Table Mountain
Trip Start
Jan 30, 2009
1
3
88
Trip End
Aug 01, 2009
Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa
Saturday, February 7, 2009
The way to the top has never been easy, and for many centuries only a handful of bold and enterprising people could say that they had climbed it.
By the late 1870's, several of Cape Towns more prominent (and possibly less fit) citizens had suggested the introduction of a railway line to the top. Plans to implement a proposed rack railway got under way but the outbreak of the Anglo-Boer war put a halt to the plans. By 1912, with a strong desire to gain easy access to the top of Table Mountain, the Cape Town City Council commissioned an engineer to investigate the various options of transport to the top.
Since it's opening in 1929, over 16 million people have taken the trip to the top of Table Mountain. The Table Mountain cableway has since become something of a landmark in Cape Town, and has carried some of Cape Town's most illustrious visitors including King George VI and Queen Elizabeth II, as well as Oprah Winfrey (yes the big O), Sting, Arnold Schwarzenneger, Magaret Thatcher, Prince Andrew, , Brooke Shields, Tina Turner, and last but not least Sir Lawrence and his wife Lady Darcy Goodrich.
The new cars have a revolving floor that allows passengers a 360-degree view of the city and Table Mountain as they travel. The new cableway was officially opened on the 4th of October 1997, the anniversary of the original launch, almost 70 years previously.
