Lions' Gate Bridge
Encyclopedia
The Lions Gate Bridge, officially known as the First Narrows Bridge, is a suspension bridge
that crosses the first narrows of Burrard Inlet
and connects the City of Vancouver
, British Columbia
, to the North Shore
municipalities of the District of North Vancouver
, the City of North Vancouver
, and West Vancouver. The term "Lions Gate" refers to The Lions
, a pair of mountain peaks north of Vancouver. Northbound traffic on the bridge heads in their general direction.
The total length of the bridge including the north viaduct is 1,823 metre
s (5,890 feet). The length including approach spans is 1,517.3 m (4,978 ft), the main span alone is 473 m (1,550 ft), the tower height is 111 m (364 ft), and it has a ship's clearance of 61 m (200 ft). Prospect Point in Stanley Park
offered a good high south end to the bridge, but the low flat delta land to the north required construction of the extensive North Viaduct.
The bridge has three reversible lane
s, the use of which is indicated by signals. The centre lane changes direction to accommodate for traffic patterns. The traffic
volume on the bridge is 60,000 - 70,000 vehicles per day. Trucks exceeding 13 tonnes (14.3 tons
) are prohibited, as are vehicles using studded tires. The bridge forms part of Highways 99 and 1A.
On 24 March 2005, the Lions Gate Bridge was designated a National Historic Site of Canada.
Starting about 1890, bridge builders saw that a bridge across the first narrows was becoming a possibility. There were a number who argued against its construction, as many felt it would ruin Stanley Park
or cause problems for the busy seaport or that it would take toll revenue away from the Second Narrows Bridge
. However, many others saw it as necessary in order to open up development on the North Shore and it was felt that these problems could be overcome. The decision was put to the electorate of Vancouver in 1927, but the first plebiscite was defeated and the idea was put to rest for a short while.
Alfred James Towle Taylor, who had been part of this proposal and still owned the provincial franchise to build the bridge, did not have the finances to purchase the necessary large sections of property in North Vancouver and West Vancouver. However, he was able to convince the Guinness family
(of the Irish beer
fame) to invest in the land on the north shore of Burrard Inlet. They purchased 4,700 acres (16 km²) of West Vancouver mountainside through a syndicate called British Pacific Properties Ltd.
On December 13, 1933, a second plebiscite was held and this time, it was passed by a 2 to 1 margin. After considerable further negotiations with the federal government, approval was finally granted, with the requirement that Vancouver materials and workmen be used as much as possible to provide employment during the Great Depression
.
The bridge was designed by the Montreal
firm Monsarrat and Pratley, which was later responsible for the Angus L. Macdonald Bridge
in Halifax, Nova Scotia
using a similar design. Other companies involved in the construction of the bridge include: Swan Wooster Engineering, Parsons Brinckerhoff Quade & Douglas
, Rowan Williams Davies & Irwin Inc., Canron Western Constructors, Dominion Bridge Company
, American Bridge Company
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Construction began on March 31, 1937. After one and a half years and a cost of $5,873,837.17 (CAD
), it opened to traffic on November 14, 1938. On May 29, 1939, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth
presided over the official opening during a royal visit to Canada. A toll of 25 cents was charged for each car. On January 20, 1955, the Guinness family sold the bridge to the province
for $5,959,060, and in 1963, the tolls were dropped.
The bridge was originally constructed as a two-lane bridge, but when traffic increased, the road was repainted to create a third lane, which was originally a passing lane. Eventually overhead lane control signals were installed, enabling traffic in the centre lane to be directed in either direction.
In 1975, the deteriorating north viaduct was replaced with a lighter, wider, and stronger steel deck with wider lanes. This was carried out in sections using a series of short closures of the bridge; each time, one old section was lowered from the bridge and its replacement was put into place.
In 1986 the Guinness family, as a gift to Vancouver, purchased decorative lights that make it a distinctive nighttime landmark. In July 2009, the bridge's lighting system was updated with new LED
lights to replace this existing system of 100-watt mercury vapour bulbs. The switch to LEDs is expected to reduce power consumption on the bridge by 90 per cent and save the Province about $30,000 a year in energy and maintenance costs. The approximate cost to of this project was $150,000, paid for by the ministry and B.C. Hydro. "The average replacement time of one of the traditional light bulbs was about 72 hours," said the ministry's Jeff Knight. With the new LED bulbs, which are designed to last 12 years, it could be a decade before any work crew is called out to do a replacement.
