RAILWAY PROPOSES A BRIDGE ACROSS SECOND NARROWS
Plan was for 475-metre structure with nine piers
If you wanted to get from Vancouver to the North Shore in 1907, you had to take a boat, or swim.
But the 20-year-old city had no shortage of big schemes. And on Feb. 8, 1907, the Daily Province announced the Vancouver, Westminster and Yukon Railway wanted to build a bridge across the Second Narrows.
The Province didn’t like it. “If the scheme goes through that great area of water frontage on both sides of the Inlet to the east of the Second Narrows and on the North Arm of the Inlet might as well be shut off by a breakwater from communication by the sea,” said a front-page story.
“For certainly the erection of a low-level bridge at the Second Narrows will be as effectual as a dam in preventing shipping from passing Hastings (townsite).”
The V.W.&Y Railway was headed by local lumber baron John Hendry, who had linked up with the Great Northern Railway in the U.S. to try to provide an alternative to the Canadian Pacific.
He must have been a Liberal, because the Province was politically conservative. On Feb. 9, the rival Vancouver World slammed the Province for attacking “every proposal made by (the V.W.&Y) with bitterness.” The World then debunked the Province story by going to the V.W.&Y and finding that the actual plan was for a bridge 15 metres above the water, with a swing span that would open to allow larger vessels through.
“When the V.W.&Y. crosses the Second Narrows it will be one of the most magnificent bridges in the whole west,” stated the World.
The World ran an illustration of the bridge on July 14, 1907 that said it would come with nine piers and stretch 475 metres across the Second Narrows.
But the plan foundered, in part because it was a railway bridge with no pedestrian or vehicle traffic. When several municipalities (including Vancouver and North Vancouver) approached the V.W.&Y about building a joint traffic and railway bridge, the railway said it would do it for $250,000, along with $50,000 for upkeep.
The catch was the V.W.&Y wanted to retain sole ownership.
The municipalities balked, and in 1910 resurrected the Burrard Inlet Tunnel and Bridge company, which had been incorporated in 1892.
A Nov. 1, 1910 story in the World said $600,000 had been raised for the $1.2-million bridge, but the economic recession just before the First World War sunk the plan.
The project got back on track in July 1923, when the Northern Construction company signed a contract to build the bridge for $1.25 million. Various levels of government demanded changes, which brought the cost up to about $2 million.
The Second Narrows bridge finally opened on Nov. 7, 1925, and was an instant hit, drawing 16,000 cars and 35,000 people on opening weekend.
It was a toll bridge, charging 15 cents for cars and five cents for passengers or pedestrians. The rail deck opened in 1926.
The steel bridge was designed by William Smaill, chief engineer for Northern Construction. It was a “bascule” bridge with two towers and a counterweight that lifted part of the bridge to let ships pass through.
Unfortunately, ships kept running into it, partly because there were strong currents at the Second Narrows. On Sept. 19 1930, a barge hit the bridge’s centre span, and the 90-metre span fell into Burrard Inlet. The bridge would remain closed until 1933.
This led to all sorts of alternative schemes. In June 1931 the Cote Commission recommended building a $5.25-million “lockless canal” that would cut through the North Shore tidal flats. The fourkilometre-long canal would have a top width of up to 120 metres, and been nine metres deep.
Incredibly, a pair of original 1931 Province illustrations showing the Cote Commission’s plan are still in our “Second Narrows Bridge, Old” file. But the plan was too costly in the Depression, and the existing bridge was refurbished and reopened. It was finally replaced by the current Second Narrows Bridge in 1960.