16/03/2025
SWARTBERG PASS, a National Monument between Prince Albert and Oudtshoorn, is undoubtedly one of the most spectacular and best known mountain passes in South Africa. It is the masterpiece of the brilliant engineer and road builder, Thomas Charles Bain (1830 – 1893), and the last of the seventeen passes he built in the Cape Province.
Originally the routes through Meiring’s Poort and Seven Weeks’ Poort were the only links between the port of Mossel Bay and the towns and villages of the Great Karoo. The road through Meiring’s Poort was often closed due to flood damage and rockfalls. The heavy flooding during 1875 caused the closure of these gateways for weeks.
The building of the Swartberg Pass proved to be a mammoth taskThomas Bain took over the building of the pass in November 1883. Using 200 to 240 convicts, he tackled the job with great enthusiasm.
The pass was built with the use of pickaxes, spades, sledgehammers, crowbars, wheelbarrows, and gunpowder. Boulders were split by heating them with fire and then dousing them with cold water. Rocks were broken into smaller pieces with sledgehammers and then carefully dressed by the convicts. The dry-wall method of construction was used to build the impressive retaining walls that supported the road against the precipitous slopes. A century later, travelers still wonder at this feat.
Meat, dried beans, soup and other kinds of food were cooked in large pots for the convicts. Fresh bread was baked and an ox and sixteen sheep were slaughtered daily to provide meat for everybody on the project.
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