c. 1933
The Nash Motors automobile elevator display at the Century of Progress International Exposition in Chicago.
Image: 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. Read more…
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