Dunsmuir Tunnel
The Dunsmuir Tunnel is a subway tunnel below Dunsmuir Street in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The tunnel is used by the Expo Line of Metro Vancouver's SkyTrain rapid transit system, it has Burrard and Granville stations built within the tunnel. The western tunnel portal is located midway between Waterfront and Burrard stations, while the eastern portal is adjacent to Stadium–Chinatown station; the tunnel was built by the Northern Construction Company in 1932 connecting the Canadian Pacific Railway railyards on Burrard Inlet and False Creek at a cost of $1.6 million. The tunnel's original east portal was located further south than the current portal, easing trains into the False Creek yards on a gentle southward curve, it was visible until about 2005, where it was completely hidden next to an outdoor storage area behind the Costco. The original portal was destroyed in 2011 to make way for a new development, but there remains an abandoned section of tunnel, unused by SkyTrain; the tunnel was taken over by BC Transit in the early 1980s when the SkyTrain system was built in conjunction with Expo 86.
Because the tunnel is only wide enough to accommodate a single railway track but with sufficiently high clearance, a superstructure was built inside the tunnel to carry the westbound SkyTrain track above the eastbound track. This results in the two stations within the tunnel having a split platform configuration. List of tunnels in Canada Vancouver Underground Tunnels Video of the Dunsmuir Tunnel
Granville Street Bridge
The Granville Street Bridge is an eight lane bridge in Vancouver, British Columbia. It is 27.4 metres above Granville Island. It is part of Highway 99. Media related to Granville Street Bridge at Wikimedia Commons The original bridge was completed in 1889, it was a 732-metre long low timber trestle. The navigation span, near the north end, was a trussed timber swing span, tied with wire ropes to a central wooden tower, it was designed by the CPR, cost $16,000. In 1891 the bridge was widened on both sides for streetcar tracks, except where the tracks converged for the swing span. Media related to Granville Street Bridge at Wikimedia Commons The second bridge was completed in 1909, it was a longer, medium-level steel bridge with a through truss swing span. On February 4, 1954, the current Granville Street Bridge, costing $16.5 million, opened. A million cars would cross over the bridge in its first month; the city of Vancouver funded the bridge itself as Mayor Frederick Hume said "no formal assistance given by any other government body."
The eight-lane structure was constructed on the same alignment as the first bridge while steel plate girders salvaged from the second bridge made barges for constructing the foundations of the Oak Street Bridge. The first "civilian" to drive over the 1954 bridge was the same woman, first to drive over the second bridge in 1909, she had been widowed between the two openings, so had a different name. Both times she was at the wheel of a brand-new Cadillac. Recent improvements to the bridge include increasing its earthquake resistance, installing higher curbs and median barriers. List of bridges in Canada History of Metropolitan Vancouver Bridges of Greater Vancouver Granville Street Bridge at Structurae Footage of the demolition of the second bridge and construction of the third Granville Street Bridge, 1954, City of Vancouver Archives 1954 film clip taken from a car driving over the bridge
Moray Bridge
Moray Bridge christened'The Middle-arm Swing Bridge' in October 1957, is a low-level one-way swing bridge in Richmond, British Columbia, Canada. It connects Grant McConachie Way on Sea Island, where the Vancouver International Airport is located, with Sea Island Way on Lulu Island; the bridge is called the Moray Channel Bridge has a swing section is 58 metres long. The bridge handles eastbound traffic coming from Sea Island, it was a two-way bridge until the completion of the nearby Sea Island Bridge, which handles traffic towards Sea Island. The bridge passes over the Middle Arm of the Fraser River and was frequently called the Middle Arm Bridge, a name now used by a Skytrain bridge. List of crossings of the Fraser River
Capilano Suspension Bridge
The Capilano Suspension Bridge is a simple suspension bridge crossing the Capilano River in the District of North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The current bridge is 70 metres above the river, it is part of a private facility with an admission fee, draws over 800,000 visitors a year. The bridge was built in 1889 by George Grant Mackay, a Scottish civil engineer and park commissioner for Vancouver, it was made of hemp ropes with a deck of cedar planks, was replaced with a wire cable bridge in 1903. In 1910 Edward Mahon purchased the Capilano Suspension Bridge. "Mac" MacEachran purchased the Bridge from Mahon in 1935 and invited local natives to place their totem poles in the park, adding a native theme. In 1945, he sold the bridge to Henri Aubeneau; the bridge was rebuilt in 1956. The park was sold to Nancy Stibbard, the current owner, in 1983. Annual attendance increased, in May 2004, Treetops Adventures was opened, consisting of seven footbridges suspended between old-growth Douglas Fir trees on the west side of the canyon, forming a walkway up to 30 metres above the forest floor.
