Riding the High Wire is the first comprehensive history of aerial mine tramways in the American West, describing their place in the evolution of mining after 1870. Robert A. Trennert shows how the mid-nineteenth century development of wire rope manufacturing made it possible for American entrepreneurs such as Andrew S. Hallidie and Charles Huson to begin erecting single-rope tramways in the 1870s and 1880s. Their inventions were followed by the more substantial double-rope systems imported from Europe. By the turn of the century, aerial tramways were common throughout western mining...