40 people stranded when St. Louis Arch tram stalls

[June 17, 2011]  ST. LOUIS (AP) -- A tram that takes visitors to the top of the Gateway Arch in St. Louis stalled, leaving about 40 visitors stranded for about an hour.

The U.S. Park Service said the tram on the Arch's north side stopped about 200 feet short of the top after an electrical outage Thursday afternoon. Workers were able to pull the tram manually to the observation deck. The visitors then took another tram down the south leg of the Arch to get back to ground level.

Two people, a visitor and a Park Service employee sustained minor injuries. Officials declined to describe them.

Jody Waller of Wildwood told The St. Louis Post-Dispatch the lights and air conditioning were off during the outage and that "there was a lot of panicking."

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Information from: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, http://www.stltoday.com/

[Associated Press]

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