The Sandia Peak Tramway is an aerial tramway located adjacent to Albuquerque, New Mexico. It stretches from the northeast edge of the city to Sandia Peak on the ridge line of the Sandia Mountains and has the world's third longest single span. It is the longest aerial tram in the Americas, and was the longest in the world from 1966 until being surpassed in 2010 by the Wings of Tatev in Armenia. History The Sandia Peak Ski Company was cofounded by balloonist Ben Abruzzo and Robert Nordhaus (father of Nobel Prize-winning economist William Nordhaus), and Nordhaus was inspired to build a tram to the ski slope after seeing other trams during a trip to Europe. Bell Engineering of Lucerne, Switzerland, constructed the tramway. Entering service on May 7, 1966, the tram makes 10,500 trips per year. New tram cars were installed in 1986, and new track cables in 2009. New tram cars were again installed in May 2016. New Year 2022 incident On New Year's Eve, 2021, a winter storm caused the emergency cable to ice over and droop onto the track cables, causing the tramway to stop mid-course. 19 employees from the restaurant TEN 3 at the top terminal and 1 Sandia Peak Tram Cabin Operator , were aboard the downhill tram car evacuating the restaurant due to the approaching storm, and were trapped for over 17 hours, likewise 1 cabin operator was stranded in the uphill tram car too. All were rescued on the afternoon of January 1st, 2022. Members of the Albuquerque Mountain Rescue Council helped the passengers rappel down the upper tower and hike to a point where they could be rescued by a Bernalillo County Sheriff's Office helicopter. Ongoing wind and snow hampered the rescue operations. All passengers and crew were rescued without injury. Description The tram is a type known as a "double reversible jigback aerial tramway," where "jigback" implies that when one tram car is ascending, the other is descending. Its two cars are capable of carrying 50 passengers each and have numerous safety and backup systems, such as multiple emergency braking systems and a grounding system that ensures the safety of passengers in the event of a lightning strike. The tramway ascends the steep western side of the highest portion of the Sandia Mountains, from a base elevation of to a top elevation of . A trip up the mountain takes 15