The Fraser Street Swing Span Bridge was built in 1894 and linked what’s now Fraser Street with No. 5 Road, Richmond. It was demolished in 1974 after completion of the Knight Street Bridge. This is part one of a three-part series about crossing the Fraser River in 1972 by Angus McIntyre
On December 31, 1972, Angus McIntyre, 25 was living at the Fairmont Apartments at 10th Avenue and Spruce Street. The last day of the year was a mild one, and Angus packed up his Konica Autoreflex T camera, jumped on his 10-speed and headed south. Lucky for us, he had decided to spend the day on a bridge tour—taking photos of the Fraser Street Swing Span Bridge, the Knight Street bridge and the Arthur Laing bridge, both which were under construction.
Story, photos and captions by Angus McIntyre, who is now 75, still cycling and still taking photos.
Two Bridges:
“If you were a motorist in Vancouver 50 years ago, there were two bridges that you could cross to get to Lulu Island and Richmond – the Oak Street Bridge and the Fraser Street Swing Span,” says Angus. “There were no other bridges until you reached the Queensborough Bridge, although two new ones were under construction.”
The speed limit sign says 20 miles-per-hour (about 30 km)
There was just room enough on the bridge for two cars to pass. “The bridge was not wide enough for trucks and buses to enter at the same time as automobiles,” says Angus. “Without any signs warning about this, everyone knew that a truck or a bus had the right of way and opposing traffic would wait until the truck exited the span.”
“The swing span bounced up and down with heavy vehicles,” says Angus. “If it jammed open in the rush hour, the traffic on Oak Street backed up to 41st Avenue.”
Built in 1894:
The Fraser Street swing span bridge was built in 1894 and lengthened in 1905. Terry Slack grew up on a houseboat at Wreck Beach in the 1950s, and worked with tugs, fishing and boatbuilding on the Fraser. He told Angus: “Tug boats called the channel ‘Shooting the Gap’ in the North Arm and many a tow boat skipper just called it a day, after knocking out one or both of the swing bridges and scaring the hell out of the bridge tenders!”
A bridge tender had a very dangerous job. The crow nest shack was on the opening and closing swing span of the bridge, says Terry. “Making the swing for marine traffic and being stranded in the middle of the channel, praying for the tug and barge to change course, was sometimes a daily happening.”
Once on Mitchell Island you had to cross a fixed wood trestle bridge to get to Richmond. There were no street lights. If you’d like a sense of what this was like, take a drive out to the Reifel Bird Sanctuary on Westham Island and you’ll cross a single lane swing span wood trestle bridge.
Barge Smashes into Bridge:
With shades of the English Bay barge mishap last November, on July 23, 1966 a barge struck the centre span of the Fraser bridge punching out a 150-foot section. Six teenage boys who were cycling across the bridge to pick strawberries in Richmond, were thrown into the water and rescued by a tug crew. George Symonds, 27 of North Burnaby was driving his truck across the bridge when he was thrown into the swift flowing river. He survived by smashing his fist through a side window and swimming to the surface.
Note: I was confused when I searched for information on the swing span bridge and came across the Fraser River Bridge. Angus tells me that this bridge was built for road and rail traffic in 1904, connecting New Westminster with Surrey. It was decommissioned as a road bridge when the Patullo Bridge opened in 1937, but still exists for rail. Road trip!
To be continued with Part 2: Knight Street Bridge and Part 3: the Arthur Laing Bridge.
© All rights reserved. Unless otherwise indicated, all blog content copyright Eve Lazarus.
Related:
- Angus McIntyre’s Vancouver
- The Missing Telephone Operators of BC
- We Held a Funeral for the Birks Building
- The Missing Elevator Operators of BC
27 comments on “The Fraser Street Swing Span Bridge”
Very interesting; I can’t remember this bridge although I was alive at the time. I was once oblivious to my surroundings. I will ask my dad, who is 93, if he remembers this bridge. A very interesting article. Thanks.
I worked for the department of highways and worked replacing the span with a triple triple Bailey bridge. the crew worked non stop until completed in three days. They were all dept of highways employees that completed the project. My name is W.Grieve dept of highways employee bridge crew out Fraser valley dept.
