Elevador do Taboão

The Elevador do Taboão is a rusted, skeletonized metal tower clinging to the steep cliffside between the upper and lower districts of Salvador. Built in the late nineteenth century, it served as an industrial freight lift meant to bridge the gap between the busy port below and the merchants above. It stands silent and decaying today, stripped of its cables and passenger cars, while the newer, sleeker Lacerda Elevator handles the crowds a few blocks away. It remains an abandoned piece of nineteenth-century engineering.