Elevators as Mass Transport Systems

Last month, I had two ‘elevating’ experiences in Bombay. The first was my vertical descent from the third floor of a building to the ground floor. No, I didn’t fall from the balcony. I took an elevator – the only catch being that this happened to be the world’s largest. (I’m still trying to wrap my head around the fact that the Ambanis decided to build this in their Jio World Convention center).

The second was the guided tour I took of the iconic headquarters of the Bombay Municipal Corporation. The interior dome – the gold-plated one with real gold – is an iconic structure and mesmerizing for its symmetry and intricate designs. But the fact that caught my attention was that this dome was way below the actual exterior dome and the space in-between was meant for water tanks to operate the hydraulic elevators of the building.

I had earlier written about why building vertically is critical for urban habitations. All cities that boast of skyscrapers, be it New York, Singapore, Sydney, Toronto or London, are green, clean, innovative and have efficient mass transport systems. None of this would have been possible without the elevator. When you think of it, elevators are mass transport systems that make skyscrapers habitable and thus a key technology that makes cities livable.

Until Elisha Otis demonstrated the robustness of his ‘safety elevator’ in the 1853 New York World’s Fair, elevators were dangerous contraptions. This unreliability resulted in the upper floors of buildings being designated for the servants and other struggling tenants. Why would a wealthy person huff and puff up the stairs?

So next time, when you enter an elevator, tap the floor button, and start moving vertically, spare a thought for an invention that makes modern life so convenient and remember you are in a mass-transport system as important as the car, bus, subway or the tram.