Yeah I can remember when the bridge span was open the car traffic lined up the hill on Fraser Street up to 57th avenue. Both the Knight Street and Arthur Liang Bridges were built almost simultaneously.
This is an interesting read -thanks! I loves the part of Angus taking a bridge tour. I do that myself every year covering 11 bridges taking 2.5 hours. I have to bribe my girls with ice cream and ipads to join me.
I remember this incident very well as, even though we lived in Kitsilano, as a 14-year old at the time, I used to take the bus to about Fraser and Marine Drive, then walk across the Fraser Bridge into Richmond and often spend days during the Summer Holidays picking blueberries for pocket money before returning home to Kits in the afternoon. This accident prevented me from crossing for a few days, however it didn’t take the Highways Department very long (just a few days, as I recall) before they had placed a temporary “Bailey” or truss-type bridge across the opening, thus restoring traffic.
I think a lot of people gave a sigh of relief when the Fraser Street bridge went out of service. My own recollection of it is when one day a friend and I were driving across in a pickup truck, as we squeezed past the oncoming traffic my friend got a little too close to the side of the bridge. I watched in shock as the mirror on my door exploded when it struck the bridge framework. I am glad that Angus has kept a photographic record of Vancouver’s history, I was a longtime resident of Dunbar myself and I remember meeting him, I even had the pleasure of doing a short tour with him in an old bus during one of our annual “Dunbar Days” events.
The Delta Drive-In was located on No. 5 Road in Richmond. On weekend days it would host an outdoor flea market. I remember as a kid making the drive with my parents from our Fairview home, along Fraser Street to the flea market. Truth be told, I was always a bit freaked out when it came to the bridge crossing portion of the journey. Still, good memories of bygone days.
Yes I remember this from the late 1970s. We sold a lot of my old toys there.
Page A2 in today’s (Nov. 12) Vancouver Sun has a “This Week in History” story involving a “motor stage” bus that was crossing the Fraser Street drawbridge and plunged off the open draw in 1916. Nine people, including the driver, drowned. Three people were rescued.
I remember that bridge. My dad always went over it when we were visiting my uncle and aunt and our cousins out in Richmond. I was sad when they took it down even though they put in the Knight street bridge i really miss the Fraser st bridge.
Hello Gloria, I vaguely remember as a young child crossing that bridge with my parents to visit my grandparents in Richmond. Now I have a question about that bridge and it is did that bridge double as a railway bridge and if so was it always a railway/vehicle bridge? Thanks for reading.
Darrell
I’m not Gloria, however I think there was one bridge for trains and another for vehicles and that would have been in the mid 1950s. I remeber when you crossed on one bridge you could see another.
We lived on Ferndale Rd. in Richmond from Oct. 1953 to Nov. 1956. we then moved to Francis Rd between No. 2 and 3 Rd. There was no tram in that areas, so you took the bus along No. 3 Rd. At that time there were’t that many people living in Richmond and the Broodmour Subdivision still had to be built. The land in that area belong to the Herbert and Errington Farms. so from Francis Rd. to the River there wasn’t much. except those farms.
Its actually too bad they didn’t keep the tram. they could have used it once the population grew to 100K. O.K. I remember when it grew to 25K
Thank you for the article and all the comments.
Even though this will never make it past the comment filter ppl , you, Eve will I hope. My first thought is one of WTF? they made a crossing not wide enough? Oy vey this clown town. really?
James, when the bridge was first built in 1894 Heavy Transport Trucks were not as wide as a 1970’s Family Station Wagon.
My dad was a heavy construction carpenter and worked on some of those brides to Richmond or-lulu isl.I think he called them.I was just 3 in 66’. always interesting stories
We always called the island Lulu Island. Not when the move to the Richmond name happened. But in about 1955, I had a job in lulu island and went to work with a neighbor. He drove across a railway /car bridge from Marpole to lulu Island. I wonder if that bridge is still in place serving train traffic?
Coincidentally, John Mackie has a story in today’s Vancouver Sun about an accident on the 1916 bridge when a bus plunged into the river and about 8 people, including the driver were drowned. This is a link to it on Nostalgic and Sentimental Vancouver FB page:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/128486813979056/posts/2247218282105888
Very enjoyable reading
My grandmother lived near Fraser and 45th when I was a boy in the late 60s. One summer day we all drove to Lulu Island to get berries, and I remember it being a quick trip. Now I know why it was so easy.
