Give me a break. Just put something in geostatioary orbit and "snake a cable down to earth" The cable has to be decelerated as it decends without imparting any force on the geostationary platform. Or you have to keep the platform in Geostationary orbit while in a much higher orbit. Thus you must have a hugh amount of thrust pushing you toward earth to maintain such an orbit and you must maintain this thrust all the while you are positioning ie: "snaking" the cable to earth. At the point where you finally make the connection the amount of thrust generated must be equal to the amount of strain the cable normally encounters to resist the centrifical force of the space anchor. Then as if that is not enough you have to accelerate an object as it rises up the cable and decelerate it as it rises to space. This energy can come from rockets or it can come from kenetic energy stored in the space anchor and transfered as stress on the cable. I can't wrap my mind around how many billions of tons of mass it will take to keep the cable taught, let alone to keep it from bowing as it's payload accelerates or declerates its orbital velocity.

But assuming those smarter than I get it done, it becomes not only the vehicle of choice for taking things to space. Multiples of them become the vehicles of choice for rapid intercontinental travel. Any point up the tether becomes an space port, and shuttles carry passengers from one tether to the other.

What nonsense! But a lot of fun to daydream about.