Lions Gate Bridge · 88th Birthday · 12 November 1938–2026 · 1938–2026
Lions Gate Bridge Museum
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What the museum is, a fact sheet with its sources, and who to contact.

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About the museum

The Lions Gate Bridge Museum (lionsgatebridge.org) is an independent digital museum of Vancouver's Lions Gate Bridge, which opened in 1938. It covers the bridge's history, engineering and daily traffic, with cited sources and no advertising. The museum keeps its own record of the reversible centre lane and publishes summary figures under a CC BY 4.0 licence. It is a project of the Lions Gate Bridge Heritage Society, a BC society incorporated under the Societies Act, and is not affiliated with the Province of British Columbia, DriveBC or Parks Canada.

The Lions Gate Bridge Museum is independent and is not affiliated with the Province of British Columbia, the Ministry of Transportation and Transit, DriveBC or Parks Canada.

Fact sheet

Each fact ends with the sources it rests on; the codes lead to the list at the foot of the page.

The bridge

A. Name
The bridge is known as the Lions Gate Bridge. The Provincial Public Undertakings Regulation (B.C. Reg. 513/2004) lists it as the First Narrows Bridge. S005, S109
B. Size
It is a three-span suspension bridge with a steel viaduct at the north end. The main span is 472 m (1,550 ft). Including the north viaduct, the crossing is about 1.8 km long. S006, S003, S109, S058
C. Clearance
Designed for 61 m (200 ft) of clearance at high water. The port authority calculates the usable height for each ship from tide, ship width and other factors, so the working limit at higher high water is lower, about 55–57 m. S003, S058, S227
D. Private money
The bridge was promoted by Victoria-born engineer A.J.T. Taylor and financed by three sons of the first Earl of Iveagh (the Guinness family) through British Pacific Properties. It cost $5,873,837.17. S101, S221, S223, S099
E. Design and steel
Designed by Monsarrat & Pratley of Montreal; Philip L. Pratley is the engineer named on the Canadian Society for Civil Engineering (CSCE) plaque. Dominion Bridge Company fabricated and erected the steel. S001, S003, S113, S058

Building it (1936–1939)

F. Federal approval
On 30 April 1936, federal Order in Council P.C. 21 approved the bridge's design and site under the Navigable Waters Protection Act, with conditions. Library and Archives Canada, RG10 vol. 7745, file 23167-4 pt. 2, image 307, S083 p. 140
G. Construction
Work began on 31 March 1937. The workforce peaked at 334 in October 1937. S109, S099, S058
H. Cables
Each of the two main cables has 61 prefabricated strands of 47 wires each, made from Roebling wire. Placing the strands took about 16 days. S002, S058, S003, S083 p. 96
I. Opening
The bridge opened to pedestrians on Saturday, 12 November 1938. According to a 2012 Vancouver Sun retrospective, the first pedestrian across was Mary Sutton, three weeks short of her 76th birthday, who arrived an hour early. Cars and tolls followed two days later, on the Monday; the car toll was 25 cents. S108, S258, S052, S109, S058
J. Ceremony and royal crossing
The opening ceremony was held on 26 May 1939 at a golf clubhouse in West Vancouver, where promoter A.J.T. Taylor addressed the guests. On 29 May 1939, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth drove across; they did not stop for a ceremony. S058, S221, S103, S002, S109, S062
K. The lions
The two concrete Art Deco lions at the south approach are by sculptor Charles Marega. They were installed in January 1939; Marega died two months later, and they were his last work. S109, S106, S111, S058

Owning and running it

L. Sale and tolls
The Province bought the bridge on 20 January 1955 for $5,959,060 and ended the tolls on 1 April 1963. S150, S083 p. 153, S109, S152
M. The centre lane
A reversible centre lane opened in 1952; traffic signals have controlled it since 1965. New LED lane-control signals were installed in 2021–2022 ($4.7 million). S109, S151, S006, S026, S027
N. Who switches it
Operators at the Transportation Management Centre of BC watch more than 40 cameras and switch the centre lane by hand. On weekdays the centre lane is closed from midnight to 6 a.m. S028
O. How often it switches
Operators told CBC in 2025 that they switch the centre lane 35–40 times a day, counting clears for emergency vehicles. W001
P. Traffic
Annual average daily traffic at the south-end count station was 56,582 vehicles in 2025, down from 60,192 in 2019. S033

Rebuilding and recognition

Q. Night work, 1975
Crews replaced the north viaduct's concrete deck with a lighter orthotropic steel deck during short night closures. S006, S007
R. Night work, 2000–2001
Between September 2000 and September 2001, the suspended structure (deck, stiffening trusses and hangers; the towers, main cables and anchorages were kept) was replaced in 54 segments, mostly during night-time closures plus a few weekend closures, while the bridge stayed open by day. The CSCE plaque calls it a world first. Main contract: $86.5 million. S006, S003, S001, S058
S. Lights
"Gracie's Necklace", 170 lamps along the main cables, was switched on in 1986, ahead of Expo 86, with funding from the Guinness family. The lights were converted to LED in July 2009, cutting energy use by about 90%. S070, S034, S119, S035
T. Recognition
National Historic Site of Canada, recognized on 10 December 2004 (Canadian Register of Historic Places; some sources give 24 March 2005). CSCE National Historic Civil Engineering Site, plaque unveiled 13 July 2006. S001, S109, S003

