valparaiso, ascensor artillería

The latest (1912) and longest (175 m), Ascensor Artillería reclines languidly with its toe at the old customs house and its head by the city’s maritime museum. The site presents a unique tri-edge condition, allowing the ascensor to straddle El Plan and Artillería Hill while tracing the bounds of official port operations. Still visible to the existing tracks’ left is the green dimension of the ascensor’s once-doubled capacity where two defunct frames, bereft of their allotted path, now brace commemorative flagpoles as consolation.

In contrast to the lower station’s tacked-on twin vending stands (whose operational status is difficult to discern but worth pondering whilst awaiting the ascensor's arrival), the free-standing upper structure supports a cluster of balloon-framed café and shop encrustations...with flanking gazebos to boot.

The mirador (overlook) it anchors provides encompassing bay views supported by an array of smartly-designed vending stands. Artisanal hawkers are par for the tourist-trafficked course but here they are standardized, systematized, and refreshingly discrete as they package Valparaiso for popular consumption.