PROVINCETOWN – Following several community meetings, officials with the Pilgrim Monument and Provincetown Museum are moving full steam ahead with their plan to construct a Funicular.
A Funicular, you may be wondering, is an outdoor elevator of sorts, which travels from one level to another via a diagonal plane.
“It goes from the base of Bradford Street and we’ll have a nice gentle climb, about two and a half, three minutes on a tram, and it will bring you to the base of the monument,” said Pilgrim Monument and Provincetown Museum Executive Director David Weidner.
“It’s really part of a master plan to bring access to the people and access to the town.”
In this particular case, the mechanism would be utilized to transport the elderly, the handicapped, or the lazy from the Provincetown Museum, up the 80-foot High Pole Hill to the Pilgrim Monument and then right back down again.
Officials say that during the three community meetings on the proposal the public responded enthusiastically.
Now comes the permitting phase of the ordeal, which will require a specific site proposal as well as the support of the region’s conservation commission.
Initial estimates put the cost of the proposed Funicular at between $3 million and $5 million, which would reportedly be covered through donations.
The town, in collaboration with the museum and monument foundation, are already well into planning several major events to tout the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the pilgrims in 2020.
By DAVID BEATTY, CapeCod.com NewsCenter
About CapeCod.com NewsCenter
