Sewell is known as the "City of Staircases". The town was built on terrain too steep for wheeled vehicles, around a large central staircase rising from the railway station called the Escalara Central. All supplies had to be brought into the city via a narrow gauge railroad.[4] Pueblo Hundido contained the living quarters while below the ore body was El Establecimiento contained the concentrator, hydroelectric plant, and a tramway.[2]:127,146