F or as long as mankind has been a race of explorers there has always been a drive to see the other side. Sometimes its a hill. Or a continent. Or an ocean. The Pacific is pretty big, so the people of Vancouver will just have to settle for Burrard Inlet. Like the Centre Street Bridge in Calgary, Alberta the Lions Gate Bridge was built by real estate developers in order to sell land. But the developers weren't the first to come up with the idea. In 1908 the Burrard Wire Cable Bridge Company tried. It wanted to build a structure to rival the Eiffel Tower in Paris. The city rejected the plan because it would scar Stanley Park. In 1926 a British concern also expressed an interest. Their bid was rejected by voters for the same reason. The voters finally came around in 1933 when the structure was seen as a Band Aid for the hemorrhagic unemployment caused by the Great Depression. Five years and six million dollars later the British Pacific Syndicate finished the project. What was then the longest suspension bridge in the British Empire was officially opened by King George VI and Queen Elizabeth in 1939.
1963: The province of British Columbia buys the bridge and removed the tolls.
1986: The decorative lights are added as a gift from the Guinness family.
