WASHINGTON, Aug. 9, 2015 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Following is the daily “Profile America” feature from the U.S. Census Bureau:
MOVING EXPERIENCE
Profile America — Sunday, August 9th. With so much modern infrastructure featuring soaring atriums and deep subterranean transit systems, it’s not easy to imagine getting by without escalators. However, this efficient people mover was conceived in a far simpler, down to earth time. The first patent for a moving stairway was obtained on this date in 1859 by Nathan Ames. However, it was never built. The first practical escalator was built by Jesse Reno in 1896 at Coney Island, New York. Reno called his device an “inclined elevator.” The longest escalator in the western hemisphere is 230 feet long, at the Wheaton, Maryland station of the Washington Metro System. Manufacturing escalators and elevators is a $1.8 billion a year business for some 170 companies in the U.S. Profile America is in its 19th year as a public service of the U.S. Census Bureau.
Sources: Kane’s Famous First Facts, 2106
Sources: Kane’s Famous First Facts, 2106
Jesse Reno escalator: http://www.lehigh.edu/engineering/about/alumni/bio_reno_j.html
Wheaton, MD escalator: http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/23038/what-are-the-10-longest-metro-escalators/
Escalator manufacturers/NAICS 333921: http://factfinder.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?
