ones.