The park features rain forest ecotours, nature trails, North America's largest private collection of First Nations totem poles, period decor and costumes, exhibits highlighting the park's history and the surrounding temperate rain forest. Guests can witness a First Nations performance, featuring their traditional Regalia, masks and storytelling. In June 2011, a new attraction called. In September 1999, a woman dropped her 18-months-old, child with Down syndrome off the bridge, she claimed she stumbled accidentally and the child slipped from her grasp. The child was not injured; the woman lost legal custody of her child to the child's father as a result of the incident. The woman took legal action against the owner of the bridge, her ex-husband and the Federal Department of Justice; the case against the owner of the bridge was settled in 2004. In 2006, a 300-year-old, 46-tonne Douglas fir tree toppled during a heavy snowstorm; the tree fell across the western end of the bridge. Park officials closed the bridge temporarily.
On June 6, 2010, a teenage tourist on a class trip from California climbed over a railing and fell more than 30 metres from a fenced off viewing platform near the bridge. By the time rescue workers came to his aid, the victim was dead; the official RCMP finding was that the teen was under the influence of LSD at the time of the incident. On June 2, 2012, a 30-year-old tourist from Ontario died after falling near the bridge. Police say the victim was hiking through trails near the popular attraction when he climbed over a railing and fell to the riverbed below; the bridge has been featured as a setting in episodes of several television series, including MacGyver, The Crow: Stairway to Heaven, Psych. In 1974, social psychologists Donald Dutton and Arthur Aron conducted a well-known experiment on the bridge. Men approached by a female researcher on the bridge were more to call her than men approached on a more solid bridge across the river. Dutton and Aron argued that this supported the theory that the men were mis-attributing the arousal caused by fear to sexual attraction toward the woman.
This research supported Stanley Schachter's two-factor theory of emotion. Capilano River Capilano River Regional Park Lynn Canyon Suspension Bridge North Shore News September 27, 1999 Gut Rumbles August 26, 2004 Woman who dropped baby on bridge ends lawsuit - By: N. A.. Record, The, 11/03/2004.
Downtown Vancouver
Downtown Vancouver is the southeastern portion of the peninsula in the north-central part of the City of Vancouver. It is the main city centre and central business district of the city, Metro Vancouver, the Lower Mainland regions; the downtown area is considered to be bounded by Burrard Inlet to the north, Stanley Park and the West End to the west, False Creek to the south, the Downtown Eastside to the east. Most sources include the full downtown peninsula as downtown Vancouver, but the City of Vancouver defines them as separate neighbourhoods. Besides the identifiable office towers of the financial and central business districts, Downtown Vancouver includes residential neighbourhoods in the form of high-rise apartment and condominiums, in Yaletown and Coal Harbour. Other downtown neighbourhoods include the Granville Mall and Entertainment District, Downtown's South, Gastown and Chinatown; the downtown area includes most of the remaining historic buildings and many of the larger notable buildings in the region.
There are two major sporting facilities in Rogers Arena and BC Place Stadium. The NHL's Vancouver Canucks play at Rogers Arena, while the CFL's BC Lions and the MLS's Vancouver Whitecaps FC use the neighbouring BC Place Stadium. SkyTrain Stadium-Chinatown station provides easy rapid transit access to the district; the presence of water on three sides limits access to downtown Vancouver. There are four major bridges: the Lions Gate Bridge, connecting to the North Shore municipalities and the Trans Canada Highway, the Burrard Street Bridge, Cambie Street Bridge, Granville Street Bridge provides access to the commercial and residential areas south of False Creek; the historic Waterfront station is the principal transit hub for the downtown core. There are six subway stations located in downtown Vancouver running on two SkyTrain lines: the Expo Line and Canada Line; the Expo Line travels from Waterfront station at the foot of the central harbor and through Dunsmuir Tunnel to the east. The Canada Line travels from Waterfront station and tunnels south under Granville Street and Davie Street, linking downtown to central Richmond and Vancouver International Airport.
