On This Day: Lions Gate Bridge opens, 1938

The Lions Gate Bridge opened to traffic between Vancouver and the North Shore on Nov. 14, 1938, according to both The Canadian Encyclopedia and Wikipedia.

The suspension bridge was built by a private syndicate, not by government. The Canadian Encyclopedia says the Guinness family of Britain offered to pay for the crossing through a company called British Pacific Properties Ltd. Wikipedia says the syndicate bought 1,902 hectares (4,700 acres) of West Vancouver mountainside. The same article says engineer Alfred J.T. Taylor persuaded Walter Guinness to back the project.

Construction began on March 31, 1937, and took about a year and a half, both sources say. Wikipedia says the bridge was designed by the Montreal firm Monsarrat and Pratley. The Canadian Encyclopedia puts the final cost at exactly $5,873,837.17. Wikipedia rounds the figure to $5,873,837.

The bridge was not free to use. Wikipedia says the toll was 25 cents for each car or horse and carriage, and five cents for pedestrians or bicycles. According to the same source, the toll stayed on the bridge until April 1, 1963.

The Nov. 14 date marks the day vehicles could first cross, which is not the same as the formal ceremony. Both sources say the official opening came the following spring, during the 1939 royal tour, but they do not agree on the day. The Canadian Encyclopedia says King George VI and Queen Elizabeth presided over the official opening on May 29, 1939. Wikipedia says the official opening was held May 26, 1939, at the Capilano Golf Club, and that the royal couple crossed the bridge on May 29. The sources conflict on that detail, so it is reported here as they gave it.

The Canadian Encyclopedia describes the bridge as the link between Vancouver and the North Shore, and says the Guinness family paid for it. Wikipedia ties the project directly to the family’s West Vancouver landholdings. The bridge has been a fixture of the Vancouver skyline since, and it stands beside Stanley Park.

For those walking or cycling in the park today, the bridge is a familiar backdrop. Canada News Media has reported on the Stanley Park seawall section closure that runs to Nov. 14, the 88th anniversary of the bridge’s opening to traffic.

The details of the 1938 opening are drawn from The Canadian Encyclopedia entry on the Lions Gate Bridge and the Wikipedia article of the same name. Where the two differ, as with the date of the official ceremony, both versions are given above.

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