1938,2001 Lions Gate Bridge over First Narrows at Vancouver, BC

(Historic Bridges; Satellite, 13,261 photos)

Street View, May 2012

Alberta Dunns, Apr 2020

Navy General Board posted
HMCS Warrior passing under the Lion's Gate Bridge in late 1946/ early 1947.
[The description continues with a history of the ship.]

At first glance, I thought this was the same as above. But it is different.

The Warshipologist posted
A picture of HMS Implacable (R86) passing under the Lions Gate Bridge while departing Vancouver around October 18, 1945. She had just delivered POWs from Manila and was heading for Hong Kong for more transportation duties. A picture of the ship alongside in Vancouver can be found a little further down on the feed.

Ed Beauregard commented on the above post
The Vancouver City archives has an excellent collection of warship photos. Here is the U.S.S. Iowa passing under the Lions Gate Bridge July 7th, 1947. I actually have 16 mm film of the Iowa entering harbour, but sadly no 16 mm projector (sold that decades ago) so I never had a chance to digitize the video. Photograph by Walter E. Frost

 

Bridges Now and Then posted
Lions Gate Bridge from Lumberman’s Arch, Stanley Park, Vancouver, BC, 1938. Photographer: Leonard Frank. (Jewish Museum & Archives of BC, Leonard Frank Photos Studio)
David Cooper: Financed by the Guinness brewery family to increase the value of their land the opposite side of the channel from Vancouver. Deck replacement design by Buckland and Taylor. Replaced entire deck piece by piece in overnight possessions in 2000...remarkable achievement.

Bridges Now and Then posted

Vancouver's Lions Gate Bridge, October 19, 1938.

"OPERATING THE CABLE WRAPPING MACHINE

The cables were wrapped in the last month before the bridge opened. Here the three workers are operating a compressed-air-driven rotary machine. Workers were not issued any special clothing, footwear or safety equipment. None of these men is wearing a hard hat or a safety harness to catch him in case he loses his footing. They wore street fedoras or caps, and the man on the left is wearing soft shoes. A Maclean’s magazine article from August 15, 1938, illustrates the mindset of the workers who put their lives on the line daily. Any misstep at such heights could have meant serious injury or death. The reporter said of bridge worker Joe Lepage: “The expanse of space below him meant no more to Joe than the distance from kitchen porch to lawn means to the housewife as she hauls in Monday’s washing from the line.”" (Museum and Archives of North Vancouver)

Kip Wylie: In the 2000 In-depth inspection of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge we removed two sections of the wrapping cable, then probed to oak spikes deep inside the tranverse 8'300 support strands. With this the engineers were able to fiberoptic inspect for corrosion. To wrap our main cable we purchased an old antique 1940's wrapper from a bridge in NYC. That thing was by far the most cantancerous piece of equipment in 35 years of bridge work.

Dave Frieder: The POWER Wrapper was invented by Holton Robinson. He worked closely with David Steinman.

 

Eddie Gough commented on the above post
The same operation is used 18 years later , wrapping the Mac. Bridge main cable with galvanized wire. the main cable contains 12870 wires, no OSHA back then, 5 men did die during construction.

The bridge was named after two mountain peaks that are visible from the bridge. The sculptures were added to acknowledge the name. [study]

Street View, Apr 2023

 

StanleyParkVan
"When opened in 1938, the 1550 ft. [472m]  main span was the longest suspension span outside the United States....The total length of the Lions Gate Bridge (including approach spans) is 1517 metres [5154', 0.94 miles)]."
[There is no approach span on the south side because the bridge lands on a river bluff, but there is a long approach span on the north side.]

"This monumental and famous bridge retains its landmark status, despite severe alteration of the design of the bridge through loss of the original stiffening truss. The use of pony truss stiffening was a trademark and key feature of suspension bridges designed by the Canadian firm of Monsarrat and Pratley. In 2000-2001 the entire original stiffening truss system was demolished and replaced with a modern structure, that looks like an extremely shallow deck truss. The loss of original material as well as the replacement of the original design stiffening truss with an unusual design that looks nothing like the original engineer's design is a major alteration to this bridge and severely reduces its historic integrity. Also, another trademark of Monsarrat and Pratley, which was to use unusual paired suspenders with spacers was lost. The bridge still has unusual paired suspenders, but the spacers were not replaced. The spacers gave the bridge an unusual appearance." [HistoricBridges]

HistoricBridges
[This shows the spacers that were between the paired suspenders.]

HistoricBridges
The original truss.

Today, you can't see any of the new truss and there are no spacers between the paired suspenders. They also added a third lane by making the lanes narrower. The middle lane is normally reversed to accommodate rush hours. There is a pedestrian+bike lane on both sides.

Street View, Apr 2023