Wuppertal has possibly the world's most badass public transport: a 120-year-old swingin' suspension railway. But the question is: why? When everyone else was busy building trams and undergrounds, what made Wuppertal say "NOPE", and build this instead?
Just one slight inaccuracy: Wuppertal did have trams in addition to the Schwebebahn up until the 1980's. But other than that, pretty much spot on. No room for all the roads and rails a city of this size would need.
Is the reason the Schwebebahn exists was the idea of not taking up space? It’s a good idea I’m just assuming it never really caught on?
Yes, that's what it boils down to. Wuppertal in the 1800s was a very industrial place, chemicals mostly - the Bayer company for example originated there and then. And with that came traffic, both goods and passengers. Where other cities just built more roads and trams and railways, Wuppertal had run out of space for that, so they utilized the Wupper river to build a mass transit line above it.