This story was originally produced by the Concord Monitor. NHPR is republishing it in partnership with the Granite State News Collaborative.
If you’ve always wanted to ride the aerial tram to the top of Cannon Mountain, you’d better hurry up.
The state will shut the 45-year-old system after leaf-peeping season this fall and keep it closed for at least two years while a replacement is installed.
Since 1980, the tram has carried more than nine million passengers to the 4,080-foot summit, covering a one-mile span in under seven minutes.
“She has aged gracefully, but like all legends, she deserves a dignified retirement,” said Jace Wirth, general manager of Cannon Mountain and Franconia Notch State Park. “It’s time to begin writing the next chapter.”
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The current tram with its red and yellow cars, named Ketchup and Mustard, is the second aerial system to summit Cannon Mountain. The original opened in 1938 as the nation’s first aerial tram, carrying 27 people. The current system, which holds 80 people per car, replaced it in 1980.
It’s not clear at this point how much the replacement will cost. A structural analysis will determine how much, if any, of the existing towers, foundations and terminals can be used in the new system.
The work will use $27.2 million in state funds appropriated through House Bill 25 along with additional anticipated capital resources.
New Hampshire has been looking at ways to upgrade the tramway for years. In 2023, the state solicited bids, but the only one came in at $33 million and no action was taken. The current bill was based on bids of a different type: design-bid-build rather than design-build. Although the tram is thought of as a skier’s alternative to chilly chairlifts, it makes far more trips and far more income in the summer, when tens of thousands of people ride it to get a 360-degree view of four states and bits of Quebec.