SeaBus is a passenger-only ferry that connects from Waterfront station to the North Shore in 10–12 minutes. The West Coast Express commuter rail system travels from Waterfront station to the eastern suburbs and exurbs. Terminals are available near Waterfront station for float planes and helicopters. Most north-south Vancouver bus routes serve Downtown Vancouver, in addition to suburban routes from the North Shore and Burnaby; the bus rapid transit line 98 B-Line had eight stops in the downtown core along Seymour Street and Burrard Street. This service was replaced on August 2009 by SkyTrain's Canada Line; the 95 B-Line started service in December 2016 in conjunction with the opening of the Evergreen Extension, connecting downtown to Simon Fraser University along Hastings Street. There are two private passenger water taxi operators, providing service between several downtown neighbourhoods, False Creek, Granville Island; the city is planning to extend the downtown streetcar from its current route of Granville Island to the Main Street SkyTrain station, with future plans extending it to Chinatown and to Stanley Park.
City of Vancouver Community Profiles: Downtown Downtown page, Vancouver Then and Now website, comparisons of old photos with modern locations
Black Canadians
Black Canadians is a designation used for people of full or partial Sub-Saharan African descent, who are citizens or permanent residents of Canada. The majority of Black Canadians are of Caribbean origin, though the population consists of African-American immigrants and their descendants, as well as many native African immigrants. Black Canadians draw a distinction between those of Afro-Caribbean ancestry and those of other African roots; the term African Canadian is used by some Black Canadians who trace their heritage to the first slaves brought by British and French colonists to the North American mainland. Promised freedom by the British during the American Revolutionary War, thousands of Black Loyalists were resettled by the Crown in Canada afterward, such as Thomas Peters. In addition, an estimated ten to thirty thousand fugitive slaves reached freedom in Canada from the Southern United States during the antebellum years, aided by people along the Underground Railroad. Many Black people of Caribbean origin in Canada reject the term African Canadian as an elision of the uniquely Caribbean aspects of their heritage, instead identify as Caribbean Canadian.
Unlike in the United States, where African American has become a used term, in Canada controversies associated with distinguishing African or Caribbean heritage have resulted in the term Black Canadian being accepted there. Black Canadians have contributed to many areas of Canadian culture. Many of the first visible minorities to hold high public offices have been Black, including Michaëlle Jean, Donald Oliver, Stanley G. Grizzle, Rosemary Brown and Lincoln Alexander, in turn opening the door for other minorities. Black Canadians form the third-largest visible minority group in Canada, after South Asian and Chinese Canadians. According to the 2006 Census by Statistics Canada, 783,795 Canadians identified as black, constituting 2.5 per cent of the entire Canadian population. Of the black population, 11 per cent identified as mixed-race of "white and black"; the five most black-populated provinces in 2006 were Ontario, Alberta, British Columbia, Nova Scotia. The ten most black-populated census metropolitan areas were Toronto, Ottawa, Vancouver, Hamilton, Winnipeg and Oshawa.
Preston, in the Halifax area, is the community with the highest percentage of black people, with 69.4 per cent. According to the 2011 Census, a total of 945,665 Black Canadians were counted, making up 2.9 per cent of Canada's population. In the 2016 Census, the black population totalled 1,198,540, encompassing 3.5 per cent of the country's population. At times, it has been claimed that Black Canadians have been undercounted in census data. Writer George Elliott Clarke has cited a McGill University study which found that 43 per cent of all Black Canadians were not counted as black in the 1991 Canadian census, because they had identified on census forms as British, French or other cultural identities which were not included in the census group of Black cultures. Although subsequent censuses have reported the population of Black Canadians to be much more consistent with the McGill study's revised 1991 estimate than with the official 1991 census data, no recent study has been conducted to determine whether some Black Canadians are still missed by the self-identification method.
One of the ongoing controversies in the Black Canadian community revolves around appropriate terminologies. Many Canadians of Afro-Caribbean origin object to the term African Canadian, as it obscures their own culture and history, this accounts for the term's less prevalent use in Canada, compared to the consensus African American south of the border. Black Nova Scotians, a more distinct cultural group, of whom some can trace their Canadian ancestry back to the 1700s, use both terms, African Canadian and Black Canadian. For example, there is an Office of African Nova Scotian Affairs and a Black Cultural Centre for Nova Scotia. Caribbean Canadian is used to refer to Black Canadians of Caribbean heritage, although this usage can be controversial because the Caribbean is not populated only by people of African origin, but includes large groups of Indo-Caribbeans, Chinese Caribbeans, European Caribbeans, Syrian or Lebanese Caribbeans and Amerindians; the term West Indian is used by those of Caribbean ancestry, although the term is more of a cultural description than a racial one, can be applied to groups of many different racial and ethnic backgrounds.
