Table Mountain Aerial Cableway

By the 1870s, Capetonians had proposed a railway to the top of Table Mountain, but plans were halted by the Anglo-Boer War. The City Council began investigating the options again in 1912, but this was in turn halted by the First World War. Despite initial cost estimates of £100,000 (equivalent to £38,800,000 in 2011 pounds) to build the cableway the city's population was supportive of the project and in a referendum overwhelmingly voted in support of the project. A Norwegian engineer, Trygve Strømsøe, presented plans for the cableway to Sir Alfred Theodore Hennessy along with Sir David Graaff and Sir Ernest Oppenheimer in 1926, and construction began soon after with the formation of the Table Mountain Aerial Cableway Company (TMACC). Former world leading wire ropeway company Adolf Bleichert & Co. from Leipzig (Germany) was awarded the contract for the construction. It was completed in 1929 at a cost of £60,000 ==Specifications==

The "Rotair" cableway was installed by Garaventa (Doppelmayr Garaventa Group) from Switzerland in 1997, the design being based on the Titlis Rotair cableway in Engelberg, Switzerland. Each car carries 65 passengers (compared to 25 for the old cars), and runs on a double cable making them more stable in high winds, giving a faster journey of 4–5 minutes to the summit. The floors of the cars rotate through 360 degrees during the ascent or descent, giving passengers a panoramic view. ==Fire incident==

On 24 October 2024, cableway operations were suspended following a fire at the lower cableway station parking garage. A back-up lithium battery explosion was the cause of the fire. About 400 people, many of whom were tourists, were at the top of the mountain at the time. ==Gallery==

File:Table Mountain cableway, upper station.jpg|Table Mountain cableway, upper station File:TableMountainAerialCableway2018.jpg|The Table Mountain Aerial Cableway cable cars are branded by MasterCard File:Cape Town 2012 05 15 0161 (7179920209).jpg|alt=View of the Twelve Apostles from the summit of Table Mountain ==References==