Unraveling the politics behind our rides
In the Middle Ages, hand-driven hoists were sometimes the only way to gain entry to secretive and out of the way monasteries. This elevator design is by the German engineer Konrad Kyeser (1405), and copied by an unknown illustrator.
The panoramic Elevador del Monte de San Pedro provides a futuristic ride up San Pedro Mountain from the Paseo Maritimo in the bay and peninsula of La Coruña.
Fun fact: an elevator was incorporated into one of the legs of the Eiffel Tower to take visitors, pictured here in 1895, to the first floor of the structure.
The first electric elevator was built by Werner von Siemens for the Industrial Exposition at Mannhein in Germany in 1880.
The elevator shaft inside the Washington Monument, pictured in 1922. By the early 20th century, elevators were proving a very popular means of allowing visitors special access to some of the world's most impressive monuments.
Gaining access to coal faces deep in the ground was greatly facilitated by the advent of the mine-shaft elevator, such as the one pictured in 1900. Early designs were, however, precarious at best.
Elisha Otis demonstrates his first elevator at the New York Crystal Palace exhibition building in New York City in 1853.
American industrialist Elisha Otis designed the first hoisting device that proved safe enough to carry people. He founded the Otis Elevator Company in 1853, which still bears his name today.
Crude elevators were occasionally used surreptitiously, as illustrated in this 1420 depiction of the lady of the castle lowering her lover to safety after a secret liaison.
American naval officer and inventor Frank J. Sprague contributed to the development of elevators by creating the double elevator shaft, which permits running of two elevators.
Upscale hotels and noted buildings incorporated elevators of elaborate and expensive design for the exclusive use of their guests and clients. This is the elevator in the State Historical Society of Wisconsin in Madison, Wisconsin, photographed shortly after the completion of the premises in 1900.
Passengers using London's underground railway network benefitted from the appearance of lifts in the 1880s. Subway networks around the world soon adopted similar passenger elevator services.
Stockholm's Katarina Elevator, a passenger elevator in the Swedish capital that connects Slussen (the sluice/lock area) to the lofty neighborhood of Södermalm, photographed around 1920. The elevator is still standing, but is currently closed.
The elevator found favor with the automobile too. Pictured is an elevator parking lot in an unidentified American city during the 1920s. Cars were hoisted up on individual platforms to save space.
The elevator installation in the Arc de Triomphe seen in 1929 designed to whisk tourists to the top of the monumental Paris landmark.
The neo-gothic Elevador de Santa Justa (Santa Justa Lift) in Lisbon, Portugal dates back to 1899. It was designed by Raoul Mesnier du Ponsard, who was a student of Gustave Eiffel.
The elevator serving visitors to Stuttgart's Mercedes-Benz Museum are designed as sleek metallic pods.
The extraordinary AquaDom aquarium in Berlin, Germany is a 25-m (82-ft) tall cylindrical acrylic glass aquarium with a built-in transparent elevator that viewers ride through. The AquaDom is located in the Hotel Radisson SAS in the heart of Berlin's Mitte district.
This glass double-deck elevator built onto the side of a huge cliff in the Wulingyuan area of Zhangjiajie in China is 326-m (1,069 ft) in height and can carry up to 50 people at a time.
The Lloyd's building in London is sometimes called the Inside-Out Building because its so-called "service core," where the elevators, air ducts, and water pipes are kept, are mostly set on exterior facades.
Don't look down! The elevators serving Auckland's Sky Tower in New Zealand are not only glass walled, they are glassed bottomed, too. At 328 m (1,076 ft), the Sky Tower is one of the tallest freestanding structures in the Southern Hemisphere.
Opened in 1905, the Hammetschwand Lift, which overlooks Lake Lucerne in Switzerland, is the highest exterior elevator in Europe. The lift carries passengers 153 m (502 ft) up to the summit of the Hammetschwand in under a minute.
The central atrium of London's St. Botolph Building showcases 16 elevators operating independently on eight tracks.
The Ericsson Globe in Stockholm, Sweden features two gondolas on the external side of the hemisphere, transparent lifts that take passengers on a 20-minute curve to the top of the globe and back down.
The apex of the amazing 190-m (630-ft) Gateway Arch monument in St. Louis, Missouri is reached using a tram (pictured) in each leg of the arch. The trip to the top takes four minutes.
Completed in 1873, the Lacerda Elevator connects the historic and the new parts of the city of Salvador, the capital of the Brazilian state of Bahia.
The Anderton Boat Lift in Cheshire, England is known as the "Cathedral of the Canals." Built in 1875, it's a two caisson lift and provides a 15-m (50-ft) vertical link between two navigable waterways: the River Weaver and the Trent and Mersey Canal.
Sources: (Landmark Elevator, Inc.) (Live Science) (Encyclopedia) (London Transport Museum) (Some Interesting Facts) (Canal & River Trust)
See also: The coolest and craziest cable car rides in the world
Archimedes, the Greek mathematician, physicist, engineer, and inventor, is believed to have invented the first known elevator, a simple device operated by ropes and pulleys.
The Romans used a similar system in the Coliseum to raise gladiators and wild animals up from the lower levels to the arena level.
The invention of the steam engine in 1765 allowed for elevation devices to move larger, heavier loads. Pictured is a steam-powered ice elevator for raising blocks of ice from the Hudson River into insulated storehouses where they would be stored for summer use.
The ancient Greeks first came up with the notion of an elevator, a crude device operated by ropes and pulleys. By the mid-18th century, industrial elevators were being powered by steam. In 1853, the Otis Elevator Company was founded in the United States, and that's when these vertical transport machines really took off. Today, some of the most stunning and original examples of civil engineering are found in the shape of elevators. So, do you need a lift?
Click through and ride the up and down history of the elevator.
The century-long history of the elevator
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LIFESTYLE Engineering
The ancient Greeks first came up with the notion of an elevator, a crude device operated by ropes and pulleys. By the mid-18th century, industrial elevators were being powered by steam. In 1853, the Otis Elevator Company was founded in the United States, and that's when these vertical transport machines really took off. Today, some of the most stunning and original examples of civil engineering are found in the shape of elevators. So, do you need a lift?
Click through and ride the up and down history of the elevator.