Jamestown, St. Helena - Jacobs Ladder - postcard, 1951

• Postcard

   

• Picture / Image:  Jacob's Ladder [Jamestown] St. Helena
• Publisher: Pharamcist, St. Helena
• Postally used: yes
• Stamp:  REMOVED
• Postmark(s): St Helena 1951
• Sent to:  Huddersfield, England
• Notes / condition: 

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Text from the free encyclopedia WIKIPEDIA may appear below to give a little background information (internal links may not  work) :

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Jamestown is the capital of the British Overseas Territory of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha, located on the island of Saint Helena in the South Atlantic Ocean. It is also the historic main settlement of the island and is on its north-western coast. Before the development of the port at Rupert's Bay, it was the island's only port and the centre of the island's road and communications network. It was founded when colonists from the English East India Company settled on the island in 1659 and was briefly occupied by the Dutch East India Company in 1673 before being recaptured. Many of the buildings built by the East India Company in the 18th century survive and give the town its distinctive Georgian flavour.

The town briefly hosted Napoleon in 1815 during his exile on St. Helena and later served as a base for the Royal Navy's efforts to suppress the slave trade. It had no role during the First World War and only played a minor role during the Second World War.

Jacob's Ladder is a Grade I-listed staircase leading from Jamestown, Saint Helena, up the side of Ladder Hill to Ladder Hill Fort. The name is a reference to the biblical Jacob's Ladder, a ladder extending to heaven.[1]

The ladder is all that remains of a cable railway which was built there in the early 1800s.[2] Its tracks and cars were later removed, although the stairs have remained in place and have become a tourist attraction connecting Jamestown and the suburb of Half Tree Hollow at the top of the hill.

Designed by the local engineer J. W. Hoar, the Saint Helena Railway Company built a two-car inclined plane, 924 feet (281.6 m)-long, in 1829 to carry cargo between Jamestown and the fort. The cars rode on a pair of iron-plated fir rails, laid on wooden sleepers anchored into the rock of the valley wall, that were separated by a staircase of 700 steps for pedestrians. The angle of ascent varied between 39 and 41 degrees. Motive power was provided by a team of three donkeys at the top that rotated a capstan connected to the cars by an iron chain and pulleys.[2][3]

Termite damage to the sleepers caused the Royal Engineers to remove the cars, rails and associated machinery in 1871, and it is now known as Jacob's Ladder. Subsequent roadwork has covered over 1 step and only 699 remain. Lights were installed along the sides of the stairs in 2000 and the steps were refurbished in 2006.[1] The staircase has been declared a Grade I-listed structure.[4] During the island's annual "Festival of Running", a timed run takes place up Jacob's Ladder, with people coming from around the world to take part. As of 2016, the record time to ascend the stairs is 5 minutes, 16.78 seconds.[1]