Sign up to see the future, today<\/p>\n
Can\u2019t-miss innovations from the bleeding edge of science and tech<\/p>\n
Now officially taking rides: an over-a-half-mile long escalator that stretches ever upward in a mountainous city in China\u2019s Chongqing municipality.<\/p>\n
Called the \u201cGoddess\u201d escalator, its endeavors towards a suitably heavenly domain. The absurd architectural feat cuts through the center of the city in Wushan, starting from the bottom of a steep bank and rising straight into the sky, which it almost seems to touch; footage of the marvel, while impressive, struggles to capture its sheer scale.<\/p>\n
End to end, it takes almost 21 minutes to ascend, the Financial Times reports<\/a>; it\u2019s almost certainly the world\u2019s largest of its kind.<\/p>\n \u201cAs far as I know, there are no similar projects nationwide, either exceeding or equal to ours, either under construction or already started,\u201d Huang Wei, head of the design team for the project and an engineer at China Railway Eryuan Engineering Group, told the FT. \u201cIt\u2019s the first of its kind.\u201d<\/p>\n The Goddess escalator isn\u2019t quite an unbroken chain of slow-rolling platforms: it comprises some two dozen individual escalators and lifts, but all part of one system and platform.\u00a0The escalator\u2019s actual escalating stairways were produced by the Swiss company Schindler, and manufactured in a factory in the north of Shanghai. The Chinese arm of the company has provided some 1,400 escalators to the Chongqing metro system.<\/p>\n