The upper cable station is on the westernmost end of the Table Mountain plateau, at an elevation of 1,067 metres (3,501 ft).

The upper cable station offers views over Cape Town, Table Bay and Robben Island to the north, and the Atlantic seaboard to the west and south.

Former world leading wire ropeway company Adolf Bleichert & Co.[6] from Leipzig (Germany) was awarded the contract for the construction.

It was completed in 1929 at a cost of £60,000[4] (equivalent to £11,400,000 in 2011 pounds[5]) and the cableway was opened on 4 October 1929, by the Mayor of Cape Town AJS Lewis.

Sir David Graaff, a leading industrialist, former mayor of Cape Town and government minister, also invested heavily in the project.