By the 1990s, it was time for the bridge to be either significantly upgraded or replaced. A number of different proposals were considered, including building a new bridge beside the existing bridge, building a tunnel from Downtown Vancouver to the north shore, or double decking the existing bridge. However, none of the proposals could overcome the City of Vancouver's objections to any increase in traffic into the downtown core and the province's unwillingness to spend much money on the project. In the end, it was decided to upgrade the existing bridge without adding any new lanes.
Traffic was finding the 2.84 m (9 ft 4 in) wide lanes narrow, and the sidewalks were inadequate for pedestrians and cyclists. As a result, the main bridge deck was replaced in 2000 and 2001 – the first time a suspension bridge's deck had been replaced. As with the earlier work, this was facilitated by a series of separate nighttime and weekend closures to replace one section at a time. The old section would be lowered to a barge, and the new one raised into place and connected. The change allowed the two pedestrian walkways to be moved to the outside of the structure and the road lanes were accordingly widened from 3 to 3.6 m (from 10 to 12 ft) each; the new sidewalks are also wider, 2.7 m (9 ft) each instead of 1.2 m (4 ft). Also, the main structural elements were moved to below the bridge deck, thus giving a much more open appearance. The entire suspended structure was thus replaced with little or no interruption in daytime traffic.
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Suspension bridge
A suspension bridge is a type of bridge in which the deck is hung below suspension cables on vertical suspenders. Outside Tibet and Bhutan, where the first examples of this type of bridge were built in the 15th century, this type of bridge dates from the early 19th century...
that crosses the first narrows of Burrard Inlet
Burrard Inlet
Burrard Inlet is a relatively shallow-sided coastal fjord in southwestern British Columbia, Canada. Formed during the last Ice Age, it separates the City of Vancouver and the rest of the low-lying Burrard Peninsula from the slopes of the North Shore Mountains, home to the communities of West...
and connects the City of Vancouver
Vancouver
Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...
, British Columbia
British Columbia
British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...
, to the North Shore
North Shore (Greater Vancouver)
"Vancouver's North Shore" is a term commonly used to refer to several areas adjacent to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada:*the District of West Vancouver;*the City of North Vancouver;*the District of North Vancouver; and...
municipalities of the District of North Vancouver
North Vancouver, British Columbia (district municipality)
The District of North Vancouver is a district municipality in British Columbia and is part of the GVRD. It surrounds the City of North Vancouver on three sides.-Geography:The District of North Vancouver is separated from Vancouver by Burrard Inlet...
, the City of North Vancouver
North Vancouver, British Columbia (city)
The City of North Vancouver is a waterfront municipality on the north shore of Burrard Inlet, directly across from Vancouver, British Columbia. It is the smallest of the three North Shore municipalities, and the most urbanized as well...
, and West Vancouver. The term "Lions Gate" refers to The Lions
The Lions (Peaks)
The Lions are a pair of pointed peaks along the North Shore Mountains in Metro Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. They can be seen from much of the Greater Vancouver area, as far as Robert Burnaby Park in East Burnaby, south to parts of Surrey, and from the west on the Howe Sound Islands and the...
, a pair of mountain peaks north of Vancouver. Northbound traffic on the bridge heads in their general direction.
The total length of the bridge including the north viaduct is 1,823 metre
Metre
The metre , symbol m, is the base unit of length in the International System of Units . Originally intended to be one ten-millionth of the distance from the Earth's equator to the North Pole , its definition has been periodically refined to reflect growing knowledge of metrology...
s (5,890 feet). The length including approach spans is 1,517.3 m (4,978 ft), the main span alone is 473 m (1,550 ft), the tower height is 111 m (364 ft), and it has a ship's clearance of 61 m (200 ft). Prospect Point in Stanley Park
Stanley Park
Stanley Park is a 404.9 hectare urban park bordering downtown Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. It was opened in 1888 by David Oppenheimer in the name of Lord Stanley of Preston, the Governor-General of Canada....
offered a good high south end to the bridge, but the low flat delta land to the north required construction of the extensive North Viaduct.
The bridge has three reversible lane
Reversible lane
A reversible lane , called a counterflow lane or contraflow lane in transport engineering nomenclature, is a lane in which traffic may travel in either direction, depending on certain conditions...
s, the use of which is indicated by signals. The centre lane changes direction to accommodate for traffic patterns. The traffic
Traffic
Traffic on roads may consist of pedestrians, ridden or herded animals, vehicles, streetcars and other conveyances, either singly or together, while using the public way for purposes of travel...
volume on the bridge is 60,000 - 70,000 vehicles per day. Trucks exceeding 13 tonnes (14.3 tons
Short ton
The short ton is a unit of mass equal to . In the United States it is often called simply ton without distinguishing it from the metric ton or the long ton ; rather, the other two are specifically noted. There are, however, some U.S...