My other memory of that afternoon was seeing a farm worker carrying a load – with two baskets suspended from a bar across his shoulders – like something out of National Geographic.
Well I met Angus once, there’s no way he’d remember but I took his trolley bus tour a few years ago, super fun! If I’d known he’d lived in the Fairmont Apartments in the 70s I’d have grilled him for stories as I lived there in the 90s. Super interesting building which I’m guessing will be razed for the Broadway Plan.
Growing up in Richmond, my family were regular users of the Fraser St. Bridge, mainly to visit my godparents in Burnaby. I remember the high pitched humming sound that car wheels made while driving over the steel bridge deck.
Didn’t part of the span burn in 1970?
I remember a neighbour of ours died when she drove off the bridge late one night, somehow not noticing that the swing span was open.
[…] Please see: Part 1: The Fraser Street Swing Span Bridge […]
[…] The Fraser Street swing span bridge – Part 1 […]
I started riding a motorcycle in 1969 and in those years up to about 1976 often went across the Fraser Street Bridge. It was a little bit scary my first time as the swing span was metal chain link deck. This was like grooved pavement on a highway as the grooves between the chain links gripped the tires making balance difficult. You had to drive over that part moving side to side in a wave pattern so your tires were crisscrossing at an angle. The same technique worked for grooved pavement. Of course I also crossed it in my old 59 Ford which was pretty wide and there wasn’t a lot of space on the swing span, but never had an accident in either vehicle.
I lived on Twigg Road on Mitchell Island, between the two bridges for the first 20 years of my life. We crossed both bridges many times, and sometimes us kids would get onto the swing span as it opened, great fun! We used to take the No. 5 & Cambie BC Hydro bus to Mitchell School when we were in elementary grades. When the span on the big wooden bridge was knocked down, we were taken home by school bus around to the Oak Street bridge and back to Mitchell Island. I love the old photos, brings back many happy memories. There is only one house left now on Twigg Road.
Having moved to Richmond as a child, in Oct. 1953, remember the Fraser St. bridge well. Remember the day the barge hit the bridge. Richmond General Hospital was notified of the accident and had to be prepared for injuiries and deaths. Fortunately they did not have to,, but it was scary when the parental unit phoned to advise of the accident
I remmeber a bridge which went from Richmond to Sea Island and then another bridge from there into Marpole. then the Oak St. Briodge was built. sure was an improvement.
While the tram was still running from Steveston to Marpole, it went past Fernadale Rd. in Richmond. Recall being on that frequently as our parental unit took us into Vancouver to go grocery shopping at Woodwards downtown. Groceries would be delivered on Sat. by Woodwards trucks.
The tram went across the Fraser River into Marpole. On Sundays we took it to go to church in Vancouver. One Sunday it stopped in the middle of the bridge and we all had to get off and walk the rest of the way. It was scary, at 5 or 6. The beams were only every other step so you could see down to the Fraser River. Had to walk on my own because the parental units were busy getting two younger siblings across. It certainly was scary.
Remeber all those Richmond Bridges and Mitchell School. Across the street from the school on No. 5 Rd. there was a building on the corner and then the next one was white, had apartments upstairs and downstairs there was a butcher where a lot of Europeans went and the owners spoke Dutch. Later the credit union built on the other corner and a small strip mall on the 4th corner. There was also a woman, Mrs. Mackay, who had taught at Mitchell School for ever.
she was quite old when I was still a teenager.
Eventually a tunnel was built from Richmond to Ladner and we were able to get to Boundary Bay within 20, 30 minutes. In the summer we would go there after dinner to go swimming.
I do recall the Fraser St. bridge wasn’t that wide, because if you had been drinking too much would/could take up both lanes. O.k. there wasn’t so much of a stigma regarding drinking and driving back in the day. There was also no traffic on the bridge at 3 a.m.
An interesting bridge is the Lions Gate. Saw the old black and white silent film which recorded the building of it. The welding instructor showed it. He had worked on the bridge as a rivitter, said he was making I think he said, 38 cents an hr. and it was enough to get married on.
I remember crossing both bridges to get to a hobby farm my Uncle bought for ~10k!!!