The term Afro-Caribbean-Canadian is used in response to this controversy, although as of 2019, this term is still not seen in common usage. More specific national terms such as Jamaican Canadian, Haitian Canadian, or Ghanaian Canadian are used; as of 2019, there is no used alternative to Black Canadian, accepted by the Afro-Caribbean population, those of more recent African extraction, descendants of immigrants from the United States as an umbrella term for the whole group. One common practice, seen in academic usage and in the names and mission statements of some Black Canadian cultural and social organizations but not yet in universal nationwide usage, is to always make reference to both the African and Caribbean communities. For example, one key health organization dedicated to HIV/AIDS education and prevention in the Black Canadian community is now named the African and Caribbean Council on HIV/AIDS in Ontario, the Toronto publication Pride bills itself as an "African-Canadian and Caribbean-Canadian news magazine", G98.7, a Black-ori
Cambie Bridge
The Cambie Bridge is a six-lane symmetric, varying-depth-post tension-box girder bridge spanning False Creek in Vancouver, British Columbia. The current bridge is the third bridge at the same location. Referred to as the Cambie Street Bridge, it connects Cambie Street on the south shore of False Creek to both Nelson and Smithe Streets in the downtown peninsula, it is the easternmost of False Creek's fixed crossings. The first Cambie Street Bridge, opened in 1891, was built as a simple piled-timber trestle with a trussed timber swing span near the middle, it cost $12,000. The next bridge was a four-lane, medium level steel bridge, 1,247 metres long and carrying streetcar tracks, it was completed in 1911 for $740,000, opening to traffic on May 24, 1911. The following year, Canada's Governor General, the Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn, accompanied by the Duchess and their daughter, Princess Patricia, visited Vancouver to officiate at a ceremony renaming the new crossing as the "Connaught Bridge" on September 20, 1912.
The name "Connaught" never caught on, most people continued to call it the "Cambie Street Bridge", after the street that runs across it, Cambie Street, named for pioneer Vancouver resident Henry John Cambie. The navigation span was a steel through-truss swing span which the city would open on four hours' notice. In 1953, it opened 79 times. In its years, it was opened once or twice a week; the trusses of the swing span projected through the bridge deck, dividing the two outer lanes from the two inner lanes. This contributed to many motor vehicle collisions. In April 1915, the creosoted wood deck caught fire, with the collapse of a 24.4-metre steel side span. A new, non-opening bridge was built in 1983–85 to replace the 1911 structure; the entire Cambie crossing was closed for nine months, starting November 1984, while the present, six-lane, concrete bridge was merged with the existing approaches. The new bridge cost $52.7 million and was opened on December 8, 1985, after being built to a tight timescale so as to be available for Expo 86 in May 1986.
City engineer W. H. Curtis was assisted by E. A. West, Assistant City Engineer, Streets & Structures, involved in its construction; the 1985 bridge is of a twin post-tensioned prestressed concrete type in a continuous span. The total structural length is 1,100 metres; the colouring of the concrete was obtained through the addition of volcanic ash from Mount Lassen to the mix. Under the bridge's south end is the Neighbourhood Energy Utility, a city-owned heat transfer station that provides heating and hot water to all new buildings in Southeast False Creek. Both sides of the bridge include pedestrian sidewalks separated from motor vehicle traffic by concrete barriers; the Cambie Bridge ranks second of the three False Creek bridges by measure of pedestrian crossings. A 2002 study measured over 1,500 pedestrians crossing the Cambie Bridge in 11 hours on a weekday; the wider east sidewalk is shared with bicycles. Bicycles are permitted on the bridge roadway in both directions; the Cambie Bridge is used as part of the running route for events such as the Vancouver Sun Run, the BMO Vancouver Marathon, the CIBC Run for the Cure.
Two TransLink bus routes cross the Cambie Bridge: 17 and N15. On January 17, 2018, the City of Vancouver plans to remove a car lane using it as a bike lane, it noted that the volume of motor vehicles using the bridge has decreased on the last 20 years with at least 80,000 bike trips daily on the bridge. The bike lane was constructed on June 2, 2018 which opened on June 25. Cambie Street List of bridges in Canada The History of Metropolitan Vancouver Documentary on the history of the Cambie Street Bridge, 1986, City of Vancouver Archives Traffic camera, live view from Vancouver's City Hall Uninterrupted, 2017 documentary projected on to the underside of the Cambie Street bridge
