Saturday 7 February 2009

Second Narrows


It's taken me a lot of years to get used to calling this the Iron Workers' Memorial Bridge. It started out as the Second Narrows Bridge. On June 17, 1958, near the end of the work day, without warning, two sections of the unfinished bridge snapped off and fell in to Burrard Inlet taking nearly 80 workers with them. An engineering miscalculation involving a temporary support was the cause of the collapse. 

Eighteen bridge workers and one diver died. 

The lower bridge further in the distance is the CN Rail Second Narrows Bridge which raises for boat traffic. 

The Lion's Gate Bridge spans the first narrows of Burrard Inlet.


9 comments :

Laurie Allee said...

Love that first shot! But gee, Wayne. Nothing like viewing a collapsed bridge right before going to sleep. Yikes!

:-)

Babzy.B said...

What a sad story ! I always have a thrill when driving on big bridges thinking it might happen such a accident !

Virginia said...

Well nothing like seeing one first thing in the morning without benefit of tea either.

Seriously, I think it's nice that they renamed the bridge to honor those that lost their lives there. Now I want to see how that bridge swings to let ships through. I can't imagine. All we have on the lake near here is ski boats and Sea Dos!

Anonymous said...

Maybe that's one of the reasons you see the art in engineering precision.

Anonymous said...

What a terrible tragedy. I'm glad you've highlighted it, and the authorities remembered it in the renaming.

Anonymous said...

Now there's something I didn't know. I'll now refer to it as the Iron Workers' Memorial Bridge. I think that's right.

Ken Mac said...

amazing history and photos, Wayne

Kris McCracken said...

Scary stuff.

Jennoit said...

I've never seen the shots of the Iron Workers' bridge after the collapse. Cool (well awful, but good to see). Thanks for sharing. I love your Vancouver photos.