re: Did you ride the Miss River Gondola built for 84 World's Fair?

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A few years after the fair, Blaine Kern bought the gondola in hopes of making a fortune using it as a daily commuter transport system to and from the east/west bank.

It failed miserably and Blaine lost a good bit of money on that deal.

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Actually he lost money in that his company made many of the pavillions for the fair and he fronted out a lot of money on the fair itself. I'm not sure he bought MART, or I didn't hear that.

I rode it twice and liked it, I was upset when it closed. I have a customer in River Ridge who has one of the Gondalas in his back yard.

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During the fair, this was billed as the signature ride of the exhibition; however, it drew only 1.7 million riders, half as many as projected. Built to showcase a form of non-polluting commuter transit, after the fair the system was open for use by commuters traveling from Algiers in the Mississippi's West Bank to the Warehouse District across the river, where the fair was held. By April 1985, the system would shut down due to low ridership.[8]

Later in 1985, the Banque de l'union européenne would file suit against MART-Perez when they defaulted on the $8 million loan. As a result of nonpayment, in 1986, MART was ordered by a federal court to pay the bank $5 million, plus $1.2 million in interest and attorney fees.[9] However, MART never made a payment, and as a result, the gondola was seized by the United States Marshals Service in June 1989.[9] After the seizure, the system was put up for auction in August with New York City businessman Moey Segal placing the winning bid of $1.6 million.[10]

Segal intended to deconstruct the system and relocate it to Corpus Christi, Texas.[11] It was intended to transport tourists from the primary hotel area to the Texas State Aquarium across the ship channel.[11] Due to litigation, the proposal to move the system to Texas was dropped and Segal transferred its ownership to the 7349 Corp in 1990.[12]

Following the failed proposal to relocate the gondola, the system was the site of several, notable local events prior to its demolition. On January 21, 1993, Christopher Vincent base-jumped from the top of the East Bank tower twice. He completed the stunt for the first time at approximately 10:30 a.m. and again later that afternoon at approximately 2:30 p.m. Each time he was successful in landing on the Mississippi River levee.[13] On August 19, 1993, four Greenpeace activists were successful in hanging a banner from the system that stated "Break the circle of poison" in protesting the shipment of toxic pesticides through the Port of New Orleans.[13]

By late January 1993, the United States Coast Guard demanded that the system be demolished if it were not being used. In November 1993, the New Orleans City Council approved the demolition of the system[14] and its demolition was complete by February 1994.

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Yep

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Yes. I was 6 though and barely remember it.

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Same here

Many times... I worked at the fair

Rode that thing a lot. The Beer Garden rocked the Yager! That was a great summer! Who's got a commemorative stein, huh? Here!

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Anything built for 84 fair was a piece of crap. The 84 fair really made Louisiana a laughing stock of a state.one that it has really not lived down yet.

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Kind of harsh, did you go? I think the main thing that hurt it was the bad press at the beginning that it wasn't finished but I 've never heard much else bad from people who went.

I was 3 and one of my earliest memories was watching it when we drove across the bridge to visit my grandma in Metairie. Probably the first thing I was legitimately fascinated with. Good times. Never rode it though.

So this thing was pretty much parallel to and just north of the CCC?

Took my then 10 year old daughter on it. She still talks about how fun it was. For the life of me I don't know why she says that!!!!!