Burrard Street Bridge

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Burrard Street Bridge
Night photograph of the Burrard Bridge.
Locale	Vancouver
Coordinates	49.27547 N 123.136643 W

The Burrard Street Bridge is a six lane, Art Deco style bridge in Vancouver, British Columbia. The bridge spans across False Creek connecting downtown to Kitsilano. The bridge is embellished with sculptural details and imposing concrete towers creating a torch-like entrance of pylons. Unifying the parts are heavy concrete railings, originally topped by decorative street lamps. Busts of Captain George Vancouver and Sir Harry Burrard jut out from the bridge’s superstructure (a V under Vancouver’s bust, a B under Burrard’s). The architect was G.H. Thornton Sharp and the engineer, John R. Grant.

[edit] History

The Burrard Street Bridge in the 1940s.

The Burrard Street Bridge was opened on July 1, 1932. It was built to provide a high-level crossing to the south-western neighbourhoods in Kitsilano by connecting Burrard Street to Cedar Street. After completion, Burrard was extending through to the base of downtown and Cedar Street disappeared.

A snip of a pair of golden scissors in the hands of Mayor Louis D. Taylor, and Vancouver's $3 million Burrard Bridge was opened to the public Friday afternoon, July 1 ... Hardly was the ribbon cut in front of the devouring eyes of movie cameras, then thousands of pedestrians and hundreds of cars surged across the magnificent white structure in a procession of triumph, celebrating another step in Vancouver's progress

– Unknown news report

At the opening ceremony, entertainment was provided by two bands, the Kitsilano Boy's Band and the Fireman's Band. An RCAF seaplane flew under the bridge and later a sugar replica of the bridge was unveiled at the civic reception in the Hotel Vancouver.

G.L. Thornton Sharp, of Sharp and Thompson, was the architect and was responsible for the unique physical feature of the bridge and the galleries in the middle. "Both central piers," Sharp told a reporter, "were designed and connected with an overhead gallery across the road. This helped to mask the network of steel in the truss from the two approaches, and has been treated as an entrance gateway to the city."

As a tribute to Canadian World War I prisoners of war, who huddled around open fires in their prison camps, John Grant had the idea to install huge lamps at both ends of the span.

The bridge piers have provision for a rapid transit vertical lift span beneath the highway deck, but was never installed.

On March 26, 1996, In a six month trial by the City, one commuter lane was closed and made into a temporary cyclist lane. ^[1] After one week, the City was forced to revert the lane back to its original purpose after public 'outrage' and discontent.

On May 31, 2005, the Vancouver City Council voted 10-1 to reallocate the two curb-side lanes to cyclists for another trial.^[2] This was part of the Council's plan to increase cycling in Vancouver by 10% for the 2010 Winter Olympics.

The trial begin in April of 2005, which allowed the staff time to plan for the initiative and better prepare the public for the changeover unlike the previous attempt. The trial was to be assessed at six and twelve month intervals. A later expansion of the bridge interfered with the plans for the trial when an additional C$13 million dollars was spent on widening the bridge. The expansion was made to be able to quickly adjust back for traffic use if the cyclist lane trail failed. This solution was a suitable compromise for an issue that had been heavily debated.

The public commuters were still discontent with the trial. In a mix of unhappiness with the trial and lack of public awareness about the cyclist lane program, NPA councillors failed to calm the public over the matter which affected their municipal election on November 19, 2005.

On December 20, 2005 the newly elected city council voted 6-4 to cancel the lane realloction trial and proceed directly to widening the bridge sidewalks as promised in the November election. ^[3]

[edit] Today

Burrard Bridge from False Creek

In 2006, the City considered demolishing the concrete railings and installing an 'outrigger' sidewalk. As a concession to the bridge's heritage value, the outrigger sidewalk is unlikely to be widened around the bridge's central buttresses. Some critics have said that these so-called "pinch points" defeat the purpose of widening the bridge by creating bottlenecks through which a greater number of cyclists and pedestrians must pass over coming decades.

Heritage Vancouver listed the Burrard Bridge as number four on their 2005 Top Ten endangered sites in Vancouver, and number one their 2006 and 2007 lists.

Burrard Bridge at night

The sidewalk expansion has also been delayed by the Squamish First Nation, who controls the land directly under the south side of the bridge. For the construction to begin, the city requires the permission of the group to which they have expressed concern that machinery working on the site may impact their land.

The Squamish First Nation also plan to erect advertising billboards on their properties located at the approach to bridge as well as similar properties by the Lions' Gate Bridge and the Ironworkers Memorial Second Narrows Crossing.^[4]

The bridge and part of the Westend

[edit] Statistics

• Persons cross per hour: 8,000 - 9,000 (peak times)
• Lone drivers: 49%
• Car poolers: 21%
• Transit riders: 21%
• Cyclists: 5%
• Walkers: 4%

[edit] See also

• Burrard Street
• List of bridges in Canada

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Bridges of Vancouver Pictures of Burrard Street Bridge
• Katkam.ca A webcam of the Bridge
• The Vancouver Sun
• The History of Metropolitan Vancouver
• Heritage Vancouver
• Burrard Bridge battle not over yet from CBC

Crossings of the False Creek
Upstream Granville Street Bridge	Burrard Street Bridge	Downstream English Bay

Coordinates: 49.27547° N 123.136643° W