News for Mono-Maniacs
The original Seattle Monorail was constructed for the 1962 World’s Fair and remains a hugely popular tourist attraction. It was built by the pioneering Alweg company of Cologne, Germany, which became known for its elegant straddle-beam design.
While the Monorail never came into its own in the United States as a public transportation system, it took off in other parts of the world. In Japan, Hitachi has been building state-of-the-art monorail systems based on the Alweg design since the early 1960s.
Several Japanese cities boast monorail systems, as do Singapore, Chongquing (in China), and Dubai.
For more information on the classic Alweg Monorail, visit Reinhard Krischer’s comprehensive site documenting the company’s history and achievements.
For more monorail links:
The Monorail Society
Magnetic Levitation (Maglev)
Japan Times story on the 1.5 billionth passenger on the Tokyo Monorail
great site!