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Bridging the gap

The following is taken from the book “Reflections: 100 Years” a
retrospective look at North Vancouver District's first 100 vears that was
recently released in commemoration of the District's Centennial —
written by Chuck Davis, it is available in local bookstores.

PLANS FOR the building of the first bridge across Bur-
rard Inlet had existed for years — even before [892 and
the creation of the Burrard Inlet Tunnel & Bridge Com-

pany.

That company ran into prob-
lems far too convoluted to detail
here, including the creation of the
Vancouver, Westminster and
Yukon Railway Company
(VWYR), which also wanted a
bridge — and had a federal sub-
sidy to build it.

Then Ottawa complicated mat-
ters further by stipulating that any
bridge had to have a draw at feast
250 feet long (the ‘‘draw’’ being
the portion lifted to let ships pass
through). That increased the pro-
jected cost by one million dollars.

While frantic efforts were being
made to raise that money, the war
came along — and the plans for
the bridge were shelved.

World War I ended November
11, 1918, and life moved on for
North Shore residents.

After the war, control of the
railway company passed into the
hands of a consortium of cities
and municipalities: Vancouver, the
District of North Vancouver, the
City of North Vancouver and the
District of West Vancouver.

Construction on the Second
Narrows Bridge started September
12, 1923, and went on through
1924 and 1925.

And, finally, the bridge —
designed to carry both road and
rail — was built. For the first
time, it was possible for trains and
cars to cross Burrard Inlet.

In fact, on the day of the
bridge’s opening, November 7,
1925, more than 3,900 cars drove
over it. A pamphlet published to
_celebrate the opening described it
as ‘“‘the most important event in
the history of the North Shore.”’
it probably was.

Gver the heated protests of
shipping men, who had wanted
the lift-span over the central,
deepest part of the channel, a
decision had been made to place it
over shallower water at the
_ southern end of the bridge.

‘That was intended as a cost-
saving measure (a central lift-span
would have required much larger

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support structures), but the ship-
pers felt this construction would
make navigating the bridge dan-
gerous.

As the next few yeers would
amply show, the *‘shallow-end”’
option had been the wrong one.
Those angry shippers had
predicted rightly: the new bridge
would become a menace to
navigation.

ees

Since it had gone up in 1925,
the Second Narrows Bridge had
been hit several times, with vary-
ing degrees of damage.

And then came September,
1930, and the Pacific Gatherer, a
former sailing vessel. now a log
barge. It was carried by a rapidly
swirling eddy under the fixed cen-
tre span, just north of the bascule,
and wedged there, stuck fast. And
the tide was rising.

Within an hour, the entire cen-
tre span had been ripped free.
Captain James Barr, in his history
of the North Vancouver ferry
system, recalls the incident:

“For a short time after this ac-
cident the span hung precariously
with one end in the Inlet. There
was some talk of quick salvage at-
tempt and a local consulting
engineer ... surveyed the damage
and, placing a foot on the hanging
span, said, ‘This will! hold for a
while. Go ahead and order a der-
rick scow and tugs.”

“He had just turned from issu-
ing these instructions when the
whole span broke away from the
main structure and there was a
mighty splash as the span disap-
peared beneath the turbulent
waters of Burrard Inlet.”

Remarkably, in ali the incidents
involving the bridge no lives have
been lost; no one was even in-
jured.

oe Horseshoe Bay

Sunday, March 24, 1991 - North Shore News - 19

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