[Nmcaver] Glass commercial cave elevators

[DONALD G. DAVIS]

	Gill Ediger wrote:

>As far as Golondrinas goes: There was--and I guess still is--occasional 
>talk of commercializing Golondrinas. When that first became an issue of 
>discussion about 25 years ago it took me about 3 minutes to devise an 
>overly effective and exciting method of getting people to the bottom--just 
>as an interesting mental exercise in case anybody ever did got it together 
>to do such a thing. It takes advantage of the bell-shaped structure of the 
>hole--bigger at the bottom than at the top. An elevator shaft is excavated 
>from the surface and located so as to intersect (break out of) one of the 
>long walls about 1/2 to 2/3 of the way up the pit and at a place where a 
>minimal amount of structural material will secure a steel shaft to the wall 
>the rest of the way to the floor. The elevator will be made of glass on 3 
>sides and the bottom. People get in on the surface and the elevator car 
>starts down in the rock walled dug shaft, perceptibly accelerating all the 
>while. Just before it gets to the breakout point the lights are turned out 
>in the car. This will raise the anxiety level a notch or two just to get 
>folks in the mood. Some prerecorded gasps or wheezes played over a PA 
>system at the same time wouldn't hurt, either, I guess. Then, in a mere 
>second, the whole thing breaks out into the abject openness of the day 
>lighted pit, 600 or 800 feet above the floor, visibly unsupported, free 
>falling in space at the maximum speed allowed by law. The important thing 
>is that they get their money's worth outa the "Big Pit Experience." Adding 
>to the adventure will be the several people who refuse to ride in the 
>elevator for the trip back to the top.

	This seems to me a great idea, if it must be commercialized at 
all.  I've had the privilege of going down in the elevators at Carlsbad 
Cavern with the doors open, and I've seriously thought that those 
elevators should have glass walls and floors, so visitors could see the 
shaft walls zipping by and the tiny lighted square at the bottom getting 
bigger and bigger.  It would be a far more awesome demonstration of the 
true depth to the Big Room than is descending blind and suddenly just 
being there.  But no doubt some visitors would have a vertigo problem.  
Maybe only two sides and half the floor could be clear, and the visitors 
advised to face the blank walls if they were concerned about that.

							--Donald Davis