[1] In order to facilitate the movement between the two, the civil and military engineer Roberto Arménio presented a project to the Lisbon municipal council in 1874.

In May 1882 founder and representative of the Companhia dos Ascensores Mecânicos de Lisboa, Raoul Mesnier du Ponsard,[2] petitioned the city council for permission to explore alternative plans for constructing an inclined transport moved by mechanical means.

In 1896 Mesnier petitioned for the concession of this project, in order to establish the Escadinhas de Santa Justa, a request that was contested by Henry Lusseau.

In 1899, the Empresa do Elevador do Carmo (Company of the Elevator of Carmo) was founded (constituted by principal partners Raoul Mesnier du Ponsard, medical surgeon João Silvestre de Almeida and the Marquess of Praia e Monforte, António Borges de Medeiros Dias da Câmara e Sousa) in order to secure the permanent concession of the elevator project for a period of 99 years.

[2] The founder, Manuel Cardoso, had already been placed in charge of the offices of firm Empresa Industrial Portuguesa and was responsible for the workers in the Elevador de Santa Justa project.

[2] In July 2002, the Santa Justa Elevator celebrated its first centenary; along with the three remaining cable railways of Lavra, Glória and Bica, they were all classified as National Monuments in the same year.

[2] The elevator is a vertical structure, developed along the Rua de Santa Justa, consisting of a metal tower, observation platform, walkway and base.

With a height of 45 metres, covering seven stories, the tower includes two elevator cabins, decorated in wood, mirrors and windows, and with an initial capacity for 24 passengers in each (updated to 29 people later).

[3] The structure includes a dozen transverse beams, forming a double lattice, supported at the top by foundations at the Escadinhas de Santa Justa.