It was still dark when Mrs. Mary Sutton set out on foot on Saturday 12 November 1938. She was 75. She started shortly after 6 o’clock, in sleet that turned to snow, and halfway across the Granville bridge a young man gave her a lift. By her own account she reached the Lions Gate at a quarter to eight, an hour and a quarter before the bridge was due to open. The Sun had her walking all the way, through two inches of slush on the new park road, and arriving at about 8 o’clock.
No one can be sure who crossed the Lions Gate Bridge first. The Vancouver Sun gave the honour to Mrs. Sutton on its front page that same day. But its subheading said five others claimed it too, and an inside page counted “five different persons”. Such arguments, it said, “never will be settled”. The Sun was right, and the reasons are worth a look.
Who was Mary Sutton?
What we know comes from the Sun and The Province of that day. Mrs. Sutton lived in Vancouver and drew the old age pension. She came from Moose Jaw.
She meant to be first, and she said so: the day before, she told friends she was “certainly going to be the first”. Her plan was to walk across and then walk home again.
The paper’s headline made her the winner, with “First” in quotation marks. Its subheading added: “Five Others Claim ‘Honors’”.
Why did the Sun hedge?
Because its own reporters saw a crowd, not a winner. The front page said Mrs. Sutton “is believed to have beaten all younger competitors”. The bridge staff told the paper she “certainly was among the first two or three”. That is not the same as first.
The toll collectors were due at 9 o’clock. By then, the Sun said, at least a dozen people had already crossed. The collectors were not yet there to count them.
Who else said they were first?
Several people, each with a different kind of first. R. F. Hearns claimed to be the first North Shore resident across. Hearns stepped onto the bridge at its northern entrance at 8:50 a.m.
Mr. and Mrs. William Green, of Marine Drive, were the first couple from West Vancouver. Mrs. Green carried an umbrella. “It was a lovely walk,” she told the Sun.
J. A. MacRae of Caulfeild held auto pass No. 101, the first sold to the public. The pass was good only from Monday. That Saturday MacRae walked across instead, with two children.
Mr. and Mrs. Paul Cantwell came straight from their wedding at St. Augustine’s Church. Crossing the bridge was the first lap of their honeymoon.
And the Sun named an earlier walker still. R. W. Keyserlingk, of British United Press, had crossed about six months before, on the swaying catwalk the cable crews used. The paper called Keyserlingk the first private citizen to walk across.
What time did the bridge open that morning?
The company’s own notice said 9 o’clock. On 3 November 1938, the general manager, Major P. A. Curry, moved the opening for people on foot from 6 November to 9 a.m. on 12 November, because bad weather had slowed the last work. The Province printed the hours that day, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., for that Saturday and the Sunday after.
So where does 8:50 come from? It is R. F. Hearns’s time, not the bridge’s.
Some popular histories say the bridge opened to pedestrians at 8:50 a.m. The version we can trace is by the historian Chuck Davis, who names The Province, the Sun’s rival. In his telling, a gateman let Hearns through early because of the snow and cold. Davis also gives Mrs. Sutton ticket No. 1 and Hearns ticket No. 2. The Province reported all of it that day. Its front page, in a story by Stuart Keate, tells of a gateman who let Hearns go ahead because it was cold, and says Hearns left the north side at ten minutes to nine. A photograph caption says Mrs. Sutton had ticket No. 1 and Hearns No. 2.
The two accounts can fit together. Mrs. Sutton was waiting at the Stanley Park end, where, The Province said, the south gate was thrown open at 9 o’clock and the tollman made sure she went first. Hearns walked on at the north end, ten minutes before the hour. Davis thought Mrs. Sutton had to wait for nine o’clock, and gave the honour to Hearns.
Did the mayor and the reeve go first?
No, they came in the afternoon. On 5 November the Sun reported that Mayor George C. Miller and West Vancouver’s reeve, J. B. Leyland, would meet in the middle of the bridge at 3 p.m. sharp on Saturday.
They did meet there. On Monday the Sun printed a photograph of the two men at mid-span. Leyland, it said, remarked: “this is some bridge”. The paper called their handshake a ceremony “to officially open the bridge”, with “no fanfare, no main speeches”.
There were other early crossings, but none was a lasting opening to the public. A Board of Trade party crossed on 5 October 1938. On Sunday 16 October hundreds of people strolled across before the company barred both ends. A.J.T. Taylor’s construction film shows cars crossing on 4 November. (We tell those stories in When did the Lions Gate Bridge open?)
So who was first?
Our reading is that there may have been two firsts, one at each end. On the city side, the Sun put Mrs. Sutton ahead of the rest, and bridge staff put her among the first two or three. On the North Shore side, R. F. Hearns claimed to be the first. The Province’s photograph caption says much the same of both: Mrs. Sutton was the first to cross, Hearns the first to cross from the north side. At least a dozen others crossed before the collectors arrived.
