Monday, April 19, 2021

Lion's Gate Bridge



In one of the earliest real estate scams, the Guinness family (yup, that one) bought a whole bunch of land in West Vancouver, about 4700 acres of land, in the early 1900s and then took part in the process of having the bridge permitted for construction in the 1930s or so. It was completed in 1938 and they charged a toll of 25cents to cross it in a car, or horse and carriage because it was 1938, or if you wanted to walk across it it would cost you a nickel. In 1955, the Guiness family sold the bridge to the province for exactly the amount it cost them to build it (and they presumably got to keep the 17 years of collected tolls) so it cost them nothing to build in the end. And all that land they bought in West Vancouver became much more valuable now that a bridge was in place to connect it to Vancouver proper. 60-70,000 vehicles cross the bridge daily. I walked under it for the first time. And took some photographs.