cable car

Method of transporting passengers up steep slopes by cable. In the cable railway, passenger cars are hauled along rails by a cable wound by a powerful winch. A pair of cars usually operates together on the funicular principle, one going up as the other goes down. The other main type is the aerial cable car, where the passenger car is suspended from a trolley that runs along an aerial cableway.

A cable-car system has operated in San Francisco since 1873. The streetcars travel along rails and are hauled by moving cables under the ground.