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Date: 1872-1877; 1958-1963 Type: Mountain Pass Style: Engineered Status: Extant   Click to view map Coordinates: 33°57'18.24" S 21°13'32.94" E Alt: 748m

A pass linking Riversdale through the Langeberg to Ladismith, following the Goukou River. It is named for Maurice Garcia, who, In the 1860s, as local magistrate had had a bridle path constructed along the same route by convict labour. By the 1870s the people of Riversdale petitioned Parliament for a properly constructed wagon pass. Convict labour commenced this as soon as they had finished the Tradouw Pass in 1872. The old toll-house, situated within the Kristalkloof Forest Reserve, is still in a very good state of preservation and stands, as it were, on an island between the old road passing in front of it and the new road passing behind it. The old Toll House was rebuilt in 1910 on the foundations of an earlier toll house and is a remnant of a system that played an important part in the history of transportation in South Africa. (Wikipedia, accessed 2018 02 09. Submitted by Lila Komnick) SAHRIS Provincial Heritage Site. Books that reference Garcia's Pass and Toll-house Whitehead, Marion . 2018. South Africa's Favourite Passes + Poorts. Maitland: Map Studio. pg 90-95