Stunning Doesn’t Even Start To Convey The Majesty Of This Century’s Roosevelt Island Tram

Since Roosevelt Island was such a smashing success:

Imagine this: Traveling among Governors Island, lower Manhattan and Brooklyn in an apple-shaped gondola that offered spectacular 360-degree views of the city and New York Harbor.
The sky tramway — akin to those used at ski resorts — could be part of a dynamic new plan to redevelop Governors Island, Mayor Bloomberg said yesterday.

City and state officials made a public appeal for visionary proposals to preserve and redevelop the 172-acre island, located a half-mile from Battery Park in the harbor. The proposals are due May 10.

The tramway, designed by renowned architect Santiago Calatrava, is a preliminary idea, not yet endorsed by the city or the state, officials said yesterday. Still, Bloomberg said the word “stunning” doesn’t “even start to convey” the majesty of Calatrava’s concept.

“I just think this is going to be unbelievable,” he declared.

Calatrava’s design calls for the gondola cars to be suspended from cables. The cars would be round with flip-up seats for eight to 12 passengers, plus space for a wheelchair. They would be air-conditioned in the summer and heated in the winter.

There would be three stations: one at Battery Park in Manhattan between the Staten Island ferry terminal and the Coast Guard building; one in Brooklyn where Atlantic Ave. ends between Piers 6 and 7, and one at the tip of Governors Island.

Passengers would be able to travel between Brooklyn and Manhattan as well as to Governors Island.