Media contact

Lions Gate Bridge Museum
[email protected]

Sources

  1. S005 Provincial Public Undertakings Regulation (B.C. Reg. 513/2004) - official name 'First Narrows Bridge', Province of British Columbia (2004)
  2. S109 Lions Gate Bridge (article, wikitext as of 2026-10-23), Wikipedia (2026)
  3. S006 The Lions' Gate Bridge Suspended Span Replacement (TAC 2009 conference paper), Darryl Matson, Buckland & Taylor Ltd. (2009)
  4. S003 Lions' Gate Bridge - National Historic Civil Engineering Site plaque, Canadian Society for Civil Engineering (CSCE) (2006)
  5. S058 Building a Vancouver Icon: The Lions Gate Bridge (online exhibit, 34 pages), MONOVA: Museum & Archives of North Vancouver
  6. S227 Port Information Guide, January 2024 (sec. 8.15 TCZ-1; Appendix A air drafts), Vancouver Fraser Port Authority (2024)
  7. S101 Taylor, Alfred James Towle (Encyclopedia of British Columbia), KnowBC / Harbour Publishing (2000) · paywalled
  8. S221 Taylor Made (blog post on A.J.T. Taylor), Anne-Marie Lawrence, North Shore Heritage Preservation Society (2024)
  9. S223 North Shore News special supplement on British Properties (1996-07-28), North Shore News (via NSDL) (1996)
  10. S099 Lions Gate Bridge, James H. Marsh, The Canadian Encyclopedia (2011)
  11. S001 Lions Gate Bridge National Historic Site of Canada (Canadian Register of Historic Places, id 11711), Parks Canada / HSMBC (2009)
  12. S113 Philip Louis Pratley (article), Wikipedia (2026)
  13. S083 Lions Gate, Lilia D'Acres & Donald Luxton, Talonbooks (1999) · library
  14. S002 Lions Gate Bridge National Historic Site (news release backgrounder, archived), Government of Canada / Parks Canada (2010)
  15. S108 Vancouver history events archive / chronology, vancouverhistory.ca (Chuck Davis legacy site)
  16. S258 This day in history: November 12, 1938 (Lions Gate Bridge opens to pedestrians), Vancouver Sun (2012)
  17. S052 Lions Gate Bridge (West Vancouver heritage page), District of West Vancouver
  18. S103 The man behind the bridge, Cynthia Heinrichs, BC Magazine (2014)
  19. S062 Construction of the Lion's Gate Bridge, Vancouver (industrial film 1937-1939, F1986:29/002), BC Archives / MoTH films (1939) · library
  20. S106 Charles Marega (Chuck Davis History of Metropolitan Vancouver), Chuck Davis / Harbour Publishing
  21. S111 Charles Marega (article), Wikipedia (2026)
  22. S150 Historic Places: Lions Gate Bridge, Julia Piper, Vancouver Sun (2020)
  23. S152 'Bridge Traffic Goes Smoothly Because It's Free, Free, Free' (1963-04-01), The Sun via Newspapers.com (1963) · paywalled
  24. S151 Vancouver Sun and Province clippings, 1952–1956, The Vancouver Sun / The Province via Newspapers.com (1952) · paywalled
  25. S026 System upgrade coming to Lions Gate Bridge counterflow (2021TRAN0072-001001), BC Gov News (2021)
  26. S027 Lions Gate Bridge full closures for counterflow commissioning (2022TRAN0035-000638), BC Gov News (2022)
  27. S028 How the Lions Gate Bridge Counterflow Works, TranBC (BC MoTI blog) (2019)
  28. W001 Who controls the centre lane on the Lions Gate Bridge?, CBC News (2025)
  29. S033 TRADAS traffic count site 14070 (Lions Gate Bridge AADT), BC Ministry of Transportation and Transit (TRADAS) (2025)
  30. S007 The Lions' Gate Bridge - renovation (Canadian Journal of Civil Engineering 8(4):484-508), Peter G. Buckland (1981) · paywalled
  31. S070 North Shore News, 'Bridge lights brighten the way 10 years', North Shore News (via NSDL), Layne Christensen (1996)
  32. S034 Minister of Transportation and Highways Report for the Fiscal Year 1985/86 (p.238), Province of British Columbia (1986) · library
  33. S119 Grace McCarthy (article), Wikipedia (2026)
  34. S035 Lions Gate Bridge LED lighting to save $30,000 a year, BC Hydro (2009)