The Bizarre Planning of the Las Vegas Monorail

"When I arrived in Las Vegas, the Strip looked much as it did on my previous trip. Pedestrians still swarmed on the sidewalks, gawking at all the gimcracks and gewgaws; traffic was still dense and slow moving. But the thing I expected to see zipping high above Las Vegas Boulevard, on a single rail supported by a series of massive pylons, wasn’t there. Maybe, I thought, Las Vegas hadn’t actually built a monorail. Then, on an early-morning run along the Strip, I began to notice signs for it. But except for one conspicuous neon-ringed entryway located between Harrah’s and the Imperial Palace, it seemed like the monorail was the only discreet thing in an otherwise indiscreet town."

The article looks at the planning history of the monorail, its original good intentions, and the political maneuverings that led to its current form.