The old cable car
When Röchling'schen Eisen- und Stahlwerke took over the Berus limestone quarry, which was formerly operated on the surrounding area, in 1912, a cable car was built that led only a few meters from the current location of the European monument down into the valley to Überherrn to the local lime works. With the construction of this extraordinary facility, which was built by the Saarbrücken company Ernst Heckel, the limestone no longer had to be laboriously transported in horse-drawn carts down from Beruser Berg to Überhern, but was now relatively easy - floating above the landscape - down into the valley . The cable car was attached to around 30 masts on its 3 km long route at a height of between 8 and 18 meters. It had a conveying capacity of 50 tons per hour, at a speed of 1.66 meters per second. When the track was full, the distance of the chipped limestone lorries was about 80 meters. To protect against falling rocks, bridges or nets were built as special safety devices where the cable car crossed streets. The “Netz” bus stop in the village of Bisten is still a reminder of this today. For many years the cable car shaped the image of the borderland home like hardly any other large facility. The adventure stories surrounding the train will also remain unforgettable. For example, some rascals from the villages along the route sometimes had fun climbing over the masts into the carts on the gentle slopes of the Beruser Forest, and then, only a short distance in the gondola, jumping off again a little later. The cable car worked for 36 years, was out of service for another 10 years before being dismantled by a French company in the early 1960s and sold to Norway. The still visible old concrete wall as the former main entrance to the limestone quarry is a reminder of the time of the old cable car and the associated work processes. Source: Text information board