They would seem more at home in Austria or Switzerland, zipping up the side of the Alps. But suddenly, American cities from Albany to Austin, Tex., are pinning their hopes on, of all things, gondolas.

The allure is not just speed. Gondolas do not contribute to greenhouse gases, and they soar over clogged highways and balky subway signals. They are relatively fast and cheap to build. And unlike most forms of transportation, they offer singular vistas that attract tourism as well.

In New York State alone, there have been at least three recent proposals for gondolas. One plan, the East River Skyway, would connect Williamsburg in Brooklyn to Lower Manhattan with a gondola that would rise to 415 feet alongside the Williamsburg Bridge.

In Albany, an engineering firm is pushing a gondola that would run from the Amtrak station in Rensselaer, one of the busiest in the country, across the Hudson River to downtown Albany. A third proposal to build a gondola at the state fairgrounds in Syracuse — Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo had put $15 million in the state budget for the attraction — has met resistance, and the money has gone elsewhere.