> As workers flooded to the growing cities of Barmen and Elberfeld – which merged in 1929 and were renamed Wuppertal in 1930 – the authorities realised a public transport system was needed. Other cities were going underground, but Wuppertal’s rocky soil and narrow, steep valley made any sort of U-Bahn impossible, forcing the Schwebebahn’s inventor, Eugen Langen, to look up instead.
Was a bit confused at this paragraph, as to why it would suddenly date the inception of the Schwebebahn in the 1930s when the same article began with the maiden voyage in 1901.
So to clarify this: The Schwebebahn really is older than the city of Wuppertal. The city only existed as a single municipality since 1929, so half the time the article talks about "Wuppertal", it really means Barmen and Elberfeld.
So if there was no municipality, who did plan, approve and fund the project? Both cities, in a joint planning commission.
I think the paragraph is quite clear. The cities merged later, and the "which merged..." part is only clarifying that the Schwebebahn was created while the current town was two separate towns.
It's technically correct, just confusing. I think what tripped me up was that he keeps using the city's name as a shorthand even for the time when it didn't exist yet. That sort of blurs the two events even though they were 30 years apart.
Was a bit confused at this paragraph, as to why it would suddenly date the inception of the Schwebebahn in the 1930s when the same article began with the maiden voyage in 1901.
So to clarify this: The Schwebebahn really is older than the city of Wuppertal. The city only existed as a single municipality since 1929, so half the time the article talks about "Wuppertal", it really means Barmen and Elberfeld.
So if there was no municipality, who did plan, approve and fund the project? Both cities, in a joint planning commission.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wuppertal_Schwebebahn#Histor...