Mrs. Sutton is the one people remember. The Sun’s own This day in history column named her again on 12 November 2012.
The woman in the best-known photograph of the day is someone else: Miss Doris Milligan, crossing under a clear umbrella. Major J. S. Matthews, the city archivist, took the picture. She does not appear among the Sun’s claimants.
If someone asks you: No one knows for sure. On 12 November 1938, The Vancouver Sun named Mrs. Mary Sutton, who reached the Stanley Park end at about 8 a.m. R. F. Hearns claimed to be first from the North Shore, stepping on at 8:50 a.m.
She set out in the dark to be first. Five others, the Sun said, claimed the same.
Questions people ask
Who was the first person to walk across the Lions Gate Bridge?
The Vancouver Sun gave the honour to Mrs. Mary Sutton on 12 November 1938, but said five others also claimed it. Bridge staff said she was among the first two or three.
What time did the Lions Gate Bridge open on 12 November 1938?
The company announced 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. for people on foot. At least a dozen people had crossed before the toll collectors were due at 9.
Where does the 8:50 a.m. opening time come from?
It is the time R. F. Hearns stepped onto the bridge at its north end, as the Sun reported. Our reading is that later histories turned it into the opening time.
Who was the first North Shore resident to cross the Lions Gate Bridge?
R. F. Hearns, by the claim the Sun reported on 12 November 1938. Mr. and Mrs. William Green were the first couple from West Vancouver.
Who is the woman in the famous opening-day photograph?
Miss Doris Milligan, photographed crossing in the sleet by Major J. S. Matthews, Vancouver’s city archivist. She is not among the claimants the Sun names.
Notes and sources
Show
What we read from 1938
- The Vancouver Sun, 3 November 1938, front page: the opening for people on foot moved to 9 a.m. on 12 November.
- The Vancouver Daily Province, 3 November 1938, front page, the photograph “Man and Nature” by C. P. Dettloff: the hours, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., on 12 and 13 November. We read this Province page.
- The Vancouver Sun, 14 November 1938, page 5, “Mayor and Reeve Mark Opening of New Bridge”: the handshake “to officially open the bridge”. We read this Sun page.
- The Vancouver Sun, 5 November 1938, page 17: the hours again, and the planned 3 p.m. meeting of the mayor and the reeve.
- The Vancouver Sun, 22 October 1938, front page: the half-hour trial on 16 October.
- The Vancouver Sun, 12 November 1938, front page and page 16: Mrs. Sutton, the headline and subheading, “is believed to have beaten”, the dozen before the collectors, the Greens, Hearns at 8:50, MacRae and pass No. 101, the Cantwells, Keyserlingk, the bridge staff’s “first two or three” and “never will be settled”.
- The Vancouver Sun, 14 November 1938, front page: the photograph of Leyland and Miller at mid-span.
- The Province, 12 November 1938, front page, by Stuart Keate, with a photograph and caption: Mrs. Sutton’s own account (the lift on the Granville bridge, a quarter to eight), the south gate at 9 o’clock, the gateman and Hearns at ten minutes to nine, tickets No. 1 and No. 2.
- We read these Sun and Province pages. We quote short lines and do not reproduce the pages.
- Major J. S. Matthews, photograph of Miss Doris Milligan, 12 November 1938, City of Vancouver Archives, Port P822, public domain.
- A.J.T. Taylor, 1st Narrows Bridge, a 16 mm colour film of the construction, 1937–38, City of Vancouver Archives: the card for 4 November 1938.
Later accounts
- Chuck Davis, “Bridge Openings”, reprinted on the KnowBC blog, 17 June 2009, and his vancouverhistory.ca chronology: 8:50 a.m. as the opening time, the gateman, tickets No. 1 and No. 2. Davis names The Province but gives no date. We have read that Province page, of 12 November 1938, and it bears him out.
- The Vancouver Sun, “This day in history: November 12, 1938”, 12 November 2012: Mrs. Sutton.
Our readings
- “Two firsts, one at each end” is our reading of the Sun’s pages and the Province’s front page; the Sun itself crowned only Mrs. Sutton, with care.
- Mrs. Sutton’s age: the headlines of both papers say 76, and The Province’s first sentence says she “will be 76 in three weeks”; we write 75.
- How she reached the bridge: we follow The Province, which quotes her. The Sun had her walking all the way.
- We do not name MacRae’s children, though the Sun did.
- We have not matched all five of the Sun’s “others” to names. The people above are the ones the paper describes.
Spotted a mistake? Tell us at [email protected]. We correct the page and note the date.