Page 99 - Bulletin 17 2013

96

In January 1929 the heavy cables arrived at the Docks and over a period of two days were

hauled by a steam tractor, and then winched up the last section of road, to the Lower Station.
They were then hauled to the top by a 10-ton capacity winch, under the supervision of

Roschert and Strömsöe, and installed. The cableway was described as a “double-tracked, jig-
backed, bi-cable ropeway when the cabins run on separate standing track ropes.”

The cableway was ready for human transport by mid-1929 and the first unofficial trip was

made by Sir Alfred and his wife, Mr Strömsöe, Councillor David Bean, and Mr Sidney

Benjamin. The cars were simple wood and corrugated iron constructions and carried 25
passengers. The cableway was officially opened on 4 October 1929 by the Mayor, Rev. A. J.

S. Lewis, accompanied by two hundred guests.

Cape Times, 5 October, 1929.

THE MOUNTAIN CABLEWAY

OPENING CEREMONY BY THE MAYOR

FIRST ASCENT BY PASSENGERS

EXHILARATING AND SAFE JOURNEYS
________________

At a quarter to three yesterday afternoon, the Table Mountain Aerial Cableway, one
of the longest single-span cableways in existence, was opened by the Mayor of Cape Town,
the Rev. A. J. S. Lewis.
All yesterday morning engineers and workmen carried out many successful tests on
the cableway. Pedestrians gathered in large groups on the pavements in the upper part of
Adderley Street and watched the as yet unfamiliar cars glide up Table Mountain. From afar, it
looked as if a colossal tight-rope-walking trick was being performed; yet at closer quarters
the ease with which the cream-coloured cars travelled over the 1,000 feet of cableway that
separates the two stations were unexpectedly disillusioning. Within a period of about one
hour from 150 to 200 guests of the company ascended and descended the mountain in
reassuring safety.
The Rev. A. J. S. Lewis, who has been a keen mountaineer since he first climbed
Table Mountain in 1880, was a passenger on the first car to ascend. Earlier, in opening the
cableway and in naming Tafelberg road (as the approach to the lower station will now be
known), he had described the critics of the scheme as ultra-aesthetic and selfish. He,
personally, he said, had no such prejudices, and a little later, accompanied by Sir Lionel and
Lady Phillips, Vice-Admiral Burmester, Mr. and Mrs. J. W. Jagger, and Sir Alfred Hennessy,
he sailed cheerfully into the blue.