HONKING HORNS HAILED VIADUCT
Structure was considered engineering marvel
The idea of tearing down the Georgia Viaduct is controversial today. But it’s nowhere near as controversial as the original structure, which started falling apart in 1925 but wasn’t replaced until 1971-72.
Still, it was hailed as the “Great Viaduct” when it was completed on June 10, 1915.
“Georgia-Harris Structure is as Fireproof as Human Ingenuity Can Contrive,” read a headline in the Vancouver World. “Splendid Work.”
It was called the Georgia-Harris Viaduct because it connected Georgia Street downtown with Harris Street in Chinatown. Harris was renamed East Georgia the year the viaduct was completed.
The first viaduct was built over railway tracks and a spur of False Creek that ran up to Columbia and Keefer. It was built to ease traffic into downtown from Main Street.
“The new artery will greatly relieve the congestion of the central thoroughfares of the city such as Hastings, Pender and Cordova, as many vehicles are now using that way between Granville and the eastern end of the city,” said a World story on June 22, 1915.
“By the previous shortest route, the distance from the corner of Main and Harris to the corner of Beatty and Georgia is 4,200 feet, while the distance across the bridge between those points is 2,800, so that fully 1,400 feet are saved.
“Added to this, however, is the ability of vehicles to make a straight run across, as there is no stopping on account of traffic congestion. The saving in time, therefore, is very appreciable.”
The viaduct was officially opened on July 1.
“Surrounded by members of the city council and scores of brightly coloured automobiles, Mayor L.D. Taylor shortly before 12 o’clock formally declared the magnificent half-million dollar Georgia-Harris viaduct open to the public,” reported The Vancouver Sun.
“The cutting of the silk barrier at the west end of the bridge by the mayor was a signal for a great outburst of cheers and the ‘honking’ of hundreds of automobile horns.”
The viaduct was hailed as “incombustible,” a big deal at the time.
“There is not a single piece of wood — not enough to make a match — in the whole construction, and all the steel work is encased in concrete,” said the World. “The bridge consequently is as absolutely fireproof as human ingenuity can make it.”
The design was hailed as an engineering marvel because it included a reinforced concrete span over the Great Northern Railway tracks that was 25 metres long, which the World stated was the longest “on the American continent.”
Two streetcar lines were placed in the middle of the structure to speed the masses downtown.
But streetcars never seem to have used the viaduct, because it wasn’t strong enough to bear their weight.
In 1965, Vancouver’s city engineer Ran Martin explained that there were several problems with the 1915 construction, including too much sand in the concrete. This made it weak in spots, so weak that in its later years parts had to be reinforced.
In 1971, the man in charge of demolishing the viaduct called it “a bum piece of work.”
“In point of fact,” said Bob Harbrow, “the concrete forms in the average single-family home are considerably stronger than the stuff that went into this.”
Cement started falling off the viaduct in 1925.
In 1929, a car spun out of control and smashed through the concrete handrail, flying through the air and through the roof of a nearby warehouse.
Crumbling or not, lots of cars used the viaduct and it became an integral part of plans to build a freeway through East Van.
There’s a 1944 story in the Province files about an upper deck being proposed for the Georgia Viaduct as part of an $11-million “super highway” from New Westminster to Vancouver.
In the 1960s, plans were drawn for a replacement viaduct that would have connected to a freeway running through Union and Adanac streets to the Trans-Canada Highway.
Protests by citizens and funding battles between the provincial and federal governments derailed the freeway, but the old viaduct was in such bad shape it was replaced by the current one in 1972.
There were protests when that opened, too.