The Tram (Portland Aerial Tram)

I’m sure there is a more complicated name for that silver bug in the skies above Portland, but when someone refers to it – they just call it the “Tram.”  About every six minutes it leaves, travels three-fifths of a mile from the Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) building “On the Waterfront” to the OHSU Hospital on the hill.  And back again.

The name of “that hill” (for those of you like me that didn’t know) is Marquam Hill.

There are actually two trams.  Both metallic silver trams go side-by-side down (and up) suspended metal cables that almost look invisible from far away and both look like new ultra-modern conveniences of a futuristic technology.

I’ve heard that the tram has become a tourist destination.  I don’t mean that people come to Portland because of the tram, but while they’re here – lots of tourists ride it.  They should go to the pedestrian bridge, too.

From the docking station at the top of the hill, you can walk to the Veterans Administration Medical Center (hospital) from the OHSU hospital, across the skybridge.  It is the longest suspended pedestrian skybridge in the entire United States.

I didn’t know that.  Not only is it important for people that go to one hospital or another, but the OHSU cafeteria is open when the VA cafeteria is not.  As we all know, hospitals and feats of gastronomic excellence  go together.

The two stops – one at the hospital and one down by the Willamette River – look more like docking stations than anything else.  They are called ‘terminals,’ though.

There is an automobile parking lot at OHSU On the Waterfront, you can get there by walking or by bicycle, and – the trolley stops right by the tram’s docking station at the bottom of the hill.

Oh.

It costs four bucks to ride unless you’re six or under, or a patient with a pass from your clinic or doctor, or have a $100 annual pass, or a trolley pass, or…

And the tram is not in the Lloyd District.  However, it is part of Portland.