Granville Street Bridge

Granville Street Bridge
File:Granville-bridge.jpg The modern Granville Street Bridge, with downtown and the North Shore mountains in the distance.
Coordinates
Carries	Eight lanes of British Columbia Highway 99, Granville Street, pedestrians, and bicycles
Crosses	False Creek
Locale	Vancouver
Maintained by	City of Vancouver
Preceded by	Granville Street Bridge (second)
Characteristics
Design	Cantilever/truss bridge
Clearance below	27.4 m
History
Opened	February 4, 1954

The Granville Street Bridge is an eight lane bridge in Vancouver, British Columbia. It spans False Creek and is 27.4 metres above Granville Island. It is part of Highway 99.

History

First bridge 1889

Media related to at Wikimedia Commons
The original bridge was completed in 1889. It was a 732-metre long low timber trestle. The navigation span, near the north end, was a trussed timber swing span, tied with wire ropes to a central wooden tower. It was largely designed by the CPR, and cost $16,000. In 1891 the bridge was widened on both sides for streetcar tracks, except where the tracks converged for the swing span.

Second bridge 1909

Media related to at Wikimedia Commons
The second bridge was completed in 1909. It was a longer, medium-level steel bridge with a through truss swing span.

Third bridge 1954

On February 4, 1954, the current Granville Street Bridge, costing $16.5 million, opened. A million cars would cross over the bridge in its first month. The city of Vancouver funded the bridge itself as Mayor Frederick Hume said "no formal assistance given by any other government body."

The eight-lane structure was constructed on the same alignment as the first bridge while steel plate girders salvaged from the second bridge made barges for constructing the foundations of the Oak Street Bridge.

The first “civilian” to drive over the 1954 bridge was the same woman who was first to drive over the second bridge in 1909. She had been widowed between the two openings, and so had a different name. Both times she was at the wheel of a brand-new Cadillac.

Recent improvements to the bridge include increasing its earthquake resistance, and installing higher curbs and median barriers.

• Granville Street Bridge Vancouver circa 1888.jpg

  Original bridge in 1888

• Granville Street Bridge 1909.jpg

  Second bridge in 1909

• False Creek and Granville Island - Vancouver.jpg

  The Granville Street Bridge from the Burrard Street Bridge.

• Granville St Bridge, to city center.jpg

  Southwest view along Bridge into city centre, Winter 2006

• Granvillebridge.JPG

  View of downtown.

See also

• List of bridges in Canada

Resources

• History of Metropolitan Vancouver
• Bridges of Greater Vancouver
• Granville Street Bridge at Structurae

External links

• Footage of the demolition of the second bridge and construction of the third Granville Street Bridge, 1954, City of Vancouver Archives
• 1954 film clip taken from a car driving over the bridge