Stalin's Rope Roads (2013) (theatlantic.com)

The machines that power these are old and incredibly huge. And the cabins look like they will fall apart mid-trip - it took a lot of courage to step inside, but the locals say it's OK. I recommend the place to everyone, Georgia is awesome.

Url changed from https://flashbak.com/stalins-rope-roads-401355/, which is cribbed from this. Or rather, particularly shamelessly stolen.

Discussed at the time: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6640214

The cable cars, the terminal buildings, and the first dozen or so pictures -- If you removed the people, it would look like an industrial inflected sequel to Myst.

Looks like a soviet dystopian version of Pittsburgh, as if it weren't bad enough already.

Does Russia have a national paint shortage? So much of this stuff would look 100x better with just a little cleaning/rust removal and repainting. Almost every picture in that album shows something that should have been repainted 20 years ago to inhibit rust formation.

These were quite common across many cities and towns in the USSR. The purposes were quite varied: get people to an attraction, offer a scenic route, serve as a shortcut between a residential and an industrial area, serve as an alternative route to public transport.

Here are the remains of one such road in my home city of Chisinau, Moldova: http://wikimapia.org/7913907/ru/Верхняя-станция-канатной-дор...

That river rock mosaic is gorgeous. Interesting juxtaposition. Such a beautiful medium portraying two men responsible for such a staggering amount of suffering.

Really fantastic photos.

I was here. Miss you Toma.