At the eastern edge of Chiatura, Georgia, this manganese processing plant, sited next to a mine shaft, operates 24 hours a day. Workers access the mine by taking two tramways up and over steep bluffs. The second tramway is visible at top left. The cable cars are part of a network of aerial tramways built in Chiatura during the Soviet era, used to this day as public transportation through the challenging terrain. #

Overview of Chiatura. The Soviets invested heavily in constructing a "worker's paradise" in the gorge which, in its heyday, claimed 60 percent of the world's manganese production. #

A woman passenger greets a friend inside an aerial tramway station in Chiatura. Infrastructure in many of Georgia's smaller towns dates back to the Soviet period. After communism collapsed, Georgia's long-awaited freedom from Russia was marred by a civil war which devastated the fledgling economy. #

An operator of Tramway 25 pits cherries in the downtime between passengers. Operators usually wait until there are 3-4 passengers waiting at both stations before ringing the bell and commencing a trip. #

A mosaic of Lenin and Stalin, made of river stones, at the entrance to Chiatura's main aerial tramway station. Stalin's relationship with Chiatura dates to his days as a revolutionary fugitive hiding out in the mines above the town. #

A heavily greased pulley wheel turns on the Peace tramway. Most tramways in Chiatura use a "jig back" system where two cabins are connected to the same cable. An electric motor pulls one cabin down, using that cabin's weight to help pull the other cabin up. #

Left: Two locals look out over Chiatura from the Peace tramway. The cabins run without a braking system; if the haulage cable snaps, the cabins will roll straight back down the track cable. This happened to a tramway in Georgia's capital Tbilisi in 1990, killing twenty people. Right: A discarded piece of track cable. The cables weigh around 26lb (12kg) per meter. #

Left: A telephone inside a cabin of Tramway 25. Right: A miner smokes a cigarette, leaning through the cabin portholes of the "Peace" tramway which runs from the center of Chiatura up to the entrance of one of the manganese mines. Although owned by the mining company, anyone is free to use the tramway. #

Two miners stop to smoke in a manganese mine above Chiatura. Through the near-anarchy across Georgia following the collapse of the USSR the mines lay idle and have only reopened in the past few years. #

Then and now pictures of one of the tramways built in the 1960s. In 2008 the hauling rope of this tramway snapped with 12 passengers inside. Ramaz Khipshidze, the director of the Aerial Tramway Network says the automatic braking system worked "thanks to God." Chiatura didn't have the equipment needed to rescue the people inside. For 12 hours the passengers dangled above the town until a team from Tbilisi arrived with a rescue cabin. Although unwilling to specify amounts, Mr. Khipshidze says the passengers were paid compensation, and some accepted the company's offer of counseling. #

A man waits for a ride over a gorge on the eastern edge of Chiatura. This tramway runs 150 meters (492 feet) above the valley floor. Locals take this across to another tramway (just visible - upper right) which lowers them down to a bus stop on the main road below. #

A local lost in thought as a cabin of Tramway 25 docks. Tramway 25 was the first passenger tramway in the USSR and has run almost continuously since its first run in 1954. If funding comes through it will be replaced in 2014. #