Vertical parking
A different kind of parallel parking
Alex Q. Arbuckle
1920-1976
The Nash Motors automobile elevator display at the Century of Progress International Exposition in Chicago.
Credit: Chicago History Museum/Getty Images
The invention and rapid adoption of the automobile at the turn of the 20th century presented an immediate problem: where to park so many vehicles, especially in dense urban areas.Above-ground and subterranean parking garages allowed multiple levels of vehicle parking, but resulted in footprints with much empty space.The first foray into space-saving automatic parking systems was the Garage Rue de Ponthieu in Paris, which in 1905 unveiled an internal elevator which could lift cars to different levels to be parked by attendants.More automated systems followed. One of the most popular was the paternoster system, which lifted and stored vehicles in boxes, much like a Ferris wheel, allowing eight cars to be parked vertically in the footprint space of two cars.The popularity of automatic parking systems ultimately waned due to the long wait times required for customers to retrieve their cars, but they can still be found in cities worldwide.
An elevator parking lot in New York.
Credit: FPG/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
Citroen cars in Le Marbeuf garage in Paris, designed by architects Albert Laprade and L. E. Bazin.
Credit: Fox Photos/Getty Images
Le Marbeuf garage in Paris.
Credit: Fox Photos/Getty Images
Le Marbeuf garage in Paris.
Credit: General Photographic Agency/Getty Images
A vertical parking lot structure in Chicago.
Credit: Underwood Archives/Getty Images
The Autorimessa Piazzale Roma, a garage in Piazzale Roma, Venice, Italy.
Credit: Archivio Cameraphoto Epoche/Getty Images
Credit: Archivio Cameraphoto Epoche/Getty Images
A man parks a car with the help of a forklift.
Credit: Hulton Archive/Getty Images
An "autosilo" garage in Karlsruhe, Germany.
Credit: Picture Post/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
The central well of an automatic car park in England.
Credit: Fox Photos/Getty Images
A car teeters at the top of a paternoster parking elevator as a result of a broken bolt in Denver, Colorado.
Credit: David Cupp/The Denver Post/MediaNews Group/Getty Images
A poor parking job leaves its mark on a garage in Tokyo.
Credit: Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone/Getty Images