) are prohibited, as are vehicles using studded tires. The bridge forms part of Highways 99 and 1A.
On 24 March 2005, the Lions Gate Bridge was designated a National Historic Site of Canada.
History
Stanley Park
Stanley Park is a 404.9 hectare urban park bordering downtown Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. It was opened in 1888 by David Oppenheimer in the name of Lord Stanley of Preston, the Governor-General of Canada....
or cause problems for the busy seaport or that it would take toll revenue away from the Second Narrows Bridge
Second Narrows Bridge
The Second Narrows Bridge is a vertical lift railway bridge that crosses the Burrard Inlet and connects Vancouver with the North Shore. As the name suggests, it is located at the second narrowing of the Burrard Inlet....
. However, many others saw it as necessary in order to open up development on the North Shore and it was felt that these problems could be overcome. The decision was put to the electorate of Vancouver in 1927, but the first plebiscite was defeated and the idea was put to rest for a short while.
Alfred James Towle Taylor, who had been part of this proposal and still owned the provincial franchise to build the bridge, did not have the finances to purchase the necessary large sections of property in North Vancouver and West Vancouver. However, he was able to convince the Guinness family
Guinness family
The Guinness family is an extensive aristocratic Irish Protestant family noted for their accomplishments in brewing, banking, politics and religious ministry...
(of the Irish beer
Beer
Beer is the world's most widely consumed andprobably oldest alcoholic beverage; it is the third most popular drink overall, after water and tea. It is produced by the brewing and fermentation of sugars, mainly derived from malted cereal grains, most commonly malted barley and malted wheat...
fame) to invest in the land on the north shore of Burrard Inlet. They purchased 4,700 acres (16 km²) of West Vancouver mountainside through a syndicate called British Pacific Properties Ltd.
British Properties
The British Properties is a residential area in West Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. It was purchased by A.R. Guinness-Br. Pacific Properties in 1932 and developed as the British Properties. were purchased at a cost of $50 per acre. The British Properties helped finance the development and...
On December 13, 1933, a second plebiscite was held and this time, it was passed by a 2 to 1 margin. After considerable further negotiations with the federal government, approval was finally granted, with the requirement that Vancouver materials and workmen be used as much as possible to provide employment during the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
.
The bridge was designed by the Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
firm Monsarrat and Pratley, which was later responsible for the Angus L. Macdonald Bridge
Angus L. Macdonald Bridge
The Angus L. Macdonald Bridge, locally known as "the old bridge", is a suspension bridge crossing Halifax Harbour in Nova Scotia, Canada; it opened on April 2, 1955....
in Halifax, Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the most populous province in Atlantic Canada. The name of the province is Latin for "New Scotland," but "Nova Scotia" is the recognized, English-language name of the province. The provincial capital is Halifax. Nova Scotia is the...
using a similar design. Other companies involved in the construction of the bridge include: Swan Wooster Engineering, Parsons Brinckerhoff Quade & Douglas
Parsons Brinckerhoff
Parsons Brinckerhoff is a professional services firm with 14,000 employees in 150 offices providing construction and operation management, planning, design, engineering, program management, strategic consulting, environmental and sustainability services for clients and communities in the Americas,...
, Rowan Williams Davies & Irwin Inc., Canron Western Constructors, Dominion Bridge Company
Dominion Bridge Company
Dominion Bridge Company Limited was a Canadian steel bridge constructor originally based in Lachine, Quebec. From the core business of steel bridge component fabrication, the company diversified into related areas such as the fabrication of holding tanks for pulp mills and skyscraper framing.Other...
, American Bridge Company
American Bridge Company
The American Bridge Company is a privately held civil engineering firm specializing in the construction and renovation of bridges and other large civil engineering projects, founded in 1900, and headquartered in Coraopolis, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Pittsburgh.-Products and industry positioning:The...
.
Canadian dollar
The Canadian dollar is the currency of Canada. As of 2007, the Canadian dollar is the 7th most traded currency in the world. It is abbreviated with the dollar sign $, or C$ to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies...
), it opened to traffic on November 14, 1938. On May 29, 1939, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth
Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon
Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon was the queen consort of King George VI from 1936 until her husband's death in 1952, after which she was known as Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, to avoid confusion with her daughter, Queen Elizabeth II...
presided over the official opening during a royal visit to Canada. A toll of 25 cents was charged for each car. On January 20, 1955, the Guinness family sold the bridge to the province
British Columbia
British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...
for $5,959,060, and in 1963, the tolls were dropped.
The bridge was originally constructed as a two-lane bridge, but when traffic increased, the road was repainted to create a third lane, which was originally a passing lane. Eventually overhead lane control signals were installed, enabling traffic in the centre lane to be directed in either direction.
