At midnight on July 16, 1933 all trains of the Canadian Pacific Railway—which had been running at street level through downtown Vancouver for decades, infuriating motorists—came off the city’s busy streets and switched to a new tunnel. The railway would use the 1,396-metre-long (4,579 feet) tunnel for nearly 50 years. Today it’s used by SkyTrain….
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Picture the corner of Pender and Granville in 1913, when Vancouver cars and streetcars were still on the “wrong” side of the street.
You also have a good view of the Rogers Building which has been standing at the north-east corner of Pender and Granville for more than 90 years….
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What connection does Vancouver have with Coevorden, an industrial town of about 20,000 in the northeast Netherlands, right up against the German border?
The answer begins nearly 700 years ago in 1315, when a Dutch nobleman named Reinolt was made a viscount of the city, and so became known as Reinolt van Coeverden….
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It was July 1, 1932. “A snip of a pair of golden scissors in the hands of Mayor Louis D. Taylor,” ran a news report, “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, than thousands of pedestrians and hundreds of cars surged across the magnificent white structure in a procession of triumph….
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About 20 members of the Vancouver Historical Society enjoyed a treat recently with a visit to HMCS Discovery, the Canadian Naval Reserve base on Deadman’s Island in Stanley Park. For many of us, even a few born here, it was our first entry onto the island. The tour was conducted by Lt. Jack Wyne, a reserve officer who joined back in 1986 and, except for a gap between 1994 and 1998, has been serving here since……
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