By May 1898, three tramway companies had cornered most of the mechanized transport business on the Chilkoot Pass.
The Alaska Railroad & Transportation Company's tramway began two miles above Sheep Camp and ran to the summit. A gasoline-powered cable carried an endless stream of buckets, each capable of carrying 100 pounds.
The Dyea-Klondike Transportation Company's tramway had two large buckets suspended from a long cable driven by a steam engine and supported only by an anchor at either end of the line. Each bucket held 500 pounds, rode 300 feet above the ground, and made the round trip from the Scales to the summit in 15 minutes -- at five cents a pound.
The Chilkoot Railroad & Transport Company's tramway was the most elaborate. One loop of cable ran from Canyon City to Sheep Camp and a second from Sheep Camp to the summit. At the time, the tramway had the longest single span in the world -- 2200 feet from one support to the next. Powered by steam engines at each end, its cars travelled 1800 feet above the ground in places, at a frequency of one a minute. The company charged eight cents a pound to transport goods by trail and tramway from Dyea to Lake Lindeman.
Within months, the three companies had merged as The Chilkoot Pass Route, charging ten cents a pound to take goods from tidewater to Lake Bennett. In the summer of 1898, the tramways ran day and night, dumping nine tons of freight an hour at the summit. But their supremacy was brief. The Chilkoot tramways were dead within a year, killed by harsh conditions and the White Pass Railway.
