Page 108 - Bulletin 17

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Further support came from the C-in-C because of the difficulty of reaching the Sanatorium

via the steep and dangerous old Red Hill Road that started opposite Admiralty House.

An article in the Wynberg Times speculated on possible wider uses for the ropeway:

The Wynberg Times, 27 July, 1901.

One of the coming features of Simon’s Town will be the aerial ropeway to the new
hospital on the mountainside, and if report is correct that the Admiralty intend building a
Sanatorium on the beautiful plateau that one finds after reaching the top of the mountain by
the zig-zag path, one may reasonably infer that the services of a ‘lift’ will be requisitioned.
When Simon’s Town has outgrown its present limits, and these have been narrowed down to
a very small scale since the Admiralty acquired all the land available in the town by a Special
Act of the Imperial Government passed for that purpose, it may be worth the consideration of
land owners on the mountain to expend some thousands in the construction of a lift of
sufficient capacity to meet the requirements of a residential population.

The Town Council approved the scheme and during 1903 the Naval Works Department

began erecting tarred wooden pylons. During 1904 the ropeway, hospital and sanatorium
were all completed. (Figs. 2.21 – 2.26.)

The Cape Times, 29 July, 1904.

Residents are becoming quite used to the cages in connection with the ropeway to the
new Naval Sanatorium, passing over their heads in the Main Street. The journey to the top of
the mountain is made many times daily, although workers are still busy dealing with some
unfinished details.

The ropeway was 762 m long and strung between 17 wooden pylons, with a leftward change

in course at the Angle Pylon. It was a bi-cable system with the carrier rope supporting the

cage and the hauling rope drawing it up or down. It was driven by steam (later replaced by
electricity) and a one-way trip to the top took about 15 minutes, which was way shorter than

the tedious ox-wagon climb up the old Red Hill Road. In 1913 the wooden pylons were
replaced by steel structures because of the danger of incineration during the periodic bush

fires that swept the slopes.