Sir Lowry's Pass

The pass is 4 lanes wide and is subject to heavy traffic, especially at the start and end of holiday periods when many people travel in and out of the Cape Town area, and is sometimes seen as an accident black spot.

The mountain crossing in that region was known by the indigenous Khoi people as the Gantouw or Eland's Pass, and was used as a stock route.

Construction began at a site about 2 km to the south of the Hottentots Holland Kloof, by the engineer Charles Michell using convict labour.

The new pass was opened on 6 July 1830, and named after Lowry Cole, the Governor of the Cape Colony at the time.

[5] A toll-house was set-up on the top of mountain to offset the cost of the project to the Cape government collecting £490 in its first two years in addition to additional indirect tax revenue derived from increased use of port facilities and other tolls as a result of the increase in economic activity the pass created.