Teleférico de Monserrate, Aerial lift in eastern Bogotá, Colombia

The Teleférico de Monserrate is a cable car system that carries visitors from the base of Bogotá's eastern hills to a mountain summit above the city. Each cabin holds passengers and the journey offers views of the city below and the surrounding highland landscape.

Designed by the Swiss company Von Roll, construction began in 1953 and the cable car opened on 27 September 1955, built to serve the growing number of pilgrims climbing to the Basilica del Señor de Monserrate, then reachable only by the 1929 funicular. The total cost was one million pesos, when one peso bought one dollar.

The cable car ends at the Basílica del Señor de Monserrate, a sanctuary and pilgrimage church, not a monastery. Its name refers to the Cristo Caído (fallen Christ) venerated there, and pilgrims still climb to it on foot or by cable car, especially on Good Friday, when about 3,500 people use the system.

The ride covers 820 meters in four minutes, from the station by the ring road at Calle 26 up to 3,152 meters on the hill. It runs Monday to Saturday from noon to midnight, and Sundays and holidays from 5:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Good Friday is the busiest day, with about 3,500 people and 10 to 12 trips.

The cabins have changed colour repeatedly over the years: white first, then yellow, red and green, later red, and now orange. The current control boards, monitoring and security systems are fully computerised, which the sources describe as among the most modern in the world.