Lions Gate Bridge · 88th Birthday · 12 November 1938–2026 · 1938–2026
Lions Gate Bridge Museum
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Black-and-white photograph from the Stanley Park shore, December 1939: a large white three-funnelled liner passes under the Lions Gate Bridge, forested slopes in mist behind.

Lions Gate Bridge

88th Birthday

December 1939. Photograph by Stuart Thomson, City of Vancouver Archives, CVA 99-2949. Public domain.

The birthday story · lionsgatebridge.org/museum/birthday

On Saturday 12 November 1938, the Lions Gate Bridge opened to people on foot, in a driving sleet storm. Mrs. Mary Sutton, 75, set out in the dark to be first. Five others claimed it too. The bridge is still in use. The Museum has put its history in one place, with sources.

Five corrections from the primary record

  1. The harbour first closed on 2 May 1938, not 1 May. The company’s film card and the Sun’s own log say May 1. That Monday was May 2, and the same front page is dated May 2.
  2. A walker paid 5 cents, not 7.5. The company’s act of 1927 allowed up to 7½ cents for a person on foot. The papers of 1938, the company’s advertisement and the ticket on film show that walkers paid 5.
  3. Charles Marega died on 24 March 1939, not 27 March. The Sun’s obituary has him collapsing at the end of a class that Friday afternoon. The later date has no source.
  4. The King and Queen did not open the bridge. They drove across on 29 May 1939, and did not stop. The company had held its own ceremony three days earlier, without them.
  5. The province bought the company, in January 1955. Accounts give 1952 or 1954. Newspapers of that week and the provincial files settle it.

Three things found in the records

  1. The morning the harbour closed, minute by minute. The Sun printed it as a log, from 4:35 a.m.
  2. Ticket B 00001 on film. The film calls it the first ticket issued. The Museum reads it as a rehearsal.
  3. Street signs before the bridge. Eyremount and Southborough, standing on a cleared hillside about 1935.

About the Museum

The Lions Gate Bridge Museum is an online museum of one bridge, at lionsgatebridge.org. It sets out the bridge’s history date by date, gives a source for each entry, and says so when sources disagree. A project of the Lions Gate Bridge Heritage Society.

To cite an entry. Lions Gate Bridge Museum, “The harbour closes for the first time, to lift the first cables”, lionsgatebridge.org/museum#1938-05-02. Each entry’s label gives its own wording and sources.

The image, with credit

The Lions Gate Bridge with a white liner passing under it in December 1939, and the words 88th Birthday, 1938.11.12 – 2026.11.12.
Photograph by Stuart Thomson, December 1939. City of Vancouver Archives, CVA 99-2949. Public domain on the archive’s record. Download: 2400×1260 · 1080×1350.

The full timeline: /museum · as data: timeline.json · press kit: /media/press

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