In principal, the tram was a good idea, and an interesting solution to the problem of moving from the hill to the river.

My problem with it is that it was not exploited for its larger potential....Had it extended over the river to a station in the Brooklyn neighborhood, it would have tied the city together and offered more affordable housing options than will be availible in the S. Waterfront district towers.

The cost estimate was a joke from the start. Anyone with experience in construction should have seen the falicy of the initial cost estimates. For one thing, a structure such as this places incredible forces on the towers and the end structures...much like a suspension bridge...From my experience as a project architect on the BICC, the hillside is very unstable with bedrock many feet down under a mantle of moving soil. Thus the foundations and structural supports need to be ingeniously designed (and expensive).

Rather than approach the design from a rational standpoint, the architects proposed a structure of wood, gathered in a haphazard fashion like bundled chopsticks. Hardly a strucutre designed in response to the forces it is intended to resist. The design as it currently stands could be simplified, and thereby be more elegant and affordable.

A skilift would have been a valid place to start to understand the costs involved and the engineering required. And I believe that many modern ski lifts will look better than this tram.