Wednesday, October 22, 1997 — North Shore News — 14 "out to a circular. sec- Lady in blac From page 3 At 4:35 a.m. three tugboats towed the barge into the nwo-knot current, feeding the cables into the water behind them. Twenty minutes later they reached the north pier and the cable ends were attached to the anchors there. The first cable was then hoisted to the tops of the towers in only eight minutes. By 5:55 a.m. the remaining three cables had been lifted, and spanned the 1,550 ff. (472 m) between the towers. At 6 a.m. the waterway was reopened and the first boats passed under the new bridge. The next morning . another four cables for the second catwalk, as well-as a 5/8-inch haul- ing cable, were raised. The hauling cable was required for dragging ; the actual bridge cables across the span. ‘3 The mornings of May 2 and May 3, 1938 were the only times the waterway was entirely closed BUILDING LIONS GATE BRIDGE | . Bridge. Those first cables are long gone. Their. ‘only purpose was to support two six-foot-wide catwalks (similar-to the touristy Capilano Suspension Bridge) along the path of the real cables. ~The main cables are 13 inches (33 cm) in diameter. One might wonder how they handled such monsters. Enormous Is, very heavy derricks: come to mind. Of course, no such form ‘a. hexagon: (five »eables :, per’, edge),’ which was’ ther filled’ “. The first section of roadway was hoisted into froma barge on June 9, 1938. It was the involve fatalities. One per million dollars of during the construction of the Lions Gate . THE south pier for the Lions Gate nears completion in January 1938. — ss Photos courtesy City of “ Vancouver Archives CONCRETE foundations are in piace for the north viaduct. The mound at the far end is for the Marine Drive overpass. The photo was shot on Oct. 17, 1937. centre section and was 50 ft. (25.2 m) in length. By June 20 paving of the north viaduct roadway and sidewalks was begun. The remaining sec- tions of the suspension bridge were in place by mid-August and concrete filling of the tee-grids began. When the bridge opened on Nov. 12, 1938, it was for pedestrian traffic only. Tolls, however, were set at 25 cents for car and driver, five cents for passengers, pedestri- ans, bicycle and rider, and 25 cents. for a horse-drawn vehicle. The first to cross _ from Vancouver was a “little old lady in black,” Mrs. Mary Sutton, 75. She was followed by Mr. and Mrs. H.J. Green (not Howard C. Green, then a Conservative Opposition MP). nis first to cross from the North Shore was Construction of large structures commonly \ expenditure was the norm in the 1930s. The Lions Gate Bridge construction had a good record. No one fell trom great heights. There was, however, one fatality. A 32-year-old mucker, Lester Thorstad, died following injury at the site. He had come from Saskatchewan, looking for any kind of work and had landed a job on the construction site. Monday, Oct. 25, 1938 was his first day on the job. That afternoon while he was working in the excavation of one of the south cable anchorages, a wall collapsed and he was half-buried in clay and cobbles. Thorstad died in St. Pauls Hospital of inter- nal injuries a couple of . days later. A Vancouver Sun photograph of the pit shows that no wall shoring been put in place. Construction of the much larger Golden Gate Bridge involved the most rigorous safety precau- tions in the history of bridge building. The mandatory _ protective Length of suspended ap: | Length of man span Number of Janes Width of each sidewalk Feature Tota) Jength, include approaches a yun plus side spans Width of roadway betwen curbs Clearance above mean high water Deepest foundation beacath mean low water Height of tower sbove mean sca level” Diameter of main cable including wrapping fatality in four years, the Golden Gate job was well on its way to establishing a record for safe- ty. Then, in February of 1937, three months before the bridge opened, a section of scaffold collapsed and broke throught the safery net. Ten workers died. Although the Lions Gate Bridge suffers the natural defects of old age, they are confined mainly to the roadway. The cables and towers are presently OK, in spite of the rusted river heads found on the south pier. Replacement of some of the rivets by strong bolts has been recommended. It would be a very noisy operation and wouldn’: find favor among, nearby North Shore residents. As might be expected neither tower is now vertical, because of cable stretch, but there has’ been no change since 1970. . The suscepubility of the bridge to a large earthquake is a complex matter. Some might envision one of the main cables breaking dunng a large quake. The snap-back velocity of ‘the cable is not known. Because the natural reso- nance of the suspension has such a long wave length, a major quake would scarcely be felt in the midspan segment. ; Survivors on the rigid viaduct at the north end of the bridge, however, would sce ic differ- ently. The viaduct makes up 45% of the length of the Lions Gate Bridge and is the most sus- ceptible to seismic damage — in fact major col- lapse is possible, although not likely. It is proba- bly OK even for the imminent Richter 8. The Capilano River deltaic deposits will cer- tainly amplify- the shaking, but liquefaction is unlikely unless thick lenses of sand, silt and marine clay are present within the gravel. Yet the & south anchors could be displaced north- ward. +. When it comes to length the Lions Gate Bridge is in the minor leagues. . Its 1,550 foot (472 m) main span does not approach that of the Golden Gate Bridge (4,200 feet, 1,280 m). first to cross bridge Lions Gate and Golden Gate bridges ~ Lions Gate ____Galden Gate 5820 ft= 1774 m_ | 8981 fe = 2737 m 2775 t= 847 m 6450 f= 1966m 1550 ft = 472 m $200 fr = 1280 m [29h]=9m fe2k=19m EE: 10h=3m [209 ft=64m [320 f= 67 m [0n=33m | [estt=20m | [364 fi= tim | 746 f= 227 m [36in headgear was the proto- Vehicle crossings; annual type of the hard hat. They © | Time of construction even went so far as to string a safety net beneath the entire bridge. It was credited with saving 19 lives. The | survivors became known as the “Half-Way-to-Hell Club.” With only one ‘[ Current tot Annual (oll revenue Total toll revenue since opening Total cost of bridge and Total fatalities during construction approaches. Jon 1933 ° ‘April 1937 - May 1937 Nov, 1938 Number of strands in each cable 6t [none [fo jo. «$4,859,000 [of $160,000 7 $84,810,000 about $24 million about $5 million © Gokden Gate valoes US” YOUR INVESTMENTS ARE ON THE LINE HIGH GROWTH Let us help you make sure they’re in the right place. At North Shore, we’ll give you our best rates, best products and best advice to help you choose investments that are right for you. We'll make it simple. \ Call 713-3000 today You Belong Here CREDIT UNION “| NORTH SHORE - INDEX