N1 road (South Africa)

National route N1
The N1 is indicated in red.
Route information
Maintained by SANRAL, City of Cape Town Metropolitan Municipality, Western Cape Provincial Government[1]
Length:	1,929 km (1,199 mi)
Major junctions
South end:	Buitengracht Street in Cape Town
	N2 in Cape Town N7 in Cape Town N12 near Beaufort West N12 at Three Sisters N10 at Hanover N9 at Colesberg N6 near Bloemfontein N8 near Bloemfontein N5 at Winburg N12 near Soweto N3 near Sandton N14 in Centurion N4 near Pretoria N11 near Mokopane
North end:	A4 at the Zimbabwean border at Beit Bridge
Location
Major cities:	Cape Town, Paarl, Worcester, Beaufort West, Colesberg, Bloemfontein, Kroonstad, Johannesburg, Pretoria, Mokopane, Polokwane
Highway system
Numbered routes of South Africa ← R727 N2 →

Numbered routes of South Africa

The N1 is a national route in South Africa that runs from Cape Town through Bloemfontein, Johannesburg, Pretoria and Polokwane to Beit Bridge on the border with Zimbabwe. It forms the first section of the famed Cape to Cairo Road.

Prior to 1970, the N1 designation was applied to the route from Beit Bridge to Colesberg and then along the current N9 to George. The section from Cape Town to Colesberg was designated the N9.

The N1 begins in central Cape Town at the northern end of Buitengracht Street outside the entrance to the Victoria & Alfred Waterfront. The first section of the N1 is shared with the beginning of the N2; it is a four-lane elevated freeway that runs along a strip of land between the city centre and the Port of Cape Town. On the eastern edge of the city centre the two roads split, and the N1 turns east as Table Bay Boulevard, passing the Ysterplaat Air Force Base and Century City before the N7 intersects it on its own way out of the city towards Namibia. Major improvements have been made to the Koeberg Interchange, where the N1 meets the M5, one of the main arterial routes linking Milnerton with the Southern Suburbs.