In 1975, the deteriorating north viaduct was replaced with a lighter, wider, and stronger steel deck with wider lanes. This was carried out in sections using a series of short closures of the bridge; each time, one old section was lowered from the bridge and its replacement was put into place.
In 1986 the Guinness family, as a gift to Vancouver, purchased decorative lights that make it a distinctive nighttime landmark. In July 2009, the bridge's lighting system was updated with new LED
LEd
LEd is a TeX/LaTeX editing software working under Microsoft Windows. It is a freeware product....
lights to replace this existing system of 100-watt mercury vapour bulbs. The switch to LEDs is expected to reduce power consumption on the bridge by 90 per cent and save the Province about $30,000 a year in energy and maintenance costs. The approximate cost to of this project was $150,000, paid for by the ministry and B.C. Hydro. "The average replacement time of one of the traditional light bulbs was about 72 hours," said the ministry's Jeff Knight. With the new LED bulbs, which are designed to last 12 years, it could be a decade before any work crew is called out to do a replacement.
By the 1990s, it was time for the bridge to be either significantly upgraded or replaced. A number of different proposals were considered, including building a new bridge beside the existing bridge, building a tunnel from Downtown Vancouver to the north shore, or double decking the existing bridge. However, none of the proposals could overcome the City of Vancouver's objections to any increase in traffic into the downtown core and the province's unwillingness to spend much money on the project. In the end, it was decided to upgrade the existing bridge without adding any new lanes.
Traffic was finding the 2.84 m (9 ft 4 in) wide lanes narrow, and the sidewalks were inadequate for pedestrians and cyclists. As a result, the main bridge deck was replaced in 2000 and 2001 – the first time a suspension bridge's deck had been replaced. As with the earlier work, this was facilitated by a series of separate nighttime and weekend closures to replace one section at a time. The old section would be lowered to a barge, and the new one raised into place and connected. The change allowed the two pedestrian walkways to be moved to the outside of the structure and the road lanes were accordingly widened from 3 to 3.6 m (from 10 to 12 ft) each; the new sidewalks are also wider, 2.7 m (9 ft) each instead of 1.2 m (4 ft). Also, the main structural elements were moved to below the bridge deck, thus giving a much more open appearance. The entire suspended structure was thus replaced with little or no interruption in daytime traffic.
Landmark
- The Lions Gate Bridge has become a landmark of Vancouver and the North Shore.
- The bridge was featured on the first title card of CBCCBC TelevisionCBC Television is a Canadian television network owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the national public broadcaster.Although the CBC is supported by public funding, the television network supplements this funding with commercial advertising revenue, in contrast to CBC Radio which are...
supper-hour newscast Canada NowCanada NowCanada Now was the early-evening national news program on CBC Television, the main English television network of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, between 2000 and 2007...
, but it was replaced with a local image in several markets. - The bridge is often used in television broadcasts as a symbol of Vancouver; most telecasts of NHL hockey games played in Vancouver show the bridge at least once.
- The bridge is the namesakeNamesakeNamesake is a term used to characterize a person, place, thing, quality, action, state, or idea that has the same, or a similar, name to another....
of locally-founded film company Lionsgate. - The bridge was featured in the closing sequence of the film Tron: Legacy, released December 17, 2010.
- The Lions Gate Bridge was again featured as the set of 2011 film Final Destination 5Final Destination 5Final Destination 5 is a 2011 supernatural horror film written by Eric Heisserer and directed by Steven Quale. It is the fifth installment in the Final Destination film franchise and stars Nicholas D'Agosto, Emma Bell, Miles Fisher, Arlen Escarpeta, David Koechner, and Tony Todd .The motion...
released August 12th, 2011.
Gallery
See also
- The Lions (peaks)The Lions (Peaks)The Lions are a pair of pointed peaks along the North Shore Mountains in Metro Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. They can be seen from much of the Greater Vancouver area, as far as Robert Burnaby Park in East Burnaby, south to parts of Surrey, and from the west on the Howe Sound Islands and the...
- List of bridges in Canada
- List of bridges
- 1946 Vancouver Island earthquake1946 Vancouver Island earthquakeThe 1946 Vancouver Island earthquake was a 7.3 magnitude earthquake that struck Vancouver Island, on the Coast of British Columbia, Canada, at 10:15 a.m. on Sunday, June 23, 1946. The main shock epicenter occurred in the Forbidden Plateau area northwest of Courtenay...
External links
- Building a Vancouver Icon: The Lions Gate Bridge — the construction of the Lions Gate Bridge (illustrated with many photographs)
- Bridges of Greater Vancouver