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This page last updated November 10, 2006
The old Alexandra Bridge, sketched from the deck of the new one
Both postcards probably from the 1940s. Top one by Gowen, Sutton Co. Ltd. Vancouver BC, photographer unknown; bottom one probably by J.C. Walker, Vancouver
The old (actually, the second) Alexandra Bridge, unused by vehicles since 1964, provides the last physical evidence of the scale of highways and bridges in the Fraser Canyon--indeed, on the Trans Canada highway in BC--in the 1950s and before. The bridge is accessible by a path, which is in fact the old highway, that winds down the hillside from the modern highway just east of the new Alexandra Bridge and almost within sight of the Alexandra Lodge. It is alarmingly narrow and, with its open-weave metal decking, not an experience for anyone prone to vertigo. The concrete in the towers is badly spalled and the cables are rusty but so far adequately strong. It will probably fall down soon and be declared unsafe, perhaps in that order, for no government has seen fit to pay attention to it by restoring it as a tourist attraction and perhaps tying it in with some of the surrounding historic trails and places like the lodge. As is the case throughout the Fraser Canyon, it has looked very shabby since the opening of the Coquihalla highway (#5) in 1986.
Essential to the completion of the Cariboo Road, the first Alexandra Bridge was begun on June 16, 1862 and completed September 1, 1863.
Trutch's bridge fell into disuse following the completion of the CPR in the early 1880s and much of the decking washed away in the Fraser flood of 1894. In 1912 the local road supervisor cut the suspension cables because of the danger of accidents to those few pedestrians who continued to use it. Thereafter, all that remained were the piers. With the increasing use of the automobile after the First World War, the government decided to begin work toward reopening the Fraser Canyon road. In 1926, A.L. Carruthers later Deputy Minister of Public Works, supervised the construction of the new bridge. The 1863 bridge abutments served as foundations for it. A toll booth with resident collector was established at Spuzzum--a building that also housed the Provincial Police detachment. The toll started at $1--an astonishing sum for the late 1920s, equivalent to two hours work for a skilled tradesman or about $40 in current money.
An up-to-date photo of the bridge, from the Spuzzum side, by Penelope Allen
Note from Heather (above): Attached is a picture of the Alexandra Bridge taken by my grandmother in the 1930's. Her grandfather was Philip Jackman a Royal Engineer.
Note from Bruce Coughlan: I just discovered your site, and connection with Phillip Jackman. I have met a few members of the Jackman clan and am fascinated by his life story. (I used to live on Jackman Road in Aldergrove) I have written a song about Phillip Jackman entitled "The Last of the Royal Engineers."
If you have any anecdotal info on Phillip Jackman RE, please let me know.
The upper Fraser Canyon near Lytton, photo by Richard Clarke on a roadtrip from Walhachin, 1912
"Cars on the road between Spuzzum and Lytton," photo from the late 1920s by A. Curtis. BC Archives A-04683
Fraser Canyon Motoring . . . .
Tunnel in the Fraser Canyon, 1946. Photo by Ken Sigfusson
Conversation with Doris Tuohey, who first travelled up the Fraser Canyon in 1929 and spent a lot of time in the 1930s and 1940s goldpanning and vacationing. She recalled that in the 1930s the Alexandra Lodge was run in a very elegant style by a couple--she Irish and pipe-smoking, he a "well-educated Englishman"--whose names she's forgotten. She recalls white linen cloths on the tables and filet mignon on the menu. The road was terrible, and on the first trip her father got as far as Lytton and decided to have himself plus family and car shipped back to the coast on the CPR. She learned gold panning from a prospector who had a cabin near Hell's Gate and worked on the roads during the winter. Another spot she stayed during those years was near Siska in a "good colonial house" away from the road and run by a couple named Lindsay. This property had a good restaurant, several acres of grounds including an orchard, and a number of cabins for rent. Mrs. Lindsay was an artist and illustrated her husband's children's books, one of which was called Mouse Mountain.
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Email from "Diana": This was taken from my great-grandmother's obituary in January 1948. "Mrs. Christian came to British Columbia 67 years ago, travelling from her home at Ludington, Mich., via San Franciso, to Victoria and from there to Yale by paddlesteamer. From Yale to Savona she travelled by stage coach over the historic Fraser Canyon Road. The coach was driven by Fred Tingley, brother of the famous "Whip" Steve Tingley. From this point she left for Tranquille by lake boat. Then again she went by stage to the Greenhow and O'Keefe homesteads. Here the month-long journey was broken for a few days' rest. Mrs. Christian, then Emma Genia, was joined at this point by her fiancée. The journey was completed to Okanagan Mission by team and wagon."
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From Grace Darney: I recall my dad saying that during the 1920's and 30's they travelled down from Williams Lake to go to ballgames "At The Coast" (I always pictured these words capitalized). He said they travelled at night so that they could see another vehicle's headlights blinking through the bushes. One of the vehicles would pull over in the first place available, to let the other go by. Thinking about it now, I don't know how it was determined which car had to find a spot to pull over.
[Reading this, I'm reminded of the Coquihalla road in the 1970s, which was maintained to aid with pipeline maintenance and had that narrow, peer-through-the-trees, gravel road quality of the Fraser Canyon in an earlier era.]
Truck accident on the Cariboo Road, 1946. Before being purchased by the Sigfussons, the Buick belonged to Mrs. B.T. Rogers, the widow of the owner of the BC Sugar Refinery in Vancouver. Photo by Ken Sigfusson
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From Milestones on the Mighty Fraser, published in 1950, by C.P. Lyons: (He gives an estimated driving time of 4 hours from Vancouver to Boston Bar.) "During 1883-4, the gigantic task of building the CPR through the Canyon caused great damage to the famous wagon road. Crossings were numerous and often the cuts or fills for the railroad grade jeopardized the road. Before the railroad was finished, in 1885, the bulk of north-bound freight moved over its lines to Ashcroft, where a new freighting and stagecoach headquarters was set up.
"Gradually, the historic old road fell into disrepair and its almost total abandonment was hastened by the great flood of 1894, which washed away much of the trestle work used in skirting the cliffs and bluffs. Then, until 1915 and the advent of the CNR, the CPR became the sole means of transportation.
"With the increasing use of the automobile after World War I, it was apparent that a road once more would have to be built up the great gorge. With two railroads already nitched into the rocky walls and taking full advantage of whatever low terraces there were, the survey of a road was no mean task. The survey started in 1920 and led to the construction of newly located sections four years later. The highway was completed to Lytton in 1926, and, after a one year interval, the connection was made to Ashcroft. Now a new highway is being built to conform to Trans-Canada standards."
(The "new highway" occupied the Social Credit government of W.A.C. Bennett, and its Highways Department led by "Flying Phil" Gaglardi, from the 1950s through the mid-1960s.)
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My childhood trips to our summer cabin on Shuswap Lake always began with a muster by mother to report for breakfast in the grey pre-dawn light of our Vancouver neighbourhood. The car had been packed the night before, leaving enough room in the trunk for food and enough in the back seat for the huge numbers of comic books my brother and I required. My aunt, who worked for the diagnostic centre at the Children's Hospital, arranged a steady supply of comics, all with their covers ripped off, superfluous to her needs at work. The smell of our goods and food in the open car trunk, inhaled deeply, signalled the beginning of the great adventure.
In the earliest years, in the late 1950s, we drove east along Marine Drive, through New Westminster, across the Pattullo Bridge and along the Fraser Highway, delayed at every little town and crossing, before arriving at the open road past Langley. When the Deas (now Massey) Tunnel opened in 1959, we began our trip heading south along the new Highway 99, then swung off at Highway 10, heading east through Surrey and Langley to the Fraser Highway--this saved about an hour. It was probably 9 in the morning, and usually raining, by the time we reached the "Gateway to Holidayland" carved log at Hope. From there, the road climbed gradually up the Canyon, passing Yale and, at Spuzzum, wound down the hill toward the Alexandra Bridge. On the east side of the bridge, we always pulled off to the side of the road just before Alexandra Lodge for a snack. Coffee for the parents, juice (I think) for my brother and me, and a peculiar pickle spread on crackers that my mother only bought for that particular snack and that I've never tasted since. The rest of the trip through the Canyon, with all the delays and the terrifying single-lane stretches along the edge of the gorge (before the tunnels all went in by the early '60s) we spent buried in comic books in the back seat. For lunch, we always pulled off the highway past Cache Creek at a narrow roadway across a cattleguard into ranchland, where we usually ate sandwiches and hardboiled eggs undisturbed. Once, however, the ranch boss and a couple of cowboys came by on horseback; it was alright if we ate there, he said, but told us, "Don't leave no scraps," a grammatical construction we knew to be deficient. Finally, after 8 or 9 hours of driving, we would arrive at Shuswap in the late afternoon.
Post-1964, with the opening of the freeway through the valley and all the improvements to the Fraser Canyon highway, including the completion of the new Alexandra Bridge, we ceased to stop at the old places, the trip only taking about 6 hours or so. It now takes about 4 1/2 or 5 hours to reach Shuswap Lake from Vancouver.
One of the last handful of Garbage Gobblers, a BC Centennial (1958) icon that once dotted the roadsides of the province, in front of Ashcroft Manor. Sensibly they have gradually been replaced with bear-proof can holders. Others, according to Lucien Campeau, are at Rock Creek and in the Cariboo somewhere.
Garbage Gobbler #2, in need of historically accurate paint and new teeth, at the Birch Island rest area north Clearwater, June 2003.
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Note and photo from Diane Dunbar: I'd sure love to get my hands on this one or another one. I'd fix it up to its original colours though and somehow give him a mouth. Maybe you could just say he's from the Mid-Island area since he's actually in someone's yard.
Note from Matthew Baldwin, Planner, City of Langford: A Googleª search of the term 'garbage gobbler' took me to your webpage, and I thought that you may be interested to know that the City of Langford has refurbished a garbage gobbler, and we have, or will soon be installing this at Veterans' Memorial Park (located at the SE corner of Veterans Memorial Parkway and Goldstream Avenue) in Langford, BC, with a bronze plaque holding the following inscription:
"Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, the Garbage Gobbler was a popular landmark at British Columbia's Provincial Parks and Information Points, for garbage disposal. A local product manufactured in Langford, the Gobbler was designed and created in the 1950s, by Len Shaw, for the BC Parks Branch. Originally made from concrete, and later with fiberglas, the Gobbler was fabricated in the Parks Branch workshop which was located on the present site of Veterans Park."
Local residents, Marilyn (nee Shaw) Fuller initiated the project, and Ian McKenzie and Ken Fuller, volunteered their time to refurbish this sample of the original Garbage Gobbler. I hope that you find this information useful, and I hope that you will visit Langford some day to see our gobbler!
Note from Dudley Booth (November, 2006): I have a deep interest in the Fraser Canyon photos. My father, a photographer in the 1930's traveled a great deal through the canyon often staying in Lillooet and taking a great many photos in the process. I have countless old photos that I am laboriously restoring, that depict those old times. I have some photos that date as far back as 1915.
I collect old photos of historic interest and presently have perhaps 3,000. I have just begun to put a few on the Flickr website. Part of my collection is by a professional photographer of the 20's and 30's and some of these will appear on the site first.
I have also donated a number of photos to museums, and have done quite a bit of work for them
documenting and digitizing about 800 images. My slide shows and lectures have been presented to a number of Vancouver area Historical groups, including the Vancouver Historical Society this past September.
I am quite 'tight' with my collection and don't let high resolution images get loose on the Internet. I do however make available 16 x 24
high resolution prints available to interested collectors. One day I hope to be able to break even with the costs of my computers etc.
Very old photos are a passion with me and am always speaking to folk in the hope that they haven't yet thrown out grandmas old photos.
I have been invited by the West Vancouver Historical Preservation Society to be part of West Vancouver Heritage week, this coming February and will be displaying about 24 hard copy images as well as presenting a slide show and history of the photos on February 19, 2007. This will be held at the Silk Purse in